Review of The Day the Clown Cried

I've noticed that there are some comments here that indicate some of the posters have never even read the script. I obtained one 6 years ago and have read it like many other people, but none of us have actually seen the rough cut of the film, only a few of Jerry Lewis' friends and apparently Harry Shearer and the other people mentioned in Zardoz12's comments. It seems that the premise of the story could work, and was well meaning, but the way Mr. Lewis went about it with the script is horrible, well-intentioned, but horrible. One thing that people should be aware of is Helmut, the clown, isn't a Nazi, nor does he want to trick Jewish children into going into a gas chamber. He is a self absorbed, miserable has-been, who finds a sliver of relief from his imprisonment through entertaining little Jewish children who are detained in a camp next to his own, with a fence between them. All of his fellow prisoners despise him after he tells them how he's a great performer, and then entertains them unsuccessfully, so he is encouraged by the children's' attention. When the camp officers discover his rapport with the children, they force him to become the fatal pied piper by threatening his life. He doesn't march children into a gas chamber repeatedly through the movie, which is the impression some people seem to have. This happens only once, with an ending that I suppose I won't give away(unless someone else already did and I didn't notice). The most laughable thing about the script that I received was the cover, which I assume is a reproduction of the real thing. There is an image of Jerry Lewis as the clown, looking very downtrodden. Below it, he has a comment about how "this is a family film for the summer of 1973"! FAMILY FILM!?!?! If this script was different, like all the pages were ripped out and a new script put in it's place, it might work.