The Day the Clown Cried
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.
Jerry Lewis
Helmut Doork / Director / Writer
Lars Amble
Guard
Jonas Bergström
Franz
Harriet Andersson
Ada Doork
Ulf Palme
Johann Keltner
Claude Bolling
Circus Band Conductor
Curt Broberg
Galt
Pierre Étaix
Gustav
Johnny Cacao
Nils Eklund
Bartender
Serge Gainsbourg
Ronald F. Hoiseck
Uhlmann
Peter Ahlm
First New Prisoner
Peter Ahlm
1st New Prisoner
Carl Billquist
Gestapo Officer #2
Tomas Bolme
Adolf
Media.
Details.
This Movie Is About.
Wiki.
The Day the Clown Cried is an unfinished and unreleased 1972 Swedish-French drama film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis about a circus clown imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. It is based on an original screenplay by Joan O'Brien and Charles Denton, from a story idea by O'Brien, with additional material from Lewis.
The film has gained notoriety and mystique over the decades both for its controversial premise and as a well-known example of an unfinished film. Lewis repeatedly insisted that The Day the Clown Cried would never be released, but later donated an incomplete copy of the film to the Library of Congress in 2015 under the stipulation that it was not to be made available before June 2024. Several documentaries have featured some scenes from the film.
In August 2024, all five hours of the film's footage held by the Library of Congress was screened for journalist Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, who confirmed in a subsequent article that what exists is fragmentary and that a fully finished film does not exist.