Review of The Day the Clown Cried

Based on Joan O'Brien's book by the same name, about a German clown who was arrested by the Gestapo, interred in a concentration camp, and used to march Jewish children into the ovens. Director-star Jerry Lewis lost close to 40 pounds to play the role. Filmed mostly in Stockholm, Sweden, the film has been tied up in litigation and never finished. Rough footage exists but a completed version never materialized. The screenplay is weak and the rough copy of the film depicts a cold, bleak and uneven film needing of a finish cut and scoring. Today it stands notable mostly for the departure that Lewis took in his career from his man-child persona. Twenty-five years later director-star Roberto Benigni's critically acclaimed Italian film La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful) successfully merged comedy with life in a Jewish concentration camp. Lewis' film did try to bridge the warm heart of La Vita e Bella and the shocking realism of Steven Speilberg's Schindler's List a quarter of a century before either of these films were made, and a quarter of a century before the subject was acceptable in Hollywood, and it is difficult to tell what the finished product would have looked liked or how it would have been received. In any respect, Lewis took a big chance (a gamble that he ultimately lost) by attempting a film far from the mainstream of Hollywood and it appears The Day the Clown Died will remain in legal limbo forever.