Tag Archives: Coral Browne

1968 Films, Drama, Los Angeles, Psychological Drama, Psychological Thriller, Satire, Thriller

The Legend of Lylah Clare-1968

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The Legend of Lylah Clare-1968

Director Robert Aldrich

Starring Kim Novak, Peter Finch

Scott’s Review #1,554

Reviewed September 27, 2026

Grade: B

Kim Novak stars in a 1968 psychological thriller named The Legend of Lylah Clare, a film on the surface similar to her legendary turn in Hitchcock’s Vertigo ten years earlier.

Like Vertigo, she plays two characters, both shrouded in ghostly mystery, as one is dead. Other characters are obsessed with the dead one.

Lylah Clare isn’t as good as Vertigo, so the parallels are limited.

The film has positives and negatives that create an uneven viewer experience. The bizarre environment raises suspicions of story changes or behind-the-scenes conflict, as something feels a bit off.

I much preferred the first half to the second, as what starts as an intriguing, mysterious promise goes off the rails and leads to more confusion than satisfaction.

A renowned German actress who died years earlier, Lylah Clare (Novak) is the subject of a film developed by volatile movie producer Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine).

An agent, Bart Langner (Milton Selzer), finds Elsa Brinkmann (also Novak), a beautiful woman who looks just like Lylah, and sets about getting the movie off the ground.

Lylah’s ex-husband, Lewis Zarken (Peter Finch), directs the film and begins to fall in love with Elsa as he coaches her to act just like his late wife.

Director Robert Aldrich has a vast filmography, but Lylah Clare most resembles What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), mostly in terms of a gothic environment and the fear of being made irrelevant.

Zarken’s looming Los Angeles mansion is the backdrop for much of the film. Its illustrious yet stuffy veneer hides dark secrets revealed through flashbacks, and the set is a main highlight.

I was immediately drawn into the story and the ‘legend’ by hints of what’s to come. Enormous portraits of Lylah adorn the estate, the most prominent being a lavish one on the steep staircase in the living room.

Shown to have been attacked by a fan who gained access to the mansion, Lylah was able to make the man fall down the staircase to his death. Afraid of heights, Lylah then fell and died after looking down at the corpse.

Is this the truth? What is Zarken hiding? Does Lylah’s acting coach, Rossella, know secrets? Did the fan have secrets?

The past is shrouded in mystery, and multiple characters’ obsessions with Lylah are very tantalizing.

Additionally, Elsa seems obsessed with Lylah even before she is cast to play her. Are they the same, like in Vertigo?

A deliciously satisfying scene is delivered at a party meant to debut Elsa’s new look as Lylah. Mean journalist Molly Luther (Coral Browne) prods and insults Elsa until Lylah emerges to put the wicked witch in her place.

It’s the first public appearance of Lylah as Elsa, and she quickly pounces on her foe in shocking form.

These elements make The Legend of Lylah Clare so compelling in the first half.

Slowly, the film began to unravel.

As Elsa begins to belt out a perfect German accent and switch into Lylah mode, summoning her wardrobe staff, or refusing to emerge onto the set, it feels terribly uneven and out of character.

I love Novak, but I’m not sure I love her in these roles. Since the characters don’t feel right, it must have been hard for the actress to play them well.

I couldn’t help but wonder whether Elsa couldn’t get into Lylah, or whether Novak couldn’t do the same.

And the obvious dubbing of Lylah’s German accent is very weird.

Zarkan’s back-and-forth personalities are too much. He goes from madly in love and smitten with Lylah to berating her on the movie set, back and forth.

In the final chapter, he basically causes Elsa’s death by coaxing her to look down from a trapeze set for no reason.

The film is billed as a satire and is assumed to examine the shark-like Hollywood world. The number of hateful characters (Molly, Zarkan, Barney) reinforces this.

A seemingly added TV commercial for dog food interrupts the film itself, suggesting that Hollywood is literally a dog-eats-dog world.

The last scene of Rossella drunkenly sitting on the couch watching the commercial and loading a gun, assumed to be to shoot Zarkan, is murky at best.

While confusing, The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968) has enough appeal to be a suggested watch.

1968 Films, British, Drama, LGBTQ+ Drama, LGBTQ+ Films, Top 250 Films

The Killing of Sister George-1968

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The Killing of Sister George-1968

Director Robert Aldrich

Starring Beryl Reid, Susannah York

Top 250 Films #210

Scott’s Review #228

220px-Original_movie_poster_for_the_film_The_Killing_of_Sister_George

Reviewed March 13, 2015

Grade: A-

The Killing of Sister George is a British film drama, adapted from a 1964 stage production that was a risky subject matter to tackle for the times- lesbianism- in the late 1960s.

Directed by Robert Aldrich, well known for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The Killing of Sister George is a similarly dark tale of loneliness, desperation, and an actress who falls from former grace and success into despair, confusion, and anguish.

It also has witty, crackling comedic moments that keep it from being a true downer.

Sister George is a successful, well-regarded actress on a popular soap opera named Applehurst. Her character is the wholesome presence in a town fraught with manipulation and drama. She is the show’s moral focal point.

In real life, however, George (interestingly called by her character’s name) is troubled.

She is bitter, angry, and an alcoholic, and she frequently berates and even abuses her partner, Childie, played by Susannah York.

A third central character is TV Producer Mercy Croft, who is powerful and confused about her sexuality.

When the soap opera powers-that-be decide to kill off the beloved Sister George, the real George’s life begins to spiral out of control.

As enjoyable a film as it is and certainly featuring the competent talents of Beryl Reid in the title role, I cannot help but ponder and fantasize how wonderful the casting of Bette Davis- reportedly considered for the role and inexplicably not cast- would have been.

Davis, famous for playing grizzled, mean, unsympathetic characters, would have knocked this role out of the park, and sadly, she didn’t get the chance.

At its core, the film is a sad character study of one woman’s pain and anguish at being discarded. Presumably unable to be hired anywhere else, her soap opera character is her life.

She loves Childie but is not entirely fulfilled by her, either, and the vibrant, polished Mercy threatens that relationship.

This is an interesting triangle as George does not always treat Childie well, but loves her all the same. Childie is a simple character, childlike, and needs a strong mate to counter-balance the way she is- someone to take care of her.

Without a job or prospects, this would be difficult for George. Does Childie love George, or does she want a meal ticket?

The film is understandably rated X for content, presumably for a very explicit sex scene between Mercy and Childie, and when a drunken George molests two nuns in the back seat of a London taxi cab.

These scenes are both cutting-edge and admirable in their risk-taking.

The scene set at the real-life London lesbian club (the Gateway Club) and featuring mostly real-life lesbians is excellent. It provides a real-life glimpse into the gay/lesbian world and lifestyle during the period.

A brave, groundbreaking, risk-taking film with bravura direction from Aldrich, The Killing of Sister George (1968) is a forgotten gem that film fans everywhere need to rediscover and an early journey into gay and lesbian cinema.

Golden Globe Nominations: Best Actress- Drama- Beryl Reid

1973 Films, British, British Horror, Horror, Horror-Camp, Horror-Comedy

Theatre of Blood-1973

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Theatre of Blood-1973

Director Douglas Hickox

Starring Vincent Price, Diana Rigg, Ian Hendry

Scott’s Review #230

220px-Theatreofbloodposter

Reviewed March 23, 2015

Grade: B

Theatre of Blood (1973) stars Vincent Price, a long-time fixture in the classic/campy horror scene, as a demented Shakespearean theatre actor who enacts revenge on critics who fail to recognize him for a coveted award he cherishes.

Price, as always, frighteningly good, delivers a campy, but not ridiculous, turn as the crazed actor.

Price’s appearance alone- tall, wiry, with sinister facial expressions- poises him perfectly to believability in any dastardly role he portrayed in his heyday, and the performance he gives as Edward Lionheart is no exception.

Not solely a campy, melodramatic horror film, Theatre of Blood rises above that categorization with humorous tributes to Shakespeare and a unique chronicle of the Shakespearean works used to systematically take out the critics one by one, about the Shakespearean story, quite frankly, in a comical and witty way.

Price eerily dresses in many different elaborate costumes to commit the murders- a wine-tasting expert, a television host, among other interesting characters, and oftentimes, taunts his victims before permanently dispensing them.

The film is quite British in tone and humor, and is done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, so that the murders are not to be taken at all too seriously.

The critics themselves- seven or eight of them- are deliciously fun. One is a loud, boisterous, fat man who always has his beloved poodles at his side.

What happens to him and the dogs is better left unsaid.

Another is an uptight, sophisticated woman (played by Price’s real-life wife Coral Browne). Several of the critics are depicted as comic villains, so their demises are not particularly devastating for the audience, as they are, to begin with, rather unlikable.

I found myself rooting for Lionheart and looking forward to the next murder!

One criticism involves Diana Rigg, who plays Price’s daughter Edwina, accomplice to his dirty deeds. Well known for her starring role in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and the 1960s Avengers series, Rigg has little substance to do in Theatre of Blood.

Perhaps by 1973, her film career was on the decline, and she was no longer winning the coveted roles. I would have loved to see her sink her teeth into a meatier role.

A sidekick, Edwina, could have done much more.

The film belongs to Price, and the unique storytelling of Shakespeare’s works was made possible only by this great actor.

Not overly serious and played for some laughs, Theatre of Blood (1973) is successful in its telling of an interesting British horror story.

It’s a nice late-night treat for fans of the British horror genre, especially.