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Jerry Lewis passed away over the weekend at the age of 91. The comedy legend left behind a legacy oh both philanthropy and legendary comedy films like The Nutty Professor. He also leaves behind the legacy of one rather infamous film, The Day the Clown Cried. That film has been legendarily unavailable since it was filmed in 1972.
In the film, Lewis plays a German circus clown during the Holocaust who gets thrown into a concentration camp as a political prisoner. There, he performs his clown routine for the children in the camp, to his detriment with the SS guards. He’s ultimately sent to Auchwitz with the children where they meet their terrible fate. On top of the horrible poor-taste nature of the plot (though one awfully similar to the Oscar-winning Life Is Beautiful), the film’s production was rife with cash shortages, complaints to the press about financial obligations that weren’t met, and ultimately lawsuits. Despite Lewis claiming in 1973 that the film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, the movie has never been released.
In the years since, Lewis repeatedly talked about how he didn’t want the film to emerge ever, as he thought it was bad art. He also reportedly donated a copy of the film to the Library of Congress with the stipulation that it not be shown until 2024.
And yet over the years, more and more people have seen the film. The Simpsons voice actor Harry Shearer reportedly saw a rough cut in 1979 (he called it “so drastically wrong”). And Vanity Fair has an interview with French film critic Jean-Michel Frodon who is also among the people who have seen it. Footage of the film was also briefly leaked to Vimeo last year.
We all still may have to wait until 2024 to be able to see The Day the Clown Cried, though perhaps Lewis’s death will shake something loose in the logjam that has kept the film from public reception. The film was meant to be Lewis’s great bid for serious-actor attention (Shearer told Spy magazine he thought it was a play for an Academy Award), and a critical re-appraisal of the film could be a boon to Lewis’s legacy.
