Sez here that Jerry Lewis has donated a batch of his movies to the Library of Congress including a print of The Day the Clown Cried. There is a ten-year embargo before it can be screened…and I guess someone's presuming that by that time, Jerry (age 89) will not be around and therefore will not have to hear reactions to it — or something.
I know people who are obsessed with this unseen movie. Here's a story I told here a few years ago…
One day back when we all had our video on VHS tapes, I was printing up fancy labels for some of my homemade recordings. The labels came on a sheet of twelve and I had eleven to print…so I was going to waste one label on the page. On a whim, I used the last one, printed THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED on it and slapped it on an old cassette I was otherwise going to toss. I put the tape on my shelf of movies, spine out for all the world to see. I just wanted to see if anyone would notice.
No one did until a few months later. A friend came by and was waiting in my video room while I got ready so we could leave for a restaurant where we were meeting others. Suddenly, he saw the tape. He yanked it off the shelf, thrust it at me and yelled, "PUT THIS ON! I must see this movie!" I started to tell him he didn't but he interrupted and shouted, "NOW! I must see this movie NOW!!!"
Imagine if you will that some evil villain has tricked you into drinking a fast-acting poison. Imagine you're getting dizzy and your knees are buckling. Imagine that your only hope is an antidote and that the only clue as to where and what that antidote is is on a videotape. Imagine how you'd act in that situation, then triple the intensity and you have an approximation of how my friend acted at that moment. He was five seconds from knocking me to the floor and jamming the tape into my VCR himself.
I finally explained to him that it was a joke. He didn't believe me and I had to run a little of the tape to show him it was not what the label said. I thought he was going to cry.
I suspect that friend will be lined up at the Library of Congress in ten years. I also suspect he will be disappointed and the film will not be either a cinematic masterpiece or something so inept and offensive that's its joy is in its awfulness. I tried to read the script years ago and it struck me as pretty boring. And while I admit to a certain fascination with Jerry Lewis as a person and a performer, I never thought any of his filmmaking was that wonderful…especially anything made after, say, The Nutty Professor. (I'm not even sure I ever made it all the way through that one and it's supposed to be his masterpiece.)
As I recall, interest in The Day the Clown Cried surfaced during a time when Jerry was on TV and in the news a lot coming across as really, really arrogant. He was belittling female comedians and every current trend in Hollywood and talking like the real King of Comedy and opining how people in show business were just plain better human beings than anyone else. Hair and political candidacy aside, whatever you don't like about Donald Trump today is how Jerry was then viewed by a lot of people.
It therefore became irresistible to think that he had this…this "secret." He had this reportedly stinkeroo movie he had to hide from public view, lest the world see that the guy with an ego the size of the Louisiana Purchase had made the worst, most detestable movie ever made. I think that's why the folks I knew who were eager to see it were so eager to see it: Because they disliked Jerry Lewis so much.
I don't think too many people feel that way about Jerry these days. He seems kind of sad and out of touch, especially since he lost the telethon. Survival has also blessed him with a certain importance. He's a symbol of a kind of performer who is almost extinct these days. Who else is alive from his era who was ever that huge a star? No one.
By the way: In all the articles that have been written about the unavailability of this movie and how Jerry has been keeping it hidden, I don't recall anyone ever mentioning one point: I don't think Jerry owns this movie. I'm not sure anyone does but it was based on a book by author Joan O'Brien. When she sold the rights, it was with the understanding that the film would be based on a screenplay she co-authored but Jerry pitched her script and co-wrote a new one.
Production shut down before the film was completed because the production company ran out of money, and they also never made their final payments to O'Brien. So one good reason Jerry didn't release it was because he couldn't. He seems to have confused this point for a while in interviews by claiming he was finishing a new cut and it would soon be out.
But I think if we know nothing else about Mr. Lewis it's that he announces many things that are never going to happen. Remember all the times the stage musical of The Nutty Professor had a firm opening date on Broadway that no one else seemed to know anything about? At some point, he seems to have decided that he couldn't finish The Day The Clown Cried even if he wanted to…and he no longer wanted to. And I find myself thinking that I don't particularly want to see it.