To date, this is Kim Novak's last starring role in an American-made feature film. Novak returned to the screen after a three-year absence with the 1968 gothic drama, The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968), making up for lost time by taking on two roles, a long-dead Hollywood sex symbol and the novice actress hired to play her. Although she was still beautiful at 35 and more than believable as an exotic sex symbol, Novak didn't get the comeback she deserved. The film was a major box-office flop that brought her mostly negative reviews. Over time, however, the growth of a cult surrounding director Robert Aldrich, coupled with the picture's over-the-top dramatics and the difficulty of seeing it programmed at theaters or on television, made the film legendary, viewed by some as guilty pleasure and by others as a lost treasure.
When Kim Novak walks along Hollywood Boulevard, a theater she passes by is playing The Dirty Dozen (1967), a film director Robert Aldrich made a year earlier, and whose commercial success made it possible for him to start his own production company and make movies like this.
In the original TV play, the Lylah Clare movie-star character, played by Tuesday Weld, was generally thought to be a veiled portrait of Marilyn Monroe, who had then died only recently. In this film version, however, "Lylah" seems rather more like Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich.
For years after this film's release, Kim Novak refused to even discuss its making. When she finally spoke, she claimed that director Robert Aldrich had Novak's dialogue as Lylah dubbed by Hildegard Knef, without Novak's consent or knowledge. When she attended a screening and heard the dubbing, Novak said of the experience, "God, it was so humiliating!"
Although this was her first film in three years, due to a riding accident and a lack of interest in returning to films, Kim Novak found that she had little enthusiasm for her character. Director Robert Aldrich found it increasingly difficult to elicit a viable performance from her. Aldrich initially blamed her for the film's poor performance at the box office. But, he later stated it wasn't her fault, but his - as director and producer he felt he failed to communicate her character properly to the audience.