Jerry Lewis’ Lost Nazi-Clown Drama Unearthed After 45 Years
Nothing says comedic triumph like depicting innocent children marching straight into gas chambers—courtesy of Jerry Lewis circa 1972. The Day The Clown Cried, Lewis’s famously unfinished Nazi-era dramedy, has lurked in Hollywood lore for nearly half a century. Now Swedish actor Hans Crispin claims he smuggled the full cut out of Europafilm’s vault back in 1980, allegedly piecing together missing scenes from a former collaborator (Sweden Herald). You can almost hear the tumbleweeds roll across the celluloid.
Despite Lewis donating five hours of raw footage to the Library of Congress in 2015—with a viewing embargo until 2024—this vault-bound copy might preempt the public premiere by a few cinematic heartbeats (HuffPost). Crispin insists his version is sealed in a bank safe, alongside original scripts that reportedly shine a less flattering light on Lewis’s production choices. It’s not peak sweaty-palmed drama if you haven’t hidden a clown movie from the world for decades.
According to reports in the AV Club, Crispin’s haul lacked the film’s opening act until an ex-colleague hooked him up after realizing he owned the rest. Before you ask, no, this isn’t the plot of a heist comedy—it’s just another Tuesday in Lost Cinema History 101. Meanwhile, Lewis himself publicly disavowed the project in 2015, confessing, “It was all bad and it was bad because I lost the magic,” essentially admitting this train wreck never had its whistle.
For those brave souls who’ve glimpsed rare clips, legendary comedian Harry Shearer likened the experience to “seeing a painting on black velvet of Auschwitz in Tijuana,” telling Howard Stern the film’s tone-deaf collision of tragedy and slapstick was so monumentally misguided, it “could not be improved upon” (1992). If that doesn’t sell you on cinematic malpractice, nothing will.
Budget squabbles, rights disputes, and Lewis’s own embarrassment conspired to keep The Day The Clown Cried under wraps. But thanks to Crispin’s bank-vault copy and Lewis’s archival donation, film historians might finally dissect every awkward laugh and misplaced tear. Whether it’s a tragic misstep or an unintentional masterpiece remains to be seen.
Tune your expectations for a cringe-filled revival that makes you question every life choice—film and otherwise. Stick around; the world’s worst clown show may soon have a full run time.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and HuffPost, AV Club, Sweden Herald, Howard Stern Radio Show via Harry Shearer
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
