Three years later, she would return to the screen in Robert Aldrich’s camp/Gothic Hollywood melodrama, “The Legend of Lylah Clare.” She was, à la “Vertigo,” playing a double role – a would-be actress possessed by the spirit of a long-dead movie star. Novak acted up a storm in her best “Jeanne Eagels” manner. She employed a thickly accented Swedish-German-Russian basso-profundo when channeling the bitchy, dead sex symbol. It was a riot, and one feels Kim must have been vaguely aware this was not to be taken seriously. She displayed a leaner body, frosted lips, a thick fringe of false eyelashes and a super-blonde pageboy. Kim looked fabulous, if a bit … overdone. Despite a massive publicity campaign, “Lylah” bombed, and Kim let go. She would later say, “The attention, the press, the fans. All that’s nice, until you start to count on it.” Kim Novak made her decision – she wouldn’t count on it.

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Thereafter, Kim worked only when she wanted to, in films that did not stretch her, were not much seen, but presumably amused her and paid well. (Kim can boast – were she given to that sort of thing – that she appeared in Marlene Dietrich’s last gasp, “Just a Gigolo,” though they shared no scenes; she tangoed with David Bowie, however!) Novak remained a knockout, building on her “Lylah” style – a deluxe showgirl. She did not seek out character work, she resisted good offers that would bring her back to Los Angeles, away from Carmel and Big Sur and other spots where she cherished her privacy and celebrated her devotion to nature and animals and the environment. She is also a talented artist.

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She did have a sweet success with the TV movie “Third Girl From the Left” in 1973 as an aging dancer looking for a way out before she was pushed out. Her opening scene shows her in tight close-up, layering on cosmetics as she prepares to take the stage – concealer, foundation, powder, lips, the wig and finally, the devastatingly fake smile, before she hits the stage. For those who know their Novak, it’s a telling moment.

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In 1980, much to the surprise of even her most ardent admirers, Kim came back in the Agatha Christie thriller “The Mirror Crack’d,” delivering a wild and wicked comic turn. She is pitched against Elizabeth Taylor, both playing over-the-top, over-age movie stars, caught up in murder most foul. Taylor is the script’s focus – even when she is offscreen the other characters talk about her. And she gives one of her more subtle latter-day performances.

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Subtlety was not required for Novak’s Lola Brewster, an actress renowned for her sex appeal, if not her talent. Novak – trim, taut and sculpted – spits out her vicious insults and self-centered idiocies with daffy, dazzling energy. “I’ll be majestic, regal, awe inspiring. I’m gonna wipe that cow right off the screen!” she purrs, anticipating sharing scenes with Taylor in the movie within the movie. (Taylor, partridge plump at that time, was a very good sport about being on the receiving end of such remarks.) When Kim tried to play crazy actresses in the past, she was bad (but fun). Here, going for broke as a joke, she nails it.

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And that, film fans, was just about it. Another decade passed quietly. (Novak enjoyed a resurgence after “The Mirror Crack’d,” even appearing on the Oscar telecast, and spoofing her image in the “Falcon Crest” TV series. But she did not linger in the spotlight.) Kim would appear onscreen again, perhaps for the last time, in Mike Figgis’s bizarre, barely released “Liebestraum.” She was bedridden and dying in the movie, with virtually no dialogue. She clashed with director Figgis, and most of her scenes had been cut. Interestingly, what survives of Kim’s footage shows her looking ravaged and unglamorous – her one and only foray into stripping away the image. 

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