The Day the Clown Cried:The Lost Jerry Lewis Movie

There have been a few movies in Hollywood lore that have been made and barely released in the United States, especially in the last thirty years. In 1977 the third chapter in the Billy Jack trilogy, Billy Jack Goes To Washington, a nearly three hour near remake of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington was set for wide release but the press screenings went so badly the studio released it in very few parts of the country and the film spent over 20 years in obscurity until it was later released on DVD. Matilda, a 1978 comedy about a sports promoter and a boxing kangaroo starred Elliot Gould and Robert Mitchum. Produced by The Godfather's Albert Ruddy, this film is not to be confused with the book and popular movie made by Danny DeVito made many years later. This film was so bad that it only opened in a few California theaters, one which did such bad business that the manager went up on the marquee and in the biggest letters he could find proudly spelled out, WORST FILM OF THE YEAR. The manager reported doing triple the business over the last few days of release. In 1984 Brooke Shields made an adventure film called Sahara which was only released west of the Mississippi River and was soon forgotten. Michael Landon's Sam's Son had an unusual weeknight sneak preview in 1984 and then barely saw the light of day after reports of near to totally empty houses.

There are even fewer movies that are made and never seen by the American public, not even in DVD or tape or on late night television. In 1981 Tatum O'Neal starred in a drama called PRISONERS and when viewed after its completion, father Ryan O'Neal, who reportedly hated the film, bought up the negative and every print to ensure it would never be seen. In 1994 a cheap version of FANTASTIC FOUR was shot and promptly shelved on purpose. Unbeknownst to cast and crew the film was made only because the small studio owned the rights but would have lost them had nothing been done with the project. The film was made, the rights remained with them and a pretty penny was made when it came time for the 2004 big budget film.

No film, however, may be more infamous then THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, a film never released to the public and one only a few have claimed to have seen. It tells the story of one Helmut Doork, a failed circus clown hoping for a comeback but is stonewalled by his own alcoholic and personality problems. Basically Helmut is a drunk, a mean one at that, and a jerk. One night he openly criticizes Adolf Hitler and is arrested and thrown into a political prison next to a concentration camp. Not realizing his deficiency in the "clown" department, Helmut is repeatedly ridiculed by the guards and even beaten. One day after being thrown into the mud some of the children in the concentration camp began laughing and soon the Nazi guards find a use for Helmut. He will entertain the children as they are being prepared to be sent to Auschwitz. Helmut leads them on the train car and rides with them and then leads them into the ovens (unknowingly to the children) and decides to stay with them as the gas pellets are dropped. The end. Not your typical Jerry Lewis vehicle.

The script had been written in the mid 1960's by Joan O'Brien and Charles Denton and had been making the circuit with such actors as Dick Van Dyke and Milton Berle under consideration for the lead role.

In 1971 producer Nathan Wachsberger picked up the rights to the script and began shopping it around. He ended up meeting with Jerry Lewis who was intrigued with the script but was unsure if he could pull off the emotionally dramatic role. At that time Lewis hadn't made a movie in over a year and was looking for a change. Wachsberger convinced Lewis that he had met with O'Brien, who had approved of Lewis being cast and that he had foreign financing in place. The more Lewis read the O'Brien/Denton script the more convinced he became he was the man for the job. While awaiting the go ahead Lewis would begin re-writing the script.

Pre-production on the film was announced in early 1972 and Lewis prepared for the role by losing over 30 pounds eating only grapefruit. Lewis, cast and crew made their way to Stockholm to begin shooting on a budget of $1.5 million and within a week problems began to plague the film. Film equipment was repossessed because rental checks either bounced or were never issued to the suppliers. Crew members came to Lewis to complain that their first paychecks had bounced. Lewis immediately knew something was wrong as Wachsberger had not and would not put in an appearance on the set, something very unusual for a producer. Wachsberger reassured Lewis that all was well and that funds were on the way.

In the meantime it was soon discovered that Wachsberger's option on the film had run out before production had begun. Not only that but O'Brien was only paid her initial fee and not the extra fifty-thousand once the film began shooting. In essence Lewis was shooting a film he had no legal right to be making. Lewis claims he had no idea but O'Brien always believed that Lewis was aware and continued shooting anyway. Once he realized that no money was forthcoming, Lewis began paying for everything out of his own pocket in a desire to get his dream project off the ground. For the first time work stress got to Lewis and it was reported that he was difficult to work with, something completely opposite from anyone else who ever worked with him. Lewis believed the stress made his performance all the more believable as he was putting all of his personal pain on screen in character.

In June of 1972 Lewis completed principal photography on the film and began editing it over the next ten months. In the meantime Lewis began publicly bashing Wachsberger claiming he wasn't producing the movie at all and threatened to walk off the post production. For his part Wachsberger threatened to sue Lewis for breach of contract and promised he could get Lewis barred from the editing room and could complete the film himself. Smelling trouble Lewis made a rough cut and copied it for himself. The studio, Europa, refused to release the movie and held onto the negative claiming the filmmakers owed them some $600,000 in production costs over the budget.

Lewis tried to win O'Brien and Denton over by showing them the movie hoping they would renew their option thus getting the film released, but this would prove to be a mistake as both writers were horrified and what they saw. Denton was especially angered that Lewis had re-written the character to be less of a jerk and more of a Chaplin-esque pathetic Tramp type character. O'Brien was angered that Lewis changed the tone of the film from serious to black comedy and pointed to one scene she deemed was totally "off the mark" in which a freezing Helmut gets up in the middle of the night to urinate and the sound of ice cubes dropping into the toilet can be heard. Denton felt the film was "amateurish" and cited a moment when Helmut is seen walking around in brand new shoes when he supposedly had been in a concentration camp for 4 years. Neither writer was going to give in

And so The Day The Clown Cried sat quietly in Lewis' home in film cans somewhere in a safe in need of more post-production work including a musical score, opening and closing credits and some voice looping. It sat forgotten for over 8 years until late 1980 when Europa announced its intentions to bring the film out of the cobwebs and complete it as long as another studio would put up the financing. This was due to the enormous overseas success of Lewis' Hardly Working, his first film released in a decade. Joan O'Brien came forward and announced she and Denton would never allow the release of the film, partially blaming Lewis for a re-write that changed the main character too much. She also claimed to have seen the whole film and ultimately described it as a "disaster that will never see the light of day."

As of today The Day The Clown Cried still sits in film cans some 37 years later in Jerry Lewis' home. There are rumors that every so often Lewis trots it out and shows it to a lucky few. The consensus among those few is that the film is terrible and that Lewis is terrible in it. Anytime the film is brought up publicly the legal wrangling begins, further ensuring it will never see the light of day. No one knows the location of the original negative and is presumed lost though one can hope it is sitting somewhere safe and cool and perhaps will one day be revealed to a room filled with movie buffs dying to see the finished product.

For his part, Jerry Lewis refuses to discuss the film in his later years. If a reporter brings it up against Lewis' pre-interview wishes, Lewis will terminate the interview immediately. He had dreams of one day going back to Sweden to shoot a few more scenes and then re-tooling in editing but rumor is Lewis gave up that dream in the 1980's. As of today Lewis is the only principal involved still alive.

Could The Day The Clown Cried have worked? It's too difficult to say whether his fans could have accepted him in such a role. Lewis did prove some ten years later he could handle a dramatic role when he played opposite Robert DeNiro in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. But the subject matter was less controversial. Roberto Begnini seemed to have covered many of the same themes in his wonderful film Life Is Beautiful but Lewis had never proven his ability to mix comedy and drama before. Perhaps The Day The Clown Cried would have done just that and Jerry Lewis' career may have gone a different direction.

Sadly we will never know.

Sources: "The Golden Turkey Awards" by Harry and Michael Medved. Wikipedia.com