Last week, legendary comedian and actor Jerry Lewis sent
ripples across the sea of movie news, when he personally delivered his unseen
and often-forgotten 1971 film, THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, to the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C. The delivery of the film came with an agreement
that it would not be shown publicly for at least a decade. The news of this
film finally having the possibility of seeing a silver screen is huge to move fans and film historians,
for THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED has become a bit of a legend.
For cinema lovers, there is nothing more fascinating than a lost film; that is, a feature or short film that is no longer known to exist
in any studio archives, private collections, or public archives such as the
Library of Congress. THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, directed by Lewis, was not so
much lost as it was withheld; withheld by Lewis because he was embarrassed
about the work.
Filmmakers have been embarrassed about their efforts
throughout time, so what’s the big deal about CLOWN? The answer is as shocking
as it is fascinating. The film is a drama set during the Holocaust, in which
Lewis plays a German clown named Helmut Doork. When Doork openly mocks Adolf
Hitler, he is punished for his crimes by being given the job of entertaining
children at a concentration camp before they are sent to the gas chamber. The film
has been considered tasteless, and Lewis himself despised the movie. Since
1972, the only surviving film print has been locked away by Lewis, making THE
DAY THE CLOWN CRIED a real-life unreachable prize for film-lovers; a true
Silver Briefcase or Maltese Falcon…maybe not a Holy Grail but a debatable Ark
of the Covenant. Coveted, yet feared.
The idea of a clown leading children to their deaths is a
shocking one, and in today’s overly-sensitive,
gotta-be-politically-correct-all-the-time society, just feels terrible right
away. There seems to have been at least a decent idea in there somewhere…offering
comfort to children on the way to their doom, but if Lewis, who was never one
to shy away from anything during his long and storied career, was hesitant to
let the world see it, then maybe what was captured on film is something that
the world is still not ready to see.
The Holocaust has been explored in depth over the years in
film. It has been looked at in the most serious light by Steven Spielberg, who
directed the Oscar-winning SCHINDLER’S LIST in 1992, and by Roman Polanski with
his film THE PIANIST in 2002. But other films, such as LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1997),
and JAKOB THE LIAR (1999), explored similar themes as Lewis tried with CLOWN.
The Holocaust, and the war which surrounded it, was such a large world-changing
event that it’s impossible to say if all the stories have been told in full. It
would be fascinating to have a look at what Jerry Lewis was thinking when he
tried to tell one of those stories. The film is not to be released for at least
ten years, and Lewis, who is now 89 years old, doesn’t seem to expect to be
around that long. If that clown does return, it is this Blogger’s hope that the
world will view him as an earnest effort.
What say you?
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