The Legend of Lylah Clare is a 1968 American drama film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Robert Aldrich.

The film stars Peter Finch, Kim Novak (in multiple roles), Ernest Borgnine, Michael Murphy, and Valentina Cortese.

The film was based on a 1963 DuPont Show of the Week TV drama of the same name co-written by Wild in the Streets creator Robert Thom.

[3] A satire on Hollywood, full of references to similar films, it recounts how an untalented beginner is hired to play the legendary Lylah Clare, a tempestuous actress who died mysteriously 20 years ago, and is herself consumed by the system.

Although Aldrich's previous 1960s efforts were praised by critics, Lylah Clare opened to negative reviews.

Agent Bart Langner (Milton Selzer) finds Elsa Brinkmann (Kim Novak), a would-be actress who looks and sounds just like Lylah Clare, a flamboyant star who fell to her death under suspicious circumstances 20 years ago.

The two men then convince brash studio head Barney Sheean (Ernest Borgnine), who is equally struck, to back a picture with her as Lylah.

By the last day of shooting, her personality seems to have merged with that of the outrageous Lylah, whose fatal fall, we learn, was prompted by the jealous Zarkan.

Then, as he directs her in a circus scene, she falls to her death from the high-wire, apparently possessed by the same acrophobia that had killed Lylah.

The resulting publicity makes his film a huge success, but Zarkan is deeply shaken by the repeat of his being the cause of death of both Lylah and Elsa.

In October 1963, Aldrich announced he would make the film as part of a $14 million production program of eight films from Associates and Aldrich, including Cross of Iron, Whatever Happened to Cousin Charlotte?, The Tsar's Bride, Brouhaha, The Legend of Lylah Clare, Paper Eagle, Genghis Khan's Bicycle, and There Really Was a Gold Mine a sequel to Vera Cruz.

[9] Aldrich was initially thrilled with the idea of Novak in the role stating that she was a rare mixture of "ice and fire".

[14] Finch called the film a "Hollywood melodrama with bitter irony, an enormous sense of fun...

"[19] Roger Ebert wrote the film was "awful ... but fairly enjoyable",[20] while Life's Richard Schickel felt that the film would catch on as a cult classic because it was "Not merely awful; it is grandly, toweringly, amazingly so...I laughed myself silly at Lylah Clare, and if you're in just the right mood, you may too.

But there are some stars whose motion picture image is so firmly and deeply rooted in the public's mind that an audience comes to a movie with a pre-conception about that person.

She was upset when she found out Aldrich had Hildegard Knef dub Novak in some lines in a deep German accented voice.