If murmurs are to be believed, The Day the Clown Cried is a film aficionado’s fever dream and a bad film lover’s wet dream. The notoriously wrong-headed 1972 Holocaust film, co-written, directed and starring Jerry Lewis, is seen by few but known by many, as the unreleased film and its troubled production is perhaps one of the most alluringly bizarre in cinematic history.
A simple click onto its Wikipedia provides hearty information on all its plagues and gossiped missteps. Here, you can read about its plot-line, where Lewis tells a semi-serious fictionalized account of WWII’s tragedies leading up to his titular clown leading laughing Jewish children into gas chambers like the Pied Piper. You can also learn about all its production woes, including equipment lost on set, Lewis having to pay production fees out of pocket when producer funds came short mid-production, yelling at child stars for trying to “Shirley Temple” scenes by looking directly at the camera, language barrier issues filming in Sweden with Swedish actors and crew, and that’s just the half of it.
There also continue to be rumors suggesting the filmmaker used to carry a copy of the film around him at all times in a locked briefcase, so as to not have anyone take it and release it onto the public. It’s the stuff of legends, and you’d be hard pressed not to be at least tempted to want to check out the movie. You know, just to see if it’s really that bad.
For years, Lewis would tell press and fans they’d never see the movie. He suggested he’d take it with him to the grave, and he entrusted his relatives to protect his mistake after his passing. Well, it looks as though he’s either had a change of heart or he’s simply given up, for as the famous comedic movie star donates collections of prints from his personal collection to the Library of Congress, he also gave them the only known copy of The Day the Clown Cried. He passed it to them under one strict condition: they must not screen the film for 10 years after his donation. That’s right, film fans can finally save the date on their calendars regarding when they can see one of the biggest film failures of all-time: August 6, 2025.
Lewis, now 89, probably knows full well he’s not likely to live to 99 and figures it’s in his best interest to give in to the conservatory rather than have it go in the wrong hands following his passing. Of course, it’s highly possible he’ll still be kicking in one decade’s time — he’s a persistent figure, even when it comes to living — but the agreement at hand suggests he thinks otherwise. After all these years holding these cards so close to his vest, there must be some kind of relief on his end regarding letting go of his most notorious project. Though he’ll likely become remembered for the original The Nutty Professor or for his work with Dean Martin, this is a dark cloud over his head only set to grow bigger if he continues to let this get in the way of his well-being.
To date, there have only been a literal handful of people who’ve come out stating they’ve seen the final film. One of those people includes “The Simpsons” voice actor Harry Shearer, who’s gone on to call the film “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’s also on record comparing Lewis’ work to flying down to Tijuana and suddenly spotting a painting on black velvet of Auschwitz, stating further “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.”
Titillating stuff for lovers of disastrous filmmaking and, though the film comes with a lot of hype, those like Shearer who’ve seen it tend to agree: it lives up to the hype and then some in all the wrong ways. In the meantime, if you want to hear Shearer talk about his recollections more, or if you want to see among the mere slices of film released alongside some behind-the-scenes footage, you can check out both videos below. [LA Times]
Here’s Shearer talking on Howard Stern about Lewis’ film.
Here’s the only raw footage released to the public so far.
