CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A.W Richmond Well yes, it's compelling viewing in spite of, everything. So overwrought it's jarring and at the center of it all, Kim Novak. The swan of Picnic. James Stewart's obsession in Vertigo. She appears in The Legend Of Lylah Clare, but she's not really in it. Distant, cold, awkward. Pale, almost white lipstick. She has a death scene for goodness sake! It reminded me of that death that Goldie Hawn plays again and again in "Death Becomes Her", she watches it on TV as her arch rival, Meryl Streep, brilliantly plays an actress without talent - dies again and again strangled by Michael Caine. Meryl's Madeline Ashton even licks her lips before her death - Well, Kim Novak's Elsa Campbell/Lylah Clare doesn't lick her lips but almost.Peter Finch is the leading man. Peter Finch! Howard Beale in "Network" His dialogue here is not by Paddy Chayefsky, no, not by a long shot. Hysterically funny I must admit, specially because of the seriousness of the delivery. Then, surprise surprise a few genuine delights, Coral Browne plays a columnist with a wooden leg, Rosella Falk, a talkative lesbian and the glorious Valentina Cortese plays a costume designer. As I'm writing about it I feel an urge to see it again to make sure I didn't imagine the whole thing.

LeonLouisRicci If you stumble onto this Movie without the knowledge of its Cult/Camp/Bad Movie Reputation, it may be a rather Mind-Boggling Experience. A Jaw-Dropping display of Badness that defies any Rational Analysis or Explanation.Director Robert Aldrich had ventured into Greatness with Gloriously Grotesque Films like Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), a Bizarre Bent and close to Over the Top takes on well worn Genre Stuff like Film-Noir and Psychological Horror.If the inner workings of a Maverick Director's Mind is made possible, one might find that it was all done as Think Kink. Everyone On Screen seemed to be in on the Joke except its Female Star, Kim Novak as She Underplays as the whole Production is Overplayed to the Nth Degree.There is so much in this Crazy Movie to Relish that choosing any one thing would do a Disservice to the rest. A lot of it is Indescribable and Indecipherable and so Underhandedly Charming that it really has to be seen to be Believed or Appreciated. It has an energy of already Dated (in 1968) Decadence that cannot be denied. A One of a Kind, Cartoonish, Daytime-Soap-Nightmare that is Fanatically Fascinating. One only needs to see the Post Script Ending to Realize the Director's Original Intent. Nothing more than a Great Grand Guignol Movie about a Hollywood System that at precisely its Time of Release was being Embalmed and Laid to Rest. This was an Excellent Eulogy.

M. J Arocena I think the word to describe it is "unbelievable". Peter Finch is in it, an actor known for being rather picky. He was to win an Oscar for "Network" I wonder what this movie looked on paper. Robert Aldrich won his dues with films like "Attack", "The Big Knife" even "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" another camp fest but with a brain and a real intention. Here, everything is in top gear without ever really moving. In short, a mystery. Poor Kim Novak. Even her make-up doesn't make any sense. Pale lips. It's pointless for me to go on, you have to see it. I had the chance, thanks to Turner Classic Movies. Kim Novak's character seems to be possessed by the spirit of Lylah Clare, the doomed star she's suppose to to play in a preposterous movie about her life. When she is under the influence of the spirit, she laughs and talks with the grave tones of a hybrid, part Lotte Lenya part Mercedes MacCambridge. Outrageous! Peter Finch playing the director and one of the former Lylah's lovers creates a monster without nuances. His debate with the studio head, played loudly by Ernest Borgnine, about films vs movies seems to be Aldrich's major preoccupation. Valentina Cortese's costume designer is a very brief delight, Rosella Falk's lesbian is in unintentional hoot but the prize goes to Coral Browne, playing a columnist as if she were Catherine The Great and with a wooden leg. I swear I'm not joking. As yo may very well suspect, I think this is one of the worst films I've ever seen and yes, I had a lot of fun. That's why a 5 out of 10 seem fair to me.

macpet49-1 This film truly marked the end of Kim Novak's career. Unfortunately, I think it was a combination things--the end of the studios, the end of the Hollywood dream era and the end of any kind of illusion of naivete in America at that time. The Kennedys, King assassinations, Vietnam. The bubble had burst. The films of this time when good were brutal and realistic and negative. The films that were bad were bloody, carnal and usually sadistic/masochistic in new ways for film. Sex was for the first time visual. Soft porn in PG rated films wasn't unusual. A breast of butt shot was the norm for most films. Lylah/Kim becomes the epidomy of the Hollywood actor--a confabulated doll, puppet really, who generates dollars at the box office and is of no importance to the studios than the money it receives. Follow the money. Money grubbing marked the end of any art able to be produced. The Jewish maxim "it's only business" ruled. You can snuff people on screen live and it is just what you do to get bread. This is a poorly written film, but does mark in a perverted (appropriately) way the beginning of the end of the dream of what film could be. The 1960s was both the apex and death of culture and civilization. We are now living in the decline period. All film produced now is either voyueristic or masturbatory.