The Day the Clown Cried, Jerry Lewis’s notorious, unreleased Holocaust movie, faced a crisis on 30th April, 1972, when the American actor-director found himself in an extraordinary predicament: the financing for his deeply personal film project had collapsed mid-shoot.

Faced with abandoning the production or funding it himself, Lewis chose to press on, investing his own money despite mounting practical and artistic difficulties, and the risky undertaking of the film’s subject matter itself: a Holocaust drama centred on a disgraced clown. 

The project had been years in the making. The script, originally written by Joan O’Brien and Charles Denton, had circulated in Hollywood since the early 1960s without being produced.  Lewis substantially rewrote the script, softening the central character and reshaping the tone into a blend of pathos and sentiment that many later viewed as ill-judged.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly examine what survives of this never-seen film; consider the near-mythical status Lewis’s rough cut achieved; and consider whether it could REALLY be as bad as everyone assumes… 

Further Reading:

• ‘‘The Day the Clown Cried’: Why Jerry Lewis’s Lost Holocaust Film Is Still Lost’ (The New York Times, 2018): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/movies/jerry-lewis-day-the-clown-cried.html

• ‘‘Ashamed. Embarrassed’: Jerry Lewis’s infamous Holocaust clown film that never was | Film’ (The Guardian, 2024): https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/30/ashamed-embarrassed-jerry-lewis-infamous-holocaust-clown-film-that-never-was

• ‘The Story Of The Day The Clown Cried’ (BBC South Today, 2016): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbZIyXNRxos

#Film #Jewish #Mistakes #70s #Sweden

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

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