The Nutty German Clown

THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED (1972):

The Holocaust film as seen by Jerry Lewis and nobody else

By Jerry Saravia

Jerry Lewis has had a successful career as a comedian making films that have had audiences rolling in the aisles. His attempt to resuscitate his career in the 1980's with troubled productions like "Hardly Working" and "Cracking Up" did little to rejuvenate or reclaim his audience (playing the serious role of a Johnny Carson-type in Martin Scorsese's film, "The King of Comedy," also proved disastrous since it was the biggest flop of 1983). Despite Lewis's futile attempts to make audiences love him again, no film of his has caused more controversy than the unfinished and unreleased "The Day the Clown Cried," a 1971 effort whose original negative remains under lock and key in Sweden due to financial woes. Jerry reportedly has a VHS assist copy of the film and three scenes from the original film negative that he keeps under lock and key in his office. Why the secrecy and why can't this be seen, aside from behind-the-scenes footage shown on a Biography special?

The story of "The Day the Clown Cried" deals with Helmut Doork (played by Lewis), a drunk German circus clown who is arrested by the Nazis for making fun of Hitler. Helmut is whisked away to the internment camps and entertains the Jewish children - he does his job so well at making children laugh that Helmut is taken away yet again. This time, he is kept in Auschwitz and is told to do his job and lead the children to the showers, when in fact they are about to be gassed to death. Helmut becomes a Pied Piper and feels such remorse for the kids that he goes in the chamber with them. 

I first heard about this film through the Medveds' crudely funny book, "The Golden Turkey Awards." For years, "The Day the Clown Cried" is the one film, aside from "The Nutty Professor," that stood out for me. I am always fascinated by films that languish and are never completed for one reason or another. Bruce Lee's "Game of Death" comes to mind, as well as Orson Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind" and several other projects (as a director, Welles might have the record for more unfinished works than any other). But something gnaws at me about "The Day the Clown Cried." Maybe it is the fact that Jerry Lewis attempted something so far removed from his ouevre, perhaps an attempt to be taken seriously and not just as a clown. Robin Williams has tried it (and he even made a similarly themed picture to "Clown" called "Jakob the Liar"), Jim Carrey has had his share of serious roles, Billy Crystal, etc. From those who have apparently seen this film (Harry Shearer claims he saw it and hated it), Lewis's Holocaust picture is a disaster and wrongheaded and possibly morally problematic. After all, it is a about a German leading children to the gas chambers and the ending implies that he goes in the chamber with them, thus committing suicide as an act of self-sacrifice. I think that ending might be effective in hindsight but one wonders if it might have made more sense to put himself in the chamber first and keep the kids out, allowing the kids to live (they might get shot later by the Nazi soldiers but at least the kids are spared from a horrible death). Perhaps an allegedly dramatic and Holocaust-themed Jerry Lewis flick is not what Lewis fans had in mind. His tomfoolery and wackiness are what made people laugh, hence his role as a rich playboy impersonating a Nazi general who wants to kill Hitler in "Which Way to the Front?" (1970 - the last completed Lewis-directed film until 1981's "Hardly Working"). Of course, we might never know since it never got a release nor was it ever completed.

Jerry Lewis has not discussed the film at all (aside from his autobiography), though he had hoped in the early 80's to finish shooting the film and clear the rights to the material. That never came to pass, though one might surmise that interest may have accelerated after the success of Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful." No deal, no show, and the film negative is still in Sweden. It may remain the one and only Jerry Lewis movie that nobody will ever see. Somewhere, Jerry Lewis might still be shedding a tear over it.