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

[wtfNeedSignUp]

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.

Lots of time a concept can sound really good on paper but once you actually try to implement it all the faults come out and it turns into a massive case of sunk cost. The film got so far because people either found the idea really appealing or thought they'd rake a ton of money due to being next level oscar bait.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Lots of time a concept can sound really good on paper but once you actually try to implement it all the faults come out and it turns into a massive case of sunk cost. The film got so far because people either found the idea really appealing or thought they'd rake a ton of money due to being next level oscar bait.

For all it's flaws, you have to give Jerry Lewis credit for doing something far outside his comfort zone and putting his own money on the line. I respect that.

 

[OrangeJuliusEvola]

It probably could have worked with a different actor and without the changes Lewis forced onto the main character. It works better as an idea with an absolute drunken POS who ruined his own life and everyone around him redeeming himself in his actions before death instead of a pathetic victimized has-been getting martyred. It what lowers the film into complete bathos.

 

[BrunoMattei]

It probably could have worked with a different actor and without the changes Lewis forced onto the main character. It works better as an idea with an absolute drunken POS who ruined his own life and everyone around him redeeming himself in his actions before death instead of a pathetic victimized has-been getting martyred. It what lowers the film into complete bathos.

I think a remake could work. But it would be challenging to do it right and find the dark humor there. Something like Talk Radio (1988 ) could work:

Great film. Very underrated Oliver Stone picture.

 

[Lone MacReady II]

The holocoaster grift is so malleable the grifters pushing it often make retarded takes, outing the hyperbolic and falsified nature of it. Like Neil Cuckmann making a game where the characters consider le holocoaster to be worse than the death of the entire modern world to cannibalistic mushroom men...

 

[verissimus]

Time for another binge of clown-related media
Not my first one not my last

I got you.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

My earlier exposure was this one guy's reenactment playing all the parts

 

[Quarterback Rex Grossman]

Didn't Robin Williams remake this as Jakob the Liar?

 

[Commander X]

Shearer's snippets in an issue of "Spy" magazine back in the early 90s were pretty choice, he and a few other people who had seen select scenes, or in Shearer's case a rough cut were asked questions about their experience:

The closest I can come to describing the effect is if you flew down to Tijuana and suddenly saw a painting on black velvet of Auschwitz. You'd just think 'My God, wait a minute!' It's not funny, and it's not good, and somebody's trying too hard in the wrong direction to convey this strongly-held feeling

 

[Procopius]

Didn't Robin Williams remake this as Jakob the Liar?

Nope, that's a remake of a 1974 East German film called Jacob the Liar (or Jakob der Lügner if you speak forrin). It's a far better film. Well it's complete for one.

 

[BrunoMattei]

The holocoaster grift is so malleable the grifters pushing it often make retarded takes, outing the hyperbolic and falsified nature of it. Like Neil Cuckmann making a game where the characters consider le holocoaster to be worse than the death of the entire modern world to cannibalistic mushroom men...

Did you write that while wearing programmer socks? We got a checklist to fill out here, man.