“The Day The Clown Cried”, a 1972 Holocaust film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis, has been hidden away for years due to Lewis’s wishes that the public never see it. Now, pieces of the movie have been released online, and it’s garnering a lot of attention that Lewis would probably rather go away.
Lewis plays a German circus clown named Helmut Doork who makes the unfortunate decision to mock Adolf Hitler in public. As punishment, he’s forced to work in the death camps and lead the children to the gas chambers. Lewis has said that he regrets making the film and is ashamed of the final product.
“In terms of that film, I was embarrassed,” Lewis said. “I was ashamed of the work and I was grateful that I had the power to contain it all and never let anybody see it. It was bad, bad, bad. It could have been powerful, but I slipped up.”
The privileged few who have seen the movie say it’s incredible in how awful it is.
“You’re stunned,” said “The Simpsons” actor Harry Shearer.
Lewis, whose success had begun to fade by 1972, was likely hoping a serious role would revive his career a bit. However, he has vowed that no one will ever see it in its entirety. Recently, though, someone posted clips from the film, including some behind-the-scenes moments, and the video has gone viral.
Check it out below.