Jerry Lewis’ Infamous “Holocaust Comedy” Finds New Life in Venice (Kind Of)

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As a seasoned gamer with a penchant for unraveling cinematic mysteries, I can’t help but feel a strange sense of intrigue when it comes to the elusive specter of “The Day The Clown Cried”. This ghostly film has haunted the halls of cinema history for decades, much like how certain bosses in old-school RPGs linger in our minds long after we’ve beaten the game.

According to author Shawn Levy, who penned the comprehensive Jerry Lewis biography titled “King of Comedy“, all you need to do is provide a brief plot synopsis. When people are informed that Jerry Lewis wrote, directed, and starred in a drama about a clown in a concentration camp guiding children into gas chambers, their reaction is often: “Wait, I’ve never heard of this movie before, I’ve never seen it!”

You haven’t had a chance to watch the movie titled The Day the Clown Cried. To this day, no one has. The film was produced by Jerry Lewis in 1972, but it never saw the light of day and likely never will. It is one of those elusive cinematic treasures, much like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune or Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind. However, unlike Jodorowsky, who didn’t manage to capture a single frame for his Dune project, Welles’ masterpiece was eventually completed, 48 years later, with financial backing from Netflix. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2018.

This year in Venice, passionate fans of the elusive film “The Day the Clown Cried” will have a rare opportunity to view previously unseen clips from the lost production. A new documentary titled “From Darkness to Light” will be screened in the Venice Classics section, delving into the making of the movie and the enigmatic, multi-decade connection that Jerry Lewis had with it. Co-directed by renowned German documentarian Eric Friedler and American Michael Lurie, this film expands upon Friedler’s 2016 documentary “Der Clown“, which included snippets of original scenes along with reenactments based on the scripts of “The Clown Cried”, which can be found online in various versions.

The creation process behind the film “Clown Cried” is reminiscent of some of history’s most notorious production disasters. Initially, the script was penned by publicist-turned-TV producer Joan O’Brien and TV critic from the L.A. Examiner Charles Denton. The story revolves around a German circus performer who is sent to concentration camps for making fun of Hitler. Producer Nathan Wachsberger acquired the rights, managing to secure actor Lewis, despite his reservations about transitioning from the light-hearted antics of films like “Cinderfella” and “The Nutty Professor” to a movie centered around the Holocaust.

In his 1982 memoir, Lewis mentioned he once asked Wachsberger, “Why not give Sir Laurence Olivier a shot?” Since my forte lies in comedy, I did. (This paraphrase maintains the original meaning and flow while using more contemporary language to make it easier to understand.)

It appears that something in the story resonated with him, or perhaps it was the influence of the Percodan (given Lewis’ acknowledged addiction to painkillers). Immersing himself fully, he visited Dachau and Auschwitz for research purposes, shedding a significant 35 pounds on a grapefruit diet to achieve a skeletal appearance. He injected his own style into the script, incorporating humor and slapstick elements, and changing the main character’s name from Karl Schmidt to Helmut Doork – quite fittingly, Doork was his choice.

By 1972, when Lewis commenced filming for a Swedish studio in France, Wachsberger had already departed. The opportunity to use the O’Brien-Denton script had expired, thus he no longer possessed the rights to produce the movie. Despite this predicament, he personally invested an estimated $2 million into the project. As Chris Lewis shared with The New York Times in 2018, “To finance the film, we had to sacrifice our beachfront property on Vancouver Island, our house in Palm Springs, his boat, and other possessions.”

Lewis persisted in his filming, overlooking the inconsistencies in the script and production (like casting Scandinavian children with blonde hair and blue eyes to portray Jewish kids). However, funds were limited, and upon completion, the Swedish studio claimed they were owed $600,000 and retained some of the footage and original negatives. Unfazed, Lewis returned to the U.S., carrying a rough version of the movie, which he showed to O’Brien.

According to Levy, she departed the viewing area with tears streaming down her face, stating, “It will never see sunlight, I will never grant you the permissions.” Upon her death, she included a stipulation in her will that this movie would never be screened.

Multiple efforts have been made to restart the initial O’Brien-Denton screenplay, one of which was considering it for a potential Chevy Chase film. Most recently, Kia Jam, founder of K.Jam Media (known for producing ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’), who in 2019 settled fraud charges with the SEC for $500,000, has claimed ownership and financing of the script and is now pushing ahead with the production.

In 2015, two years prior to his passing, Lewis gifted his personal collection, including materials for the film “The Day the Clown Cried”, to the Library of Congress under the condition that the film would not be screened for a decade. However, those hoping for a release next year may be disheartened as the library has revealed they only possess incomplete negatives of the movie – approximately 13 cans (equivalent to around 90 minutes) of raw, silent footage and some behind-the-scenes clips.

Regardless of how exceptional or oddly entertaining “The Day the Clown Cried” might be, its unavailability ensures that the legend surrounding Jerry Lewis’s alleged Holocaust comedy will persist indefinitely.

Levy remarks, “If Schindler’s List were just a movie, we wouldn’t still be discussing it so passionately today. But since there’s no actual film to watch, every new snippet of footage on documentaries or TV captivates the internet. A successful film would naturally fade with time, but because we can never see it, Schindler’s List remains as vivid and intriguing as ever.”

This tale was initially published in the August 21 edition of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Consider subscribing by clicking here.

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2024-08-30 15:26