A dictatorial film director (Peter Finch) hires an unknown actress (Kim Novak) to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.

A sexy starlet (Kim Novak) resembles Lylah Clare, a flamboyant star of the thirties who died mysteriously and tragically on her wedding night, gets a chance to play her in a biographical film directed by Lylah's real-life husband (Peter Finch) and history repeats itself as he falls for her reincarnation.—alfiehitchie

Once a low grade German prostitute, Lylah Clare was transformed into an iconic, temperamental, but famous movie actress by director Lewis Zarken, who would eventually become Lylah's fiancé. The two had a symbiotic professional relationship: he made her famous and she in turn was the reason his movies were so successful. Ever since Lylah's tragic death twenty years earlier, Lewis' cachet in Hollywood has dropped. He has since thought of making a movie about Lylah, if only he found the right actress. He thinks he has found the girl when he meets naive and impressionable young aspiring actress Elsa Brinkmann, who is the spitting image of Lylah. For the throes of those that matter in Hollywood, and to ensure the project not only comes to pass but is a success, Lewis and his entourage transform Elsa - who they've renamed Elsa Campbell - into Lylah, down to the mannerisms, voice inflections, attitude and the famous blonde hairdo. As Elsa gets further into the role and learns more about the real Lylah Clare, she gets drowned in her new persona. Conversely, those who knew Lylah are treating Elsa much the same, those people who include Lewis.—Huggo