The Day the Clown Cried (2024)

[Winston T. Boogie]

Title: The Day the Clown Cried (2024)

Genre: Comedy, Documentary, War

Director: Jerry Lewis

Cast: Jerry Lewis, Harriet Andersson, Anton Diffring, Ulf Palme, Pierre Étaix

Release: 2024-06-01

Runtime: 90

Plot: Helmut Doork is a washed-up German circus clown during the beginning of World War II and the Holocaust. Although he was once a famous performer who toured North America and Europe with the Ringling Brothers, Doork is now past his prime and receives little respect. After Doork causes an accident during a show, the head clown convinces the circus owner to demote Doork. Upon returning home, Doork confides his problems to his wife Ada, and she encourages him to stand up for himself. After going back to the circus, Helmut overhears the circus owner agreeing to fire him after the head clown issues an ultimatum. A distraught Helmut is arrested later by the Gestapo and the Schutzstaffel for drunkenly mocking Adolf Hitler in a bar. Following an interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters, he is imprisoned in a Nazi camp for political prisoners. For the next three to four years, he remains there while hoping for a trial and a chance to plead his case.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Maybe the most bizarre film announcement for 2024, this is supposedly coming out in June. I don't know if it will play theaters, I tend to think not, maybe streaming, and maybe on Blu-ray. Not sure who wants to see this except perhaps as anything more than a curiosity. I've never seen it and it has long been said to be an utter abomination. However, it should be huge in France.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Fake news.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Fake news.

That was my thought, too!

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Fake news.

I have no idea, it seemed odd to me. The story around this supposedly goes, Lewis changed his mind about it at the end of his life, decided he did want people to see it, and donated his copy of it to the Library of Congress. The donation supposedly came with the stipulation that the film could only be released after his death and they picked a release date of June 2024. Now, I have no clue what they mean by "release" to me that means it is booked to be shown somewhere somehow. While it makes little to no sense to release it into theaters, who would see it aside from the French, if it really was available to be shown, I could see a streaming service showing it or a company picking it up to release on home media. It would, I would think have a very limited audience outside of France, where it would be hailed as a masterpiece, a great work of cinema.

The rest of us would probably not see it that way.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I was friends with Mr. Lewis for the last 35 years of his life. I was also his personal archivist.

The film was never finished.

 

[SD_Brian]

I have no idea, it seemed odd to me.

What was the source of this news? Is it possible it's a documentary about the movie, rather than the movie itself?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

This is the report...

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Jerry Lewis’s controversial film, The Day the Clown Cried, shot in 1972, has never been publicly screened. But that may change this year. According to the Middle East newspaper The National, the project is scheduled for a June screening as per a stipulation by Lewis. Years before his passing, a copy was donated to the Library of Congress in the US, with an agreement that it would not be screened until this year. However, recent reports suggest that it may be an early version.

Lewis, who passed away in 2017, decided to keep his infamous film hidden from public view. The original film has never been seen by a wide audience. Of course, this only adds to its legendary status as a lost piece of media.

Learning more specifics about the film’s story, it becomes apparent why Lewis shelved the project. Based on a script by Joan O’Brien and Charles Denton, The Day the Clown Cried tells the story of Helmut Doork, a washed-up German circus clown. After mocking the regime and Adolf Hitler during a drunken rant, Helmut finds himself sent to a Nazi concentration camp. In this harrowing setting, he takes it upon himself to bring moments of joy to the Jewish prisoners, especially the children, before they face the unimaginable fate of the gas chambers.

In 1992, Spy magazine published an oral history about the production and the ensuing legend. Screenwriter Joan O’Brien found the rough cut she saw to be a “disaster”. This was partly due to Lewis’ softened portrayal of the clown character, which frustrated her.

Within the very same article, Harry Shearer, a veteran voice actor from The Simpsons and a member of Spinal Tap, reviewed the film with his tongue firmly in cheek. The voice of Ned Flanders and Mr. Burns sarcastically described his viewing experience of the legendary film as “awe-inspiring.”

Snark aside, Shearer eventually laid into the film. “This movie is so drastically wrong. Its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced. 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 said at the time.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Here is some guy discussing it on YouTube:

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I stumbled across mention of it this morning. I was/am skeptical, but found it curious that if you look around, several places have a release date listed for this in June. Have they all been taken in by a hoax? I don't know. I thought it was worth mentioning here to see if anybody else was as surprised at this as I am.

Now, maybe this is just a single screening of it. A special showing of the print he donated. I have seen nothing about anybody having rights to it.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

All nonsense…

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

All nonsense…

The entire story? He did not have a copy of the film and he did not donate it? Damn internet...

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I guess this is the article that stirred this up, it is also linked in the report I posted above:

Controversial Jerry Lewis film to screen in public for first time after 52 years

The Day the Clown Cried, a passion project for its star and director, reached mythical status after he refused to release it in his lifetime

www.thenationalnews.com

 

[Bob Furmanek]

Pretty much. Shearer never saw a rough cut of the film and fabricated the Spy magazine story.

Google Rob Stone/New York Times for accurate information.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

So, from the Times, as Bob recommended, this from 2018:

--------------------

Still, rumors have kept fans optimistic. When the Library of Congress acquired Lewis’s personal archive in 2015, an article in the Los Angeles Times, citing the library’s moving-image curator, Rob Stone, indicated that the library had whole negatives but had agreed not to release them until 2024.

The embargo part was true. The rest, less so. Stone clarified in an email that the library has only partial negatives: 13 cans (almost 90 minutes) of unedited camera rushes without sound. (It also has behind-the-scenes footage.)

“It’s kind of like nowadays when you go to a museum and they have this whole dinosaur and you find out that, well, no, really all you’ve got is the kneecap,” Stone said in a phone interview.

And copyright concerns persist: Stone said he had been contacted by someone describing himself as a rights holder, and he plans to consult with lawyers before deciding whether material can be viewed.

Despite the legal murkiness, outside interest abides. About 10 years ago, Bob Murawski, who edited “The Other Side of the Wind” (he shares credit with Welles), began writing to Jerry Lewis about the project.

Early inquiries with foreign studios dead-ended in a thicket of legal fears and uncertainty over who — if anyone — possessed the missing material. In 2010, Murawski’s lawyer finally heard back from Lewis, who, in apparent contradiction with earlier statements, insisted that he alone was preventing the release.

If that were true, Lewis’s death might have opened some possibilities. But Chris Lewis said he had no idea what the copyright situation actually was, or whether the missing material still existed. Anyway, the Lewis family has no opinions now on whether the film should ever be completed, he said.

Murawski, though, still has hope — and a good track record.

“It wouldn’t be the same without Jerry being involved,” he said. “But, I mean, Orson Welles wasn’t around on ‘Other Side of the Wind,’ either, and it was definitely a worthy project.”

--------------------

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

As happens so often these days, when you want to tell a big lie, mix in a kernel of truth. Well, it filled my morning with interesting speculation, ha!

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I’ve been getting questions about this one for decades, and inevitably when someone hears of my relationship with JL, it’s the first question they ask.

I handled a few reels of raw uncut 35mm negative in his LA warehouse and there is no completed film to screen.

 

[Tino]

I’ve been getting questions about this one for decades, and inevitably when someone hears of my relationship with JL, it’s the first question they ask.

I handled a few reels of raw uncut 35mm negative in his LA warehouse and there is no completed film to screen.

What did you think of what you saw Bob?

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I never viewed the 35mm camera negative footage, just wound through it on an editing table. There were only a few reels of that in the warehouse, JL had the rest of that footage at his home in Las Vegas, and I never had any contact with that material.

I did see some of the 16mm Kodachrome Footage taken on set, and it looked like a competent production.

 

[Bob Furmanek]

I’ll add that we had several phone conversations about the film and I have a few of those on cassette tape. He was still hoping to finish it in the late 80s and it was that ridiculous SPY magazine nonsense from Shearer (and the subsequent PR fallout) that eventually put the kibosh on that.