The Day the Clown Cried (27 minutes have been released)

BrunoMattei

BrunoMattei

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This is the most infamous train wreck in Hollywood history and also one of the most legendary lost movies. There have been many an essay and books dedicated to the subject but essentially this was a terribly misplaced attempt at doing a serious Holocaust movie about a Jewish clown who leads kids into the gas chambers while incorporating Jerry Lewis' usual schtick:


To explain this for Zoomers: imagine watching Schindler's List starring Seth Rogan. That's kind of what this is.

The movie was never completed because of a rights dispute (the author of the book wasn't paid and the financiers took off into the night leaving Jerry Lewis alone to helm the project) and every couple of years there would be whispers that Jerry was trying to complete the movie but it never happened.
 
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how does that youtube compare to that old compilation from like, back when Jace was alive?
I recall there was something of a similar length cobbled together from random clips of a minute or so that had gotten out over the years
 
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Mussolini’s Merkin said:
I thought there was a completed version of it in the library of Congress? Didn't they end up playing it for a tiny audience to get around Jerry Lewis' stipulation?
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yeah tbh I thought it was either completed, or mostly completed but needed some second unit-y odds and ends, final audio mix, the final polish type stuff
also surprisingly that upload I made back in 16 is still working apparently
XYZpdq said:
https://mega.nz/#!EppXDDKC!ksW0VS_KhNtyvLvB5kXgUO-vixNzQGYu9mKH9QiTcGk
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Harry Shearer had supposedly seen the whole thing and said it wasn't what he expected. That people would be disappointed if they saw it, no matter what they were expecting. But he could've been bullshitting about any amount of that, as he has been known to do.
 
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Your Starter for 10 said:
Harry Shearer had supposedly seen the whole thing and said it wasn't what he expected. That people would be disappointed if they saw it, no matter what they were expecting. But he could've been bullshitting about any amount of that, as he has been known to do.
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From what I've seen in the provided video it's just depressing. I don't know if the full version feels any different. But I think we can get the general tone just fine from this. I don't understand why this was made. The only other movie I can liken it to is Life Is Beautiful.
 
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Battlefield2142EU said:
Why hide this film? What’s so offensive about a fictional story?
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Its a mix of jerry lewis being completely embarrassed by how it turn out, rights issues and the holocaust become more of a sacred cow over time. Imagine making a really dark joke that sound hilarious in your head but no one laughs and and you have to rewatch it constantly and its just embarrassing edgy bullshit with no punchline, at least that how I assume it turned out, to me lewis always seemed more embarrassed then offended by the movie.
While there's many time in history where the movie could have come out alongside the goofy antics of coloniel klink and spring time for hitler nowadays not so much.
 
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Dysnomia said:
From what I've seen in the provided video it's just depressing. I don't know if the full version feels any different. But I think we can get the general tone just fine from this. I don't understand why this was made. The only other movie I can liken it to is Life Is Beautiful.
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yeah from what I've seen it's not dissimilar to Life Is Beautiful (beyond the very obvious thing) in that it's got a "this isn't necessarily a _bad_ movie, but who did you think wanted to watch this and why did you think they would be entertained by it?" vibe
 
Cat tit bingo said:
Its a mix of jerry lewis being completely embarrassed by how it turn out, rights issues and the holocaust become more of a sacred cow over time. Imagine making a really dark joke that sound hilarious in your head but no one laughs and and you have to rewatch it constantly and its just embarrassing edgy bullshit with no punchline, at least that how I assume it turned out, to me lewis always seemed more embarrassed then offended by the movie.
While there's many time in history where the movie could have come out alongside the goofy antics of coloniel klink and spring time for hitler nowadays not so much.
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The film was never supposed to be a dark comedy. It was a serious Oscar-bait drama film.
 
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Raging Capybara said:
The film was never supposed to be a dark comedy. It was a serious Oscar-bait drama film.
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One of the script writers, Joan O'Brien, said it was supposed to be that but Lewis's proformance and changes supposedly fucked up the intended tone and shifted it into that. Jerry lewis has some acting chops but no so much in serious drama so I can understand him just fumbling it to the point of self embarrassment. The amount of moving parts in a movie production is astronomical and in the time of films needing to physical develop the outcome could look absolutely nothing like how you intended. From the available footage it admittedly doest seem too unserious but with out the whole picture it's hard to judge.
 
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Battlefield2142EU said:
Why hide this film? What’s so offensive about a fictional story?
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My understanding of what happened is that Jerry Lewis changed his opinion on the project over time and doesn't want to be associated with it. Which is understandable, just reading the premise it sounds incredibly tone-deaf.

It reminds me of a friend of mine. He wrote a short story and he asked me for feedback. It was about a teenage couple and the girl got pregnant and had a kid. It ended with them seeing there were no presents for the baby for Christmas and deciding it was because Santa decided they weren't good this year. It was the most laughable thing I've ever read. I asked him if it was meant as some kind of absurdist dark comedy and he became offended and clarified that no, it was meant as a serious social comedy on teenage pregnancy. I know he realised it was a stupid concept that didn't work because soon he was asking me not to tell anyone about it.

Something similar happened here. Someone (or multiple people) pulled him up and said "A clown leading kids into a gas chamber? Seriously?" and it sank in for him.
 
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Beautiful Border said:
It reminds me of a friend of mine. He wrote a short story and he asked me for feedback. It was about a teenage couple and the girl got pregnant and had a kid. It ended with them seeing there were no presents for the baby for Christmas and deciding it was because Santa decided they weren't good this year. It was the most laughable thing I've ever read. I asked him if it was meant as some kind of absurdist dark comedy and he became offended and clarified that no, it was meant as a serious social comedy on teenage pregnancy. I know he realised it was a stupid concept that didn't work because soon he was asking me not to tell anyone about it.
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It also reminds me of when I watched The Grey Zone (2001) which is another Holocaust movie that stars Harvey Keitel and David Arquette. Great film and superior to Schindler's List. But as I'm watching it and it gets to the shower scene I couldn't help but notice the main actresses' giant perky titties. That was a weird Holocaust boner.
 
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