MovieChat Forums > The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) Discussion > Why did Aldrich make this......

Why did Aldrich make this......

posted 12 years ago by Lonixcap
4 replies | jump to latest

After having made The Dirty Dozen, one of the top box office movies of 1967, a huge hit with audiences everywhere, he follows up with Lylah Clare?

I'm sure the execs at MGM were ready to give him any project he wanted. A prestige project like Shoes of the Fisherman, or a roadshow action epic like Ice Station Zebra.
Instead, he chooses a story like this. Watching Lylah Clare is like watching a slow motion train wreck. You know disaster is iminent, but you can't take your eyes off it either. I actually liked watching it, but for all the wrong reasons.

As pure camp, it doesn't hold up nearly as well as Valley of the Dolls. It's a terrible movie. Aldrich had already mined this grand guignol territory before with Baby Jane and Sweet Charlotte.
He's certainly no Billy Wilder either, and it's obvious neither his or Kim Novak's career ever recovered fully from this.
There were a few bright spots during the 70's, like Ulzana's Raid, The Longest Yard and Twilight's Last Gleaming, but Lylah, along with Sister George, really broke Aldrich's momentum in the late 1960's.

[–] hammer4 9 years ago

I agree that it was a bad mistake on the director's part to undertake a project such as this. Not being a Hollywood insider I suppose it's possible that there was initially the potential for something much better. What emerged however has to be considered an embarrassing mess. I don't think it was the filmmakers' intentions to produce a film that can only be enjoyed as high camp.

[–] jingster6666 8 years ago

Americans are so stupid. Just stick with the Dirty Dozen and you'll be alright. Have a beer and some hot wings. I thank Aldrich on a regular basis for Lylah and Sister George. Thanks again.

[–] Helena727 7 years ago

I think that's a little harsh -- the OP's comment makes clear that he's not one of *those* Americans (they tend not to know of Billy Wilder and refer to the Grand Guignol tradition). By the way, every country has its version of that type and plenty of them, so please express your ire in a way that makes sense.

I found Sister George meaningful and moving -- but Lylah Clare strikes me as a mess. It's fun as camp, but that's about it -- and I have trouble believing that that was Aldrich's intention. So a perplexed or bewildered response isn't out of line.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] jingster6666 7 years ago

What's wrong with a mess? The band doesn't start together, and many of the instruments are playing off key. The crescendos don't really soar and who's that guy in the back creating harmonic sabotage? (Doesn't he understand our need for aural comfort? Must really resent having to pay his union dues.) The trolley car tracks simply will not allow us to take a different tack. We're trapped, in perpetuity, within our self-policed, circumscribed world view. Sanity and dependable comfort are much more important than art. Art is different, and dangerous. Why don't we just kill Aldrich? Oh, he's already dead? How convenient!