The Legend of Lylah Clare

This lousy projector.

I hope it still works.

There. I think I've got it.

This is the only picture I have of Lylah in color.

Despite what you may've heard, this is the only time she posed in the nude.

You can't imagine what a really big star she was.

I mean really big!

Everybody loved her, worshiped her.

She had a strange kind of appeal, didn't she?

She was a favorite of all the fan magazines, too,

and fan magazines were very important then, very important.

Here's a picture she liked very much:

A wardrobe still from the love that flamed.

They were rehearsing for it when they got married.

The worst thing he ever did.

What, not making the picture?

No. Marrying Lylah.

Lewis zarkan is no boy scout, but that girl, whoo!

Tramp, degenerate, no other word for her.

Here's the wedding picture,

and they lived happily ever after,

but not for long.

But there was real grief, too.

Everyone who knew her...

Cameramen, crew, everyone...

They were all at her funeral.

What about the boy who died on the stairs with her?

What kind of a funeral did they give him?

Becky, where's Lylah's dress... the one I want Elsa to wear for the interview?

You're really going to like this.

Won't it be a little dated?

No, no. It's a classic.

That's him. That's Lewis zarkan.

Those days, he wore a beard.

My brother got it out of wardrobe after she died.

Keeps it like old love letters.

Alright, alright. Show it, please.

Pure silk.

That's all she'd ever wear, Bart says.

Imagine that.

Friends she had, straight from the gutter,

but next to her skin-!

It had to be pure silk.

No. No, thank you. I...

You don't like it? You got good taste.

Believe me, you've got good taste.

I'm grateful for the opportunity. I am, but...

But you said you were interested in acting.

But as myself. As me.

I'm all wrong for her, wrong.

I just wouldn't want to... I couldn't be like her.

You don't have to be like her, just act like her.

God forbid.

Becky, please. He'll teach you all you need to know.

Even the people who hate his guts admit he's something of a genius.

Yeah, believe me, out here

that makes a lot of people think he's pretty smart.

Well, that's the last of them.

Excuse me, please.

If you're looking for the bathroom, it's down on the right. You'll find it.

Thanks.

You're a big help, you know?

So I'm a blabbermouth. She's a nice kid. Want me to lie to her?

Lylah! Lylah!

Lylah!

Lylah.

Lewis, Lewis, Lewis.

Why am I coming on so strong?

I'll tell you.

Back at the Mayo clinic, I hit big casino,

our American euphemism for cancer.

Of the liver, no less.

They give me one, maybe two years at the most.

Lewis, two years.

Two years! What do you think about that?

How about those apples, Lewis?

Look back over my life.

See what it all adds up to?

A lousy 10%.

But think of all the people you've had 10% of.

Almost enough to make you a complete person.

Complete person? Complete nothing.

Nothing to look back on, nothing to leave.

What about your liver?

If it's in the condition you say it is,

maybe you could leave it to the medical school at u.C.L.A.

Why don't you listen to me?

I've been talking to you all night. Why don't you listen to me?

I've nothing to leave behind. Not a damn thing!

Nothing!

Not even my window.

I take it you're trying to capture my attention,

but, do come to the point.

I found Lylah, remember?

Maybe you don't want to remember.

Too long ago?

The first time I saw her in that little Berlin butcher shop...

Come on! I said that...

Butcher shop! You lifted that straight out of the official biography.

You found her in a brothel,

and one that specialized in catering to some pretty peculiar fantasies.

As a matter of fact, I've always meant to ask you,

what were you doing there?

You've made that joke a thousand times,

but the fact is, I found her, and no one else had even stopped to look.

What?

Alright, alright. You made the whole world stop to look.

Big deal, big deal.

But what have you done since?

You say no to everything.

Garbage. That's all I said no to.

That's all they ever offered.

For 20 years?

Look, what about your Lylah script?

What about Lylah Clare, film star?

You're hot now.

Hot?!

Alright, warm.

But seriously, Lewis, they've rediscovered you.

Articles, cahier du cinema, Paris, the cinematique.

Marvelous. The second coming of Lewis zarkan.

Barney sheean would finance you in a minute. Barney sheean?

I'm not saying it's love, but with a vault from her old pictures...

Who's old pictures?

Alright, your old pictures.

Just to keep the record straight.

You make that picture about Lylah that you're capable of making,

and it brings her back to life.

Barney can sell the old stuff to TV for a fortune.

Where do you get her... Central casting?

That's what I've been trying to tell you all night.

I found someone.

I found someone.

I can show her to you.

No. I've seen it before.

Dreary little pussycats come mincing in here like bitches in heat.

Move over there.

Billing their dirty little business up and down.

Don't tell me you haven't enjoyed yourself with them on occasion.

That's hardly the point.

No, it's not. No, it's not the point,

but the fact is I've never brought you one, not for 20 years,

there's one that's really worth looking at.

And what's in it for you?

I want to produce.

Produce?

You want to produce?!

What is this, your last will and testament?

I happen to believe in the property and especially in you.

Why?

I don't know. I just have a feeling about this girl.

There's something about her that strikes a chord...

No, it's more than that. She's right.

I know she's absolutely right.

Right for what?

Comforting old uncle Bart in the Autumn of his life?

Maybe my confidence is misplaced.

Maybe it's like everybody says,

you're afraid to work with anyone but Lylah.

You keep a civil agent's tongue in your head,

lover's quarrel?

Maybe you two should move to england.

They have legalized this kind of thing there.

I always knew you were fond of each other, but this is too much.

I thought you two gladiators would like something to eat.

Stay right there.

A small experiment in precision.

Bart thinks he's found a girl that can play Lylah.

Marvelous, darling, just marvelous,

but do you think you can replace zarkan?

Come on, come on, come on.

No one could ever play Lylah.

No one.

What a way to justify 20 years of inactivity,

fooling with guns.

Who said I was fooling? Now come on, aim it.

You think you created her, can create her again?

No. You can't.

She's herself... Unique.

Was.

Was? Is.

Take a look around this house.

She wouldn't leave us all.

Supposing you did find some cheap imitation of her,

don't you think the results might be a little dangerous?

Dangerous for all of us.

Reporters, photographers... They bring up all the old muck.

They all lie.

And probably will continue to believe

what we tell them to believe,

unless, of course, you're planning

to make some little embellishments of your own.

Now, fire. Well, action. Fire!

Che inferno! Do as he says. Fire, fire.

Exactly 50 meters.

That's precision loading.

You got a certain pleasure out of pulling that trigger, no?

No, I didn't.

Too compassionate to make the kill?

That is something we cannot say about you.