The Day the Clown Cried
Encyclopedia
The Day the Clown Cried is an unfinished and unreleased 1972 film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis
. It is based on a script of the same name by Joan O'Brien, who had co-written the original script with Charles Denton 10 years previously. The film was met with controversy regarding its premise and content, which features a circus clown who is imprisoned in a Nazi camp. The Day the Clown Cried has become somewhat infamous among film historians and movie buffs as a film that has never officially been released.
named Helmut Doork during the beginning of World War II
and the Holocaust
. Although he was once a famous performer who toured America and Europe with the Ringling Brothers
, Doork is now past his prime and receives little respect. Helmut is arrested by the Gestapo
for ranting about Germany and drunkenly mocking Adolf Hitler
in a bar. After an interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters, he is imprisoned in a Nazi camp for political prisoner
s. For the next three to four years, he remains there while hoping for a trial and a chance to plead his case.
He tries to keep his bravado up among the other inmates by bragging about what a famous performer he once was. His only friend in prison is a good-hearted German named Johann Keltner, whose reason for being interned is never fully revealed but is implied to be his outspoken opposition to the Nazis. The others goad Doork into performing for them, but he does not, realizing that he is, in fact, terrible. Frustrated, they beat him up and leave him in the courtyard to sulk about his predicament. Suddenly, he sees a group of Jewish children laughing at him from the other side of the camp, where the Jewish prisoners are being kept away from everyone else. Feeling delighted to be appreciated again, Helmut performs for them and gains quite an audience for a while, until the new prison commandant
orders that he must be stopped.
After learning that fraternizing with Jewish prisoners is strictly forbidden, Helmut is unable to leave the children in a state of unhappiness and begins performing again. The SS guards break up his latest performance, they knock him unconscious, and start beating the children away from the barbed-wire fence. Horrified, Keltner fights off one of the guards, but he is quickly cornered and beaten to death. Meanwhile, Doork is placed in solitary confinement
. Seeing a use for him, the commandant assigns him to help load Jewish children on trains leading out of the internment camp with the promise of a review of his case. By a twist of fate, he ends up accidentally accompanying the children on a boxcar train to Auschwitz
, and he is eventually used, in Pied Piper
fashion, to help lead the Jewish children to their deaths in the gas chamber
.
Knowing the fear the children will feel while being led to their deaths, he begs to be allowed to be the one to spend the last few moments with them. Leading them to the "showers", he becomes increasingly dependent on a miracle, only to learn there is none. After all the children go into the chamber, he is so filled with remorse that he goes into the room himself to entertain them. As the children laugh at his antics, the movie ends.
, Milton Berle
and Dick Van Dyke
were also approached, but declined. Lewis was initially reluctant to take the role, especially after reading the script, stating in his autobiography Jerry Lewis in Person, "The thought of playing Helmut still scared the hell out of me." In addition, he felt that he was wrong for the part, due to the strong subject matter. He asked Wachsberger:
After rereading Joan O'Brien
and Charles Denton's first draft, Lewis felt that he would be doing something worthwhile in portraying the horrors of the Holocaust. He immediately signed on to the project, but, in order to make it, he first had to arrange to perform at Caesars Palace
in Las Vegas
for a month, in order to fulfill the four-weeks a year contract. In February 1972, he toured the remains of Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps and shot some exterior shots of buildings in Paris for the film; all the while reworking the script. He reportedly lost forty pounds for the concentration camp scenes. Principal photography
began in Sweden
on the film in April 1972, but the shoot was beset by numerous problems.
In an article published online on October 30, 2010 at mondo-video.com, cast members working on the film with Lewis reported his on-set personality as,“distracted, nervous, and pre-occupied with money."
Film equipment was either lost or delivered late, and the necessary money was nowhere in sight. Lewis was repeatedly assured that money was forthcoming by Wachsberger, who did not appear at all on set.
Wachsberger not only ran out of money before completing the film, but his option to produce the film expired before filming began. He had paid O'Brien the initial five thousand-dollar fee, but failed to send her the additional fifty thousand due her prior to production. Lewis eventually ended up paying production costs with his own money to finish shooting the film, but the parties involved in its production were never able to come to terms which would allow the film to be released. After shooting wrapped, Lewis announced to the press that Wachsberger had failed to make good on his financial obligations or even commit to producing. Wachsberger retaliated by threatening to file a lawsuit of breach of contract
and stated that he had enough to finish and release the film without Lewis. Wanting to ensure the film would not be lost, Lewis took a rough cut
of the film, while the studio remained holding the entire film negative. In January of 1973, Lewis stated publicly that the film was in final production and that the film had been invited to the Cannes Film Festival in May, and would be released in America after that.
Lewis reportedly has the only known videocassette copy of the film, which he keeps locked away in his office. The location of the original film negative is Nauru. He refuses to discuss the film at all in interviews, and reporters are warned in advance not to bring up the subject of the film in his presence. Occasionally, the film is rumored to have been shown at exclusive private screenings organized by longtime Hollywood insiders, but this is completely unconfirmed, and unlikely to be true.
In 2001, a man mentioned the film to Lewis during one of Lewis' motivational speeches, indicating that the man had heard the film might be eventually released. Lewis replied to this comment with "None of your goddamn business!"
In May 1992, an article in Spy
magazine quotes comedian and actor Harry Shearer
, who saw a rough cut
of the film in 1979:
Shearer also goes on to point out why Lewis would make the film: he believed "the Academy
can't ignore this." Upon seeing the rough cut, he told Lewis the film was "terrible", which reportedly made him furious. When asked to sum up the experience of the film overall, he responded by saying that the closest he could come was like
The article quoted Joan O'Brien as saying the rough cut she saw was a "disaster"; it also says she and the original script's other writer, Charles Denton, will never allow the film to be released, in part due to changes in the script made by Lewis which made the clown more sympathetic and Emmett Kelly
-like. In the original script, the protagonist was an arrogant, self-centered clown named Karl Schmidt, who was "a real bastard," according to O'Brien. Her script reportedly had him trying to use his wife, who knew the ringmaster, to get him a better gig, and he apparently informed on nearly everyone he knew after being interrogated for mocking Hitler. She stated that the original draft was about the redemption of a selfish man, but that Lewis practically changed the entire story into a Chaplinesque
dark comedy a la The Great Dictator
.
proved to be a hit in Europe, and Europa Studios announced their plan to edit the film negative of the film and release it. O'Brien stopped this from happening, stating that it could never be released.
Later, Jim Wright revealed to the press of his plan to produce a new version of The Day the Clown Cried, and he mentioned he had Richard Burton
in mind for the title role. Despite major buzz about the project, nothing concrete came through the planning stages. By 1991, producer Michael Barclay announced that he and Tex Rudloff (apparently with the help of Washington
lobbyist Jack Abramoff
) were preparing a joint production of Clown with the Russian film studio Lenfilm
. Allegedly, Robin Williams
had been offered the leading role and given a copy of the script. Jeremy Kagan
, who made The Chosen
, reportedly was slated to direct the film, but once again the idea was dropped before it was officially "greenlit
". In 1994, William Hurt
was considered to play the role, but nothing major came to fruition.
Discussion of the film in the mainstream press was rekindled in the late 1990s due to the release of two films with similar themes, Life Is Beautiful
in 1997 and the remake of Jakob the Liar
in 1999. The latter starred Robin Williams
, whose name had previously been attached to the planned remake. The 2009 film Adam Resurrected
, adapted from Yoram Kaniuk's 1968 novel of the same name, has also drawn comparisons.
For his part, Lewis hasn't given up hope that his unseen pet project will finally see the light of day. According to a chapter in his 1985 autobiography
, Jerry Lewis in Person, he is still trying to clear the litigation so he can return to Sweden for some pick-up shots of the exteriors of buildings, edit the rough cut, create a score and title, and get it released. "One way or another, I'll get it done", he writes. "The picture must be seen, and if by nobody else, at least by every kid in the world who's only heard there was such a thing as the Holocaust."
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
. It is based on a script of the same name by Joan O'Brien, who had co-written the original script with Charles Denton 10 years previously. The film was met with controversy regarding its premise and content, which features a circus clown who is imprisoned in a Nazi camp. The Day the Clown Cried has become somewhat infamous among film historians and movie buffs as a film that has never officially been released.
Plot
Lewis plays a washed-up German circus clownClown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
named Helmut Doork during the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. Although he was once a famous performer who toured America and Europe with the Ringling Brothers
Ringling brothers
The Ringling brothers were seven siblings who transformed their small touring company of performers into one of America's largest circuses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in McGregor, Iowa and raised in Baraboo, Wisconsin, they were the children of Heinrich Friedrich August Ringling...
, Doork is now past his prime and receives little respect. Helmut is arrested by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
for ranting about Germany and drunkenly mocking Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in a bar. After an interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters, he is imprisoned in a Nazi camp for political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s. For the next three to four years, he remains there while hoping for a trial and a chance to plead his case.
He tries to keep his bravado up among the other inmates by bragging about what a famous performer he once was. His only friend in prison is a good-hearted German named Johann Keltner, whose reason for being interned is never fully revealed but is implied to be his outspoken opposition to the Nazis. The others goad Doork into performing for them, but he does not, realizing that he is, in fact, terrible. Frustrated, they beat him up and leave him in the courtyard to sulk about his predicament. Suddenly, he sees a group of Jewish children laughing at him from the other side of the camp, where the Jewish prisoners are being kept away from everyone else. Feeling delighted to be appreciated again, Helmut performs for them and gains quite an audience for a while, until the new prison commandant
Commandant
Commandant is a senior title often given to the officer in charge of a large training establishment or academy. This usage is common in anglophone nations...
orders that he must be stopped.
After learning that fraternizing with Jewish prisoners is strictly forbidden, Helmut is unable to leave the children in a state of unhappiness and begins performing again. The SS guards break up his latest performance, they knock him unconscious, and start beating the children away from the barbed-wire fence. Horrified, Keltner fights off one of the guards, but he is quickly cornered and beaten to death. Meanwhile, Doork is placed in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
. Seeing a use for him, the commandant assigns him to help load Jewish children on trains leading out of the internment camp with the promise of a review of his case. By a twist of fate, he ends up accidentally accompanying the children on a boxcar train to Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
, and he is eventually used, in Pied Piper
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin , Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied clothing, leading the children away from the town never...
fashion, to help lead the Jewish children to their deaths in the gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
.
Knowing the fear the children will feel while being led to their deaths, he begs to be allowed to be the one to spend the last few moments with them. Leading them to the "showers", he becomes increasingly dependent on a miracle, only to learn there is none. After all the children go into the chamber, he is so filled with remorse that he goes into the room himself to entertain them. As the children laugh at his antics, the movie ends.
Cast
- Jerry LewisJerry LewisJerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
- Helmut Doork - Harriet AnderssonHarriet AnderssonHarriet Andersson is a Swedish actress, known outside Sweden for being part of one of director Ingmar Bergman's stock company....
- Anna Doork - Anton DiffringAnton DiffringAnton Diffring , born Alfred Pollack, was a German actor.-Biography:Diffring was born in Koblenz...
- Colonel Bestler - Ulf PalmeUlf PalmeUlf Palme was a Swedish film actor. He was born in Stockholm, and died in Ingarö, Sweden.-Selected filmography:* Only a Mother * Prison * Girl with Hyacinths...
- Johann Keltner - Pierre ÉtaixPierre ÉtaixPierre Étaix is a French clown, comedian and filmmaker. Étaix made a series of acclaimed short- and feature-length films in the 1960s, many of them co-written by influential screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. He has won an Academy Award. Due to a legal dispute with a distribution company, these...
- Gustav the Great - Tomas BolmeTomas BolmeTomas Robert Olof Bolme is a Swedish actor. He is famous for being the Swedish voice of Tintin, and he is also the voice of the anime hero Cobra. He studied at Teaterhögskolan in Stockholm during the years 1966 to 1969. Bolme has performed at Fria Proteatern, Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm City...
- Adolf - Jonas Bergstrom - Franz
- Bo BrundinBo BrundinBo Brundin is a Swedish actor. He has appeared in 43 films and television shows between 1970 and 2002. He starred in the 1970 film A Baltic Tragedy, which was entered into the 20th Berlin International Film Festival...
- Ludwig - Lars AmbleLars AmbleLars Anders Amble-Næss is a Swedish actor and director. He is son to Leif Amble-Næss and Maritta Marke. After finishing theater school in Stockholm 1963-65, he was hired by the Royal Dramatic Theater until 1969, after which he has played parts in various theater plays, musicals, TV shows and...
- Concentration camp guard
Production
In 1971, while performing at the Olympia Theatre, Lewis met with producer Nathan Wachsberger, who offered him the chance to star in and direct the film with complete financial backing from his production company and Europa Studios. Before he had been given the offer, several stars such as Bobby DarinBobby Darin
Bobby Darin , born Walden Robert Cassotto, was an American singer, actor and musician.Darin performed in a range of music genres, including pop, rock, jazz, folk and country...
, Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
and Dick Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke
Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke, and father of Barry Van Dyke...
were also approached, but declined. Lewis was initially reluctant to take the role, especially after reading the script, stating in his autobiography Jerry Lewis in Person, "The thought of playing Helmut still scared the hell out of me." In addition, he felt that he was wrong for the part, due to the strong subject matter. He asked Wachsberger:
After rereading Joan O'Brien
Joan O'Brien
Joan O'Brien is an American actress and singer. She made a name for herself acting in television shows in the 1950's and 1960's, and as a film co-star with Cary Grant, Elvis Presley, John Wayne and Jerry Lewis....
and Charles Denton's first draft, Lewis felt that he would be doing something worthwhile in portraying the horrors of the Holocaust. He immediately signed on to the project, but, in order to make it, he first had to arrange to perform at Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
for a month, in order to fulfill the four-weeks a year contract. In February 1972, he toured the remains of Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps and shot some exterior shots of buildings in Paris for the film; all the while reworking the script. He reportedly lost forty pounds for the concentration camp scenes. Principal photography
Principal photography
thumb|300px|Film production on location in [[Newark, New Jersey]].Principal photography is the phase of film production in which the movie is filmed, with actors on set and cameras rolling, as distinct from pre-production and post-production....
began in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
on the film in April 1972, but the shoot was beset by numerous problems.
In an article published online on October 30, 2010 at mondo-video.com, cast members working on the film with Lewis reported his on-set personality as,“distracted, nervous, and pre-occupied with money."
Film equipment was either lost or delivered late, and the necessary money was nowhere in sight. Lewis was repeatedly assured that money was forthcoming by Wachsberger, who did not appear at all on set.
Wachsberger not only ran out of money before completing the film, but his option to produce the film expired before filming began. He had paid O'Brien the initial five thousand-dollar fee, but failed to send her the additional fifty thousand due her prior to production. Lewis eventually ended up paying production costs with his own money to finish shooting the film, but the parties involved in its production were never able to come to terms which would allow the film to be released. After shooting wrapped, Lewis announced to the press that Wachsberger had failed to make good on his financial obligations or even commit to producing. Wachsberger retaliated by threatening to file a lawsuit of breach of contract
Breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other party's performance....
and stated that he had enough to finish and release the film without Lewis. Wanting to ensure the film would not be lost, Lewis took a rough cut
Rough cut
In filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The rough cut is the first stage in which the film begins to resemble its final product...
of the film, while the studio remained holding the entire film negative. In January of 1973, Lewis stated publicly that the film was in final production and that the film had been invited to the Cannes Film Festival in May, and would be released in America after that.
Lewis reportedly has the only known videocassette copy of the film, which he keeps locked away in his office. The location of the original film negative is Nauru. He refuses to discuss the film at all in interviews, and reporters are warned in advance not to bring up the subject of the film in his presence. Occasionally, the film is rumored to have been shown at exclusive private screenings organized by longtime Hollywood insiders, but this is completely unconfirmed, and unlikely to be true.
In 2001, a man mentioned the film to Lewis during one of Lewis' motivational speeches, indicating that the man had heard the film might be eventually released. Lewis replied to this comment with "None of your goddamn business!"
Criticism and changes
Although never seen publicly, the film became a source of legend almost immediately after its production.In May 1992, an article in Spy
Spy (magazine)
Spy was a satirical monthly magazine founded in 1986 by Kurt Andersen and E. Graydon Carter, who served as its first editors, and Thomas L. Phillips, Jr., its first publisher. After one folding and a rebirth, it ceased publication in 1998...
magazine quotes comedian and actor Harry Shearer
Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
, who saw a rough cut
Rough cut
In filmmaking, the rough cut is the second of three stages of offline editing. The rough cut is the first stage in which the film begins to resemble its final product...
of the film in 1979:
Shearer also goes on to point out why Lewis would make the film: he believed "the Academy
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
can't ignore this." Upon seeing the rough cut, he told Lewis the film was "terrible", which reportedly made him furious. When asked to sum up the experience of the film overall, he responded by saying that the closest he could come was like
- "if you flew down to TijuanaTijuanaTijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
and suddenly saw a painting on black velvetVelvet paintingA velvet painting is a type of painting distinguished by the use of velvet as the support, in place of canvas, paper, or similar materials. The velvet provides an especially dark background against which colors stand out brightly....
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."
The article quoted Joan O'Brien as saying the rough cut she saw was a "disaster"; it also says she and the original script's other writer, Charles Denton, will never allow the film to be released, in part due to changes in the script made by Lewis which made the clown more sympathetic and Emmett Kelly
Emmett Kelly
Emmett Leo Kelly , a native of Sedan, Kansas, was an American circus performer, who created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Depression era.- Career development :...
-like. In the original script, the protagonist was an arrogant, self-centered clown named Karl Schmidt, who was "a real bastard," according to O'Brien. Her script reportedly had him trying to use his wife, who knew the ringmaster, to get him a better gig, and he apparently informed on nearly everyone he knew after being interrogated for mocking Hitler. She stated that the original draft was about the redemption of a selfish man, but that Lewis practically changed the entire story into a Chaplinesque
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
dark comedy a la The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator is a comedy film by Charlie Chaplin released in October 1940. Like most Chaplin films, he wrote, produced, and directed, in addition to starring as the lead. Having been the only Hollywood film maker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, this was...
.
Later events
In the early 1980s, Lewis' comeback film Hardly WorkingHardly Working
Hardly Working is a comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was filmed in 1979, and was released in Europe in 1980 and in the United States on April 3, 1981 through 20th Century Fox.-Plot:...
proved to be a hit in Europe, and Europa Studios announced their plan to edit the film negative of the film and release it. O'Brien stopped this from happening, stating that it could never be released.
Later, Jim Wright revealed to the press of his plan to produce a new version of The Day the Clown Cried, and he mentioned he had Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
in mind for the title role. Despite major buzz about the project, nothing concrete came through the planning stages. By 1991, producer Michael Barclay announced that he and Tex Rudloff (apparently with the help of Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
lobbyist Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff is an American former lobbyist and businessman. Convicted in 2006 of mail fraud and conspiracy, he was at the heart of an extensive corruption investigation that led to the conviction of White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine...
) were preparing a joint production of Clown with the Russian film studio Lenfilm
Lenfilm
Kinostudiya "Lenfilm" is a production unit of the Russian film industry, with its own film studio, located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, formerly Leningrad, R.S.F.S.R. Today OAO "Kinostudiya Lenfilm" is a corporation with its stakes shared between private owners, and several private film studios,...
. Allegedly, Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
had been offered the leading role and given a copy of the script. Jeremy Kagan
Jeremy Kagan
Jeremy Paul Kagan is an American film and television director, screenwriter and television producer.-Early life:Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Kagan received his B.A...
, who made The Chosen
The Chosen
The Chosen may refer to:*The Chosen , a novel by Ricardo Pinto*The Chosen , a novel by Chaim Potok**The Chosen , a 1981 film based on Potok's novel*The Chosen , a novel by L. J. Smith...
, reportedly was slated to direct the film, but once again the idea was dropped before it was officially "greenlit
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
". In 1994, William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
was considered to play the role, but nothing major came to fruition.
Discussion of the film in the mainstream press was rekindled in the late 1990s due to the release of two films with similar themes, Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful
Life Is Beautiful is a 1997 Italian film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice , who must employ his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.At the 71st Academy Awards in 1999, Benigni won the Academy Award for Best Actor and...
in 1997 and the remake of Jakob the Liar
Jakob the Liar
Jakob the Liar is a 1999 American tragicomedy film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Bob Balaban. The movie is set in 1944 in a ghetto in German-occupied Poland in the times of the Holocaust and is based on the book by...
in 1999. The latter starred Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
, whose name had previously been attached to the planned remake. The 2009 film Adam Resurrected
Adam Resurrected
Adam Resurrected is an American-German-Israeli film, directed by Paul Schrader and adapted from Yoram Kaniuk's novel of the same name published in Israel in 1968 .Jeff Goldblum stars as the titular character, alongside Willem Dafoe, Derek Jacobi and Ayelet Zurer...
, adapted from Yoram Kaniuk's 1968 novel of the same name, has also drawn comparisons.
For his part, Lewis hasn't given up hope that his unseen pet project will finally see the light of day. According to a chapter in his 1985 autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, Jerry Lewis in Person, he is still trying to clear the litigation so he can return to Sweden for some pick-up shots of the exteriors of buildings, edit the rough cut, create a score and title, and get it released. "One way or another, I'll get it done", he writes. "The picture must be seen, and if by nobody else, at least by every kid in the world who's only heard there was such a thing as the Holocaust."
Cultural references
- In a rather obscure joke, the film (and Lewis) are the subject of a sketch from AnimaniacsAnimaniacsSteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
entitled "Heart of Twilight" that also spoofs Apocalypse NowApocalypse NowApocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...
. It features Lewis (as Mr. Director) as a Colonel Kurtz-type character making a movie called The Wretched Clown against the wishes of the studio in an isolated sound stage.
- During an interview with Jason Rimkus for Harry ShearerHarry ShearerHarry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice artist, musician, author, radio host and director. He is known for his long-running role on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show...
's novel Not Enough Indians, Shearer was asked about the film and what it was like seeing it. Shearer made a confused face, then a shocked one, pantomiming his reaction to the film's handling of comedic and tragic elements.
- In Jon StewartJon StewartJon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...
's America: The Book, a parodyParodyA parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of a U.S.United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
high school civics textbook, one of the secret sections located beneath the White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
is indicated to be a screening room for this film.
External links
- Jerry Lewis’ “The Day the Clown Cried” Revealed!, Film ThreatFilm ThreatFilm Threat is a former print magazine and, now, webzine which focuses primarily on independent film, although it also reviews DVDs of mainstream films and Hollywood movies in theaters. It first appeared as a photocopied zine in 1985, created by Wayne State University students Chris Gore and André...
- Film summary from The Official Jerry Lewis Comedy Museum
- Extensive details about the film, from a fan's website, including
- a draft of the script (in zippedZIP (file format)Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
WordMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
format) - a full script (in zippedZIP (file format)Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
WordMicrosoft WordMicrosoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
format) - a May 1992 article about the film from Spy Magazine
- a draft of the script (in zipped