Sad Clown

July 16, 2003 12:18 PM

"The Day The Clown Cried." Even unfinished, the breathtaking scope of it's...awfulness has for thirty years both attracted and repelled would-be producers and distributors. (script, zipped Word doc) Just the concept is startling, like some kind of hellish Sad Lib -- Jerry Lewis plays a clown in Auschwitz who leads children to the gas chambers. Harry Shearer, one of the few to see the film: "You are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. 'Oh my God!' -- that's all you can say." Can this movie ever be made?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders (39 comments total)

via boingboing, and delete the apostrophe from the first line
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:22 PM on July 16, 2003

Sounds like the whole "it's so bad that I like it" shtick, taken to it's nauseating, condescending and pointless apotheosis.
posted by jonmc at 12:30 PM on July 16, 2003

Can this movie ever be made?

I'm confused...wasn't the movie actually made and never released (due to legal problems)? That's what IMDB says.
posted by arco at 12:32 PM on July 16, 2003

If a hit sitcom can be set in a Nazi prisoner of war camp, I suspect anything is possible.
posted by GaelFC at 12:46 PM on July 16, 2003

What I've always found amusing is that "Life Is Beautiful" is essentially the same movie, but Roberto Bigninny gets an oscar while Jerry gets years of derision.
posted by MrBaliHai at 12:47 PM on July 16, 2003

Wait, I'm confused....the FPP says Jerry Lewis, which, to me, says comedy. But it also says Auschwitz and clown, which says NOT comedy.
IMDB says drama, so...I guess I'll go with that.
posted by graventy at 12:47 PM on July 16, 2003

Life is Beautiful had a little bit of subtlety where it needed to have subtlety. From what I've read so far of this script, there should be violin music playing throughout the entire film.

But hey, it's not my pet project.
posted by Hildago at 12:49 PM on July 16, 2003

People who want a laugh at the expense of other folk's shoddy work shouldn't do it with such a god-awful fugly web site.

... the FPP says Jerry Lewis, which, to me, says comedy

Hmm, that doesn't sound good.

When did you first notice these strange symptoms? Have you tried professional help?
posted by Ayn Marx at 12:51 PM on July 16, 2003

On the face of it, the plot concept is horrific but could be a vehicle for an absorbing seriocomic character study -- imagine the internal monologue of the title role. But Jerry Lewis as the clown? No, that's a bit much, even without all the production problems and side issues.
posted by alumshubby at 12:52 PM on July 16, 2003

SPY: Can you compare it with anything else Lewis has done?
SHEARER: The only thing in Jerry's oeuvre that really is like it is a wonderful thing that he did early in the telethon. It was a dramatic tape of an LA actor who hosted the Popeye show, and Jerry shot it. The guy plays Muscular Dystrophy. It's a staged reading: (scary voice) "I am Muscular Dystrophy, and I hate people, especially children. I love to make their limbs shrivel up!" They showed this for several years before cooler heads prevailed.
Unreal. (From the article in SPY.)
posted by tingley at 12:56 PM on July 16, 2003

In this same vein, there is a little-known film by Jackie Gleason called Gigot, in which he portrays a mute clown who befriends a little girl. Despite the warm review it gets on IMDB, it is a hopelessly sentimental and overwrought tale written and scored by Gleason himself as he tried to establish himself as an "artiste", not unlike Jerry Lewis in the same time period.

"Life Is Beautiful" is so much like "The Day The Clown Cried" in concept that Lewis sued Benigni (IIRC, there was some settlement).
posted by briank at 1:10 PM on July 16, 2003

"I am Muscular Dystrophy, and I hate people, especially children. I love to make their limbs shrivel up!"

You'll get all the ladies at the bar with that opening line.
posted by dr_dank at 1:11 PM on July 16, 2003

True, Ayn Marx, I have yet to see a Jerry Lewis movie. (Some might call me lucky, in this respect.) But the majority of them are considered comedies, and therefore I equate his name with comedy. And MD, of course, as tingley quotes above.
posted by graventy at 1:11 PM on July 16, 2003

Jerry Lewis looks a lot like Russell Crowe in those pictures. Ah? Anyone? C'mon now!
posted by hellinskira at 1:21 PM on July 16, 2003

Yeah, this one's notorious. I had always assumed that it had been made, finished, and then buried in a vault somewhere. Or maybe in a crypt. Forever. Which, sadly, compels some of us to get our grubby hands on it, if only for the pathetic bragging rights of having seen something that many have heard of but few have seen. I mean, there is something truly fascinating about the folly of a truly awful, personal project that a major figure has been so passionate about. But then again, "Battlefield Earth" was far from fascinating, and having read a supposed screenplay draft looong ago, so is this deeply misguided piece of crap.

It brings to mind the excellent Robert Frank/Rolling Stones movie "Cocksucker Blues," which was also notoriously shelved, but actually pretty interesting.
posted by ghastlyfop at 1:28 PM on July 16, 2003

Which, sadly, compels some of us to get our grubby hands on it, if only for the pathetic bragging rights of having seen something that many have heard of but few have seen....

Sorry, what was that? I was too busy listening to the Beach Boys' Smile album whilst pounding a case of O.K. cola and watching a completely uncut print of London After Midnight.

*Shoots self, buries body at the crossroads*
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 1:42 PM on July 16, 2003

I don't know, ghastly. Apparently Lewis actually has the greased back hair and plays it like it's Nutty Professor. I think that's got to be interesting to see in a Holocaust movie.

There's something about this project that places it high above even the truly awful, beyond the Battlefield Earths and their ilk, into its own exalted realm.

I saw CS blues many years back, it was excellent. I think it was the legal liability of seeing people (keith? It was a long time ago) shoot up onscreen that kept that out of distribution. IIRC it was OK to show in film festivals, which is how I saw it.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:53 PM on July 16, 2003

The deal was (I think) that they stipulated that CS Blues could only be screened once a year, and only when Robert Frank was present. Something to do with the Stones not wanting to lose entrance visas, etc...
I was kinda disappointed that, in the film, the Stones kind of stay outside the margins of the really bad behavior in the film. I think you see them smoking some bowls, and maybe cutting some lines...but the real debauchery is left to their roadies and the travelling circus that surrounded them.
But regardless of the notoriety and debauchery, it's a pretty fascinating, beautiful film. Anyone read "Underworld" by Don Delillo? He names an entire chapter "Cocksucker Blues" and waxes pretentious on the film.
posted by ghastlyfop at 1:59 PM on July 16, 2003

Sorry if this sounds scandalous, but I think this movie sounds good. The piety surrounding the Holocaust is obviously well-intentioned but it makes things too easy on everyone. We have a programmed Holocaust response and that, in itself, is dangerous because it lets us slip into complacency. Any movie that triggers a unique (albeit horrified) reaction is good in my book.
- my 2 cents
posted by adrober at 2:10 PM on July 16, 2003

People who want a laugh at the expense of other folk's shoddy work shouldn't do it with such a god-awful fugly web site.

Not to mention hard to read. Text is supposed to be aligned left, for crying out loud, not centered.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:35 PM on July 16, 2003

On a sidenote, Theodore Sturgeon's The Comedian's Children was written with Jerry Lewis in mind.
posted by y2karl at 2:37 PM on July 16, 2003

adrober, what precisely is the complacency you wish to see disturbed?

i was sick when i walked out of "life is beautiful" to hear the audience talking about what a nice father the main character was, repeating the funny bits, and generally not thinking twice about the backdrop. begnini's amazing achievement was to reduce one of the most horrifying events of last century into a novel setting for a romantic comedy. feh.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:40 PM on July 16, 2003

Text is supposed to be aligned left, for crying out loud, not centered.

Better let all those users of right-to-left languages know about that left-aligned rule.

Jerry-wise, The King of Comedy is essential viewing.
posted by gluechunk at 3:07 PM on July 16, 2003

Lewis, it should not be forgotten, really was an innovator in the film industry. He invented at least one technique that is still in wide use and taught film at a major California film school (I can't recall which. USC, perhaps?). Anyhow, my point is that he has become an easy figure to mock.

In all the accounts I've read, he is a driven perfectionist. He seems to be as ready to take the blame for a failure as take credit for a success. Of course, he saw making movies that raked in the cash as success and, in general, wasn't trying to make movies that had deep meaning for most of his career.

I imagine that with "The Day The Clown Cried," he was trying to make a film of lasting value and importance, sort of the way many comedians try to make serious films when they realize that most comedies fade into oblivion over time. Woody Allen, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Michael Keaton and many other also started in comedy, but have tried to make the move to more serious fare with different levels of success.

One of the problems that Lewis was working against was that his style of film was already old fashioned by the time he started to make "The Day The Clown Cried." Even if it had not been about such a serious topic, the "rip weeping out of you" style was sadly out of date in the early 70's. So Jerry Lewis found himself making a movie that was, at the same time, ahead of its time ("Life is Beautiful") and hopelessly dated (in terms of writing and structure and his popularity).

In many ways, the story of Lewis making "The Day The Clown Cried" would make a much more interesting film than the film he made. Perhaps Tim Burton could make "Jerry Lewis: The Movie" in much the same way he made "Ed Wood." Heck, Johnny Depp would make one hell of a Jerry Lewis.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:08 PM on July 16, 2003 [1 favorite]

Well, i_am_joe's_spleen, I totally agree with your reaction to Life Is Beautiful. I think the movie was well-intentioned but it's rendering of the Holocaust was irresponsibly benign. (interesting how "benign" is only one letter away from "benigni")
The complacency I'm talking about is the way we can go into a Holocaust movie now (eg, The Pianist) knowing full well what to expect and how to react. I think The Pianist was a brilliantly made film, but were you truly shocked by anything in it? (You may have been disturbed, but shocked?)
The idea of Jery Lewis, on the other hand, dressed as a clown leading children to a gas chamber defeats any pre-conceived notion you may have about a Holocaust film. In my mind, that concept is unique and frightening enough to merit a viewing.
Of course, having never seen the movie, it may all be crap. If poorly executed (as it sounds like it was) it could only be an exercise in tastelessness. Otherwise, I still think it's a good idea.
posted by adrober at 3:14 PM on July 16, 2003

stupidsexyFlanders: Apparently Lewis actually has the greased back hair... (emphasis added)

Ugh. For want of a hyphen, my lunch is lost.
posted by RylandDotNet at 3:43 PM on July 16, 2003 [1 favorite]

I recently attended a live reading of the screenplay of TDTCC put on by comedian Patton Oswalt and starring Stephen Colbert, David Cross, Fred Armisen and many others. It was one of the most insanely funny things I have ever seen.

Not only is the script both hilarious and entirely inappropriate, but the actors also decided to do random voices for each of the characters. For instance: David Cross as Woody Allen as a Gestapo officer. Or Fred Armisen as Begby from Trainspotting as the camp commandant. Genius.

These readings happen semi-regularly, so ask around. But be careful--they are also illegal! Jerry Lewis had the cops stop one in L.A. a few years back (he owns all rights to the screenplay and thus it cannot be performed without his permission.).

Of course, one of the other most insanely funny things I have ever seen was Jerry Lewis' Learning Annex seminar entitled "Love, Laughter and Healing," held at a (standing-room-only) synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side, in which he doled out gems like these:

On what gets him through the day:
"I'm spirited by mischief."

On self-reliance:
"My inner government serves me well. Which we all have: the inner government."

On the Nobel Prize headquarters in Switzerland:
"You go there, it's royal, and it's excellence."

On corporate culture:
"Do you know that your corporate offices have tan rugs?...Their children are in the shape of filing cabinets!"

On psychology:
"Your biological brain has all this stuff in there, and I've been privy to brain surgery. I've seen what's in there."

On life-changing experiences:
"Stick it in your little box you have of momentary moments. And they're momentary, but the grow. And they're huge."

But that's another story.
posted by notclosed at 4:32 PM on July 16, 2003

Correction:

On life-changing experiences:
"Stick it in your little box you have of momentary moments. And they're momentary, but they grow. And they're huge."
posted by notclosed at 4:33 PM on July 16, 2003

Apparently Lewis actually has the greased back hair and plays it like it's Nutty Professor

seen one lewis "comedy", seen em all.
posted by quonsar at 5:41 PM on July 16, 2003

i was sick when i walked out of "life is beautiful" to hear the audience talking about what a nice father the main character was, repeating the funny bits, and generally not thinking twice about the backdrop. begnini's amazing achievement was to reduce one of the most horrifying events of last century into a novel setting for a romantic comedy. feh.

In the theatre, everyone I walked out with was either quiet or sobered. I overheard a few people talking about the scene where Benini's character's wife says "My child is on that train... My husband is on that train.... *I* want to get on that train" while under the coldfriendly but finally assenting expression of the official. That scene by itself in the film is enough to make you think.

Then there's the whole basic premise of the film. The first half of the film shows Benini's character, and how his life is magical because he sees magic in it. Now in the second half he gets into
some of the most serious sh*t in the 20th century. Is the sense of play up to the dask of deflecting despair in horrible realities, as it as against defending against the mundane life? Is there a use in lying to protect loved ones from the truth, especially children? And most romantic comedies don't end with the death of a lead. Life is Beautiful is light in places, but it's not without structure or depth, even if it doesn't directly treat each horror of the holocaust.
posted by namespan at 6:11 PM on July 16, 2003

As a matter of interest, namespan, where did you see the film? I'm interested in what the audience brings to it.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:12 PM on July 16, 2003

Can this movie ever be made?

Not to be picky or anything, but if you got this link from boingboing.net I don't see how you could have missed the answer to that question.

The film will be aired Wednesday, July 23rd at 8pm. The location is The Comedy Central Space at The Hudson Theater (6539 Santa Monica Boulevard). Their phone number is [phone]. Tickets are free.
posted by Reggie452 at 8:07 PM on July 16, 2003

Those readings sound cool, notclosed. Lewis is such a grotesque and larger than life, too. Hmm, I remember a scene from The Bellboy where he accidentally mars a clay head and then totally disfigures it in attempts to right things. That was the most painful movie sequence of my childhood, I think.

What was your reaction to him at that seminar?

On a another note, I just had the thought that to truly understand America, one has to decipher both Martin and Lewis. I always thought the French adore him because to them he is quintessentially American.

Hmm, gluechunk, you just gave me a thought--if only there were nick squatting like there is domain squatting: I'd hop on Rupert Pupkin.
posted by y2karl at 8:15 PM on July 16, 2003

As a matter of interest, namespan, where did you see the film? I'm interested in what the audience brings to it.

It was an old second-run theater in Utah. The audience wasn't big -- maybe 20-30 people -- most of them at least late 20s (I think because only people who grew up there in the 70s/80s know where the theater is... the big/youth/college crowds go elsewhere and the theater in question closed not too long after), but otherwise probably pretty normal. You could also surmise that people who went at that stage of the film's run had (a) already seen it and had gone back or (b) had it recommended to them in conversation by someone who had seen it, because it had been out for quite some time by that point. I can't think of anything else unusual about the audience....
posted by namespan at 9:03 PM on July 16, 2003

Somebody earlier mentioned Tim Burton...reading this script, I tried imagining what Burton could do with this if Johnny Depp starred as the clown.
posted by alumshubby at 11:14 PM on July 16, 2003

"Not to mention hard to read. Text is supposed to be aligned left, for crying out loud, not centered."

pmurray63, you do know that in standard screenplay format, dialogue is centred on the page, with stage direction and scene information left aligned?

Check out the collection at Screentalk for .pdfs of dozens of (mostly recent) movies.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 5:29 AM on July 17, 2003

Can this movie ever be made?

Not to be picky or anything, but if you got this link from boingboing.net I don't see how you could have missed the answer to that question.

The film will be aired Wednesday, July 23rd at 8pm.

Not to be picky or anything, but that's not a screening--it's another reading like the one I saw in New York. The item on boingboing lists participants like Fred Willard and Jay Johnston [from Mr. Show--Jay was probably around five or so when the film was made] as The Clown, and we know that Jerry Lewis played The Clown in the film, so I don't see how you could have missed that.

What was your reaction to him at that seminar?

I was entertained (a lot), inspired (a bit) and mostly freaked out. I only wish I had recorded it.
posted by notclosed at 5:30 AM on July 17, 2003

From the Spy article (c. 1992): The script is said to be in the hands of Robin Williams.
Looks like he scrapped it and chose to make the maudlin Jakob the Liar (c. 1999) instead (in the wake, of course, of Life is Beautiful) in which he scrapped his usual "Beard for serious roles, shaven for comedy roles" dichotomy.
posted by chandy72 at 7:10 AM on July 17, 2003

Lewis is such a grotesque and larger than life

I thought Jerry Lewis was pretty funny in his early movies. For me the turning point came when he started greasing his back hair. From then on...
posted by soyjoy at 1:49 PM on July 17, 2003