"The Day the Clown Cried", at last! (eventually)

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One of the most infamously unseen films ever made finally has a path to the public. In 1972 Jerry Lewis starred in and directed The Day the Clown Cried, which purportedly tells the story of a European circus performer swept up in World War II who eventually winds up marching children to the Nazi gas chambers. Legal entanglements over rights is what initially kept the film, which was finished and supposed to debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973, unreleased. It was virtually unseen by anybody other than Jerry Lewis and his editor. Over the years it became a legendary white whale for film buffs. A few people claim to have seen it, including Harry Shearer, but even assuming these people are telling the truth it must be only ten or so people total. Maybe. After Jerry eventually got the rights to the film he kept it in his own personal safe, mostly refusing to even talk about it much less release it. Over time it appears that Jerry became embarrassed by his own finished film.

There was logical hope among many of us waiting to see this movie that once Roberto Benigni's acclaimed Life is Beautiful, which has similar themes, started winning and being nominated for just about every prestigious film award there was the world over that PERHAPS Jerry's legendary ego would get the better of him and that to prove how ahead of his time he was he might, at long last, release The Day the Clown Cried. Alas, it was not to be.

As recently as 2013 Jerry Lewis publicly insisted that this movie will never, ever be seen. He is now eighty-nine years old and his health has been up and down for many years. Thus we film freaks who have longed to see this quite probably awful misstep have had to keep dark hope that maybe after he passes away somebody will crack open that vault, and assuming Jerry hasn't destroyed it, perhaps only then would we see it? Ltierally over his dead body.

Such ghoulish speculation can now end. The United States Library of Congress, which has a film registry intended to protect important movies as art to be cherished for all time, recently confirmed that they have a print - the original film negative - of The Day the Clown Cried. Given to them by Jerry Lewis himself. The only caveat: they cannot screen or release the film in any way for ten years. Given his age and health it appears even Jerry Lewis assumes he will die at some point during this embargo. But at least we know the film still exists, it is being protected by a facility that stores film as its primary mission, and that in ten years the public will be able to see the fu*ker.

We won't know until we get much closer to that magical date what form that public presentation will take? Will they partner with a studio to have it released theatrically? Will they handle distribution through somebody like The Criterion Collection? Will it be streamed online or aired on TMC? Those details will be worked out down the line but whatever the delivery system by 2025 The Day the Clown Cried will get its much belated premiere.

Coooooooooooooool.
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A while back the shooting script of The Day the Clown Cried, including with Jerry Lewis' revisions, was unearthed. You can read it HERE, if you have the time and inclination. Patton Oswalt once staged readings of the script. You can hear him tell the tale of these nights of live readings HERE, as relayed in his book Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film.



Bright light. Bright light. Uh oh.
I just watched Jerry's The Family Jewels again yesterday, so calling The Day the Clown Died an "awful misstep" compared to what he actually released is probably going too far. I want to see it, but I don't think I'll last that long.
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I'm not old, you're just 12.
I have heard so many stories about this film over the years, never thought I'd get to see it. From what I've heard, however, it is in incredibly poor taste, it's an ill conceived, poorly executed mess. So of course I'm dying to see it. Sad that we'll pretty much have to wait til Jerry Lewis passes away to witness it in all it's terrible beauty. Though I suppose that way he gets to miss out on the scathing reviews.
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Thus we film freaks who have longed to see this quite probably awful misstep
So the expectation is that it's bad?

If it turns out to be laughably bad is it terrible if we end up laughing at something with this type of subject matter?



Apparently the original script had a very different tone and, crucially, central character. When Jerry became attached as star and then director he altered it to suit his own sensibility. Which of course must be completely incongruous with the Concentration Camp material. Harry Shearer, who saw a cut of it on videotape via the editor in 1979, has described his experience like this in a 1992 Spy Magazine piece about the lost film, "With most of these kinds of things, you find that the anticipation, or the concept, is better than the thing itself. But seeing this film was really awe-inspiring, in that you are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. 'Oh My God!' — that's all you can say." He also tried to describe it as "if you flew down to Tijuana and suddenly saw a painting on black velvet of Auschwitz. You'd just think 'My God, wait a minute!' It's not funny, and it's not good, and somebody's trying too hard in the wrong direction to convey this strongly-held feeling."

I gotta live at least another ten years to see this damn thing.

Here is a portion of an interview of Harry by Howard Stern, where he talks about various aspects of The Day the Clown Cried...




Miss Vicky's Loyal and Willing Slave
Don't believe I'd heard about this before but man it sounds pretty fascinating, even if it's for all the wrong reasons.

I want to see it, but I don't think I'll last that long.
Don't say that Mark!



Jerry Lewis is an old acting coach of mine (and an old flame). Count me as one of the few people who saw The Day the Clown Cried. Back in 1979 or 1980, I think it was. In fact, I watched it THREE times. Twice on that first Saturday, once more on Sunday. I would LOVE to see it again. Those days I watched The Day the Clown Cried were the days Dorothy Michaels cried some of the hardest. Yes, sir!



Sounds like a stellar black comedy to me. People release tasteless Nazi movies relatively often these days. It's not nearly as much as in the 70s, but we get a couple a year.



Miss Vicky's Loyal and Willing Slave
Saw a bit about the film on the news tonight and it reminded me of this thread. The BBC recently released an online documentary about the film that features a lot of never-before-seen stills. Thought it may be of interest to some of you





28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Why he never just destroyed it, I'll never know.
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If it was a poorly executed mess, would it benefit from a better made remake?



If it was a poorly executed mess, would it benefit from a better made remake?
The point isn't that it is poorly made, although it likely is. This is not about gleefully watching Plan 9 from Outer Space and giggling about how inept and awkward it is. This is about one of the most famous comedians of his generation, if not the most, having such a misjudgement of ego that he saw this material that he likely wasn't right for under even the best circumstances under the most sure-handed direction and said yes, this is going to be my masterpiece. This is going to be a revolutionary and important film that entertains as well as educates. But then completely misses the marks in all departments and tones. Imagine if Spielberg had the script for Schindler's List and it came out like 1941. Which isn't a perfect analogy because I am one of the few people who likes 1941. Imagine instead of Schindler's List it came out like Son of the Mask.

I have never read the original script in total, I don't know if it was something that would have even worked in its original form. But by all accounts and imaginations the man who made and starred in The Family Jewels and Hardly Working was the exact opposite of the right person.

We can all really dissect it in five years or so when we can see what the finished film is.