Original subtitles

I'd been depressed for a long time.

I was so emotionally shattered by the breakup

that everything else broke up.

If you do a terrible thing, everything gets caught up in it,

and it's all terrible.

And I knew this film will take me till the end of my days.

Jerry Lewis, to me, is a great director.

He's more a painter maybe than a director.

He probably doesn't even know.

That is a great -- to me,

firstly, the continuity of the Harry Langdon and

Buster Keaton and Chaplin tradition.

You've been shooting a picture in Sweden?

Yes. That's right.

Yes, I completed the film in Sweden.

I'm in the process of cutting it now,

and hopefully, we'll release it in the spring.

Of this year?

Yes.

Of this year.

The spring of this year?

Yes.

I better hurry and finish the last reel, wouldn't you think?

It's a marvelous film.

It's difficult to make a good picture.

And he knows.

And I think he should be supported.

And I'm one of his supporter.

"The Day the Clown Cried" will be finish--

I hopefully will finish cutting it the next 6 or 7 weeks.

And, uh, we've been invited to the Cannes Film Festival,

so I think we will open it then, in May,

then it'll be released in America.

I think he has a great idea.

For his last movie,

he was obliged try to do it in Sweden.

I don't know if he succeeded. Well, the day -- totally --

"The Day the Crown -- the Clown Cried."

And it's a picture about in a Nazi concentration camp,

they were using a clown to make the baby laugh

when they were going in the gas chamber.

I think it's a -- I mean, it's a beautiful idea.

I guess you're referring to a film

that I think has -- it's never been released in this country.

It's not even been produced up to now.

He has a problem.

Oh, it's not finished.

No, it's not finished.

For me, Lewis was always ahead of his time --

always ahead of his time -- And there's no doubt

that "The Day the Clown Cried" is something

that was so unthinkable

that we didn't even think the film existed.

We thought it was made up.

We thought, when we were younger that it was a, um -- uh, a myth.

It was so modi. It was so forbidden.

It was a myth of some kind, um, and that nothing of it --

if it did exist, if it had happened,

none of it was available to be seen by anyone ever.

"The Day the Clown Cried"

is possibly the last big movie myth out there,

because it has never been seen.

It's been discussed for 40 years and denied and denied again.

And I think once it's all out in the open

and in public to watch, to my knowledge,

there aren't many other mysteries in the film business

to solve.

There's no way it's gonna fulfill

anybody's expectation, or --

Yeah, it might be just boring.

Let's do a clown Holocaust movie.

Why not? Let's follow it up.

Are we gonna ever gonna get to see "The Day the Clown Cried"?

A kind of legendary debacle.

Is it really as bad?

"The Day the Clown Cried." Yeah.

The controversial and disturbing film.

Are we going to get the Holocaust clown movie now?

There's never insights. There's never details.

I've had enough! This is violent!

Almost no one has ever seen it.

He basically just remade Superman,

but with the Nazis.

There was just crazy shit they did back then.

You make that. Movie up in your head.

It's so much better than that. And by better, I mean worse.

Film critics talk about it.

Movie buffs talk about it,

and actors and everybody in the business,

but nobody has seen it.

No one's seen it. I mean, human beings have seen it.

Not many -- I know Harry Shearer, infamously,

is one of the very few people has seen it.

I am one of the handful of people.

I don't even know if it's a handful.

It may be two fingers.

Somebody I knew had access to a videotape copy

of the rough cut print,

and had liberated it for a period of time.

It was like seeing a Tijuana velvet clown painting

of the Holocaust.

This film is like a legend.

Nobody knows.

So people have started to invent, to talk,

to imagine, to figure out, to whisper.

In 1980, I got a job at Europa Film,

which was the camera and sound company

for "The Day the Clown Cried."

They went bankrupt years ago,

and they had a big clean out sort of spring cleaning thing

where they ordered two big containers

and they just throw away like 20 reels.

Can you imagine that, 20-year-old Jerry Lewis

prime time thing just thrown away?

I felt that the actual reels were in danger.

Yes, very much so.

I felt compelled to do something, really.

We found 8 or 9 reels there, and, uh,

they were clearly marked "The Day the Clown Cried"

working copy and so forth and so on.

And in there, in the each box,

there was a copy and a separate perforated magnetic sound tape.

I knew it was completely legal.

I knew I can get sacked, probably get nicked,

but the will to do it was so strong.

I'm really happy that we saved it

because otherwise, it would be lost.

So I felt a strong obsession to take it

and just stash it away and say, "Haha, you fuckers,

we'll keep it safe under lock and key."

That's what I felt.

I was pretty sure that in my lifetime,

somebody will knock on my doorstep saying,

oh, you got this material. Wonderful.

Let's, uh, do something about it.

So it was a bit hard to keep it secret for 30-odd-some years,

actually.

It rested very well where it was hidden.

I think it doesn't matter what you think it is.

It's a hell of a show to watch.

And, uh, I'm really happy that it survived.

If you say Jerry Lewis plays a clown

in a concentration camp and just leave it at that,

uh, your mind will create a pretty,

pretty bizarre image of what's going on.

That's not Jerry Lewis.

What are you doing, Jerry?

By somebody who was famous as director

and actor of comedy, it was a 180 degrees change.

He went to the casino and make a total bunco.

I mean, he risked all his career with this film.

He wanted to make a funny tragedy about a subject

that is the least funny thing you can think of.

He's a clown

who's put into a concentration camp,

and his job is to entertain the children

as they are pushed into the gas chamber.

It's so horrible and so serious and so sort of taboo-like,

so I don't think any director would dare

to do it or dare to make a suggestion even about it.

So he was ahead of his time.

Actually, even contemplating doing a film

where a man is a clown hired to --

he's basically leading children into a gas chamber...

...this was something that just went against the grain of,

I think, people in Hollywood,

and it was unthinkable, actually,

to think that humor could come out of that.

If he had waited 25 years,

then, yeah, he'd be bounding over those seats,

grabbing his Oscar.

Well, the script came to me ten years ago.

Ten years ago, I fell in love with this idea.

And ten years ago, I was not ready to make such a film.

I was much younger.

And this film, you have to be a little older,

and it's very dramatic.

I needed to learn much, much more about my work.

And in ten years, I'm happy that I have learned

what I think is enough to go forward with this production.

Comedy puts light onto darkness,

you know, and darkness can't live where there's light.

So that's why it's important to talk about things

that are taboo,

because otherwise they just stay in this dark place

and they become dangerous.

Springtime for Hitler and Germany

"Springtime for Hitler." My God.

The audience was like...

That's pretty much what I think a lot of people

thought at the time.

It was a lot of people going to...

Look out, here comes the master race

But then, after a while, you get the joke.

You understand what's funny about it.

Today

And a few Jews, after the show, would say, you know,

that's not in such good taste, you know.

And I'd say, uh, I don't care.

I really don't give a shit.

I was born in Dusseldorf, and that is why they call me Rolf.

Comics have to tell us who we are, where we are,

and even if it's in bad taste.

We'll be going

We've got to be going

You know we'll be going to war

You can do jokes about Nazis.

But if you say Holocaust...

Is the Holocaust funny?

No, there's nothing about the Holocaust that is funny.

But is there ever anything that we can't laugh about?

That's the thing -- There's tons of Nazi jokes.

It's like there's nothing taboo about making a Nazi joke.

Stupid Hitler.

Bugs Bunny was making fun of Nazis.

"The Three Stooges" were making fun of Nazis.

The Marx Brothers were making fun of Nazis.

And this is during World War II.

Heil Hitler!

Heil myself.

Anyone who's in a position of extreme authority

is great to make fun of because they're pompous.

There's an arrogance to being in that position.

Nazi jokes, easy. Making fun of bad people, easy.

Making fun of good people or tragedy,

that's what's hard.

So making a "Holocaust joke" about the act

of the Holocaust in general

and the event is really difficult.

No. I can't go there.

The Holocaust itself is not funny.

There's nothing funny about it.

But survival and what it takes to survive,

there can be humor in that.

Alright. Come.

After all of these years,

it was about time to talk about the film itself.

I never spoke about it. Why?

Because you don't run around yelling to people, "I lost."

"Hey, I bought six tickets in the lottery, and I lost."

Who gives a shit?

Nobody wants to know about what you lost.

They want to know what you think of something

you're putting out there for the public.

I had only me to get the answers from.

I lived with this from the very beginning.

It was part of my bloodstream.

He even had a sense of color and editing and surrealism.

He broke all those rules visually.

"The Ladies Man," for example.

The house cut in half like a --

like a wedding cake, so to speak.

Um, when he opens the door to the room, it's all white.

And this woman comes down in black.

And then there's Dick Stabile and his orche--

No, Ray Anthony, I think, and his orchestra.

And of course, you know "The Nutty Professor," uh,

which was totally, uh, unexpected,

particularly because the Mr. Hyde character

is Dean Martin.

You know, he's Mr. Hyde.

You know, he becomes Dean, and it's extraordinary.

Aflame with such a burning desire

That only your kiss can put out the fire

What would I do without you? What would I do, boy?

What would I do without you? What would I do?

I need a partner, you're the one

I'll be right there when the show goes on

I'm for you, I'm for you

From California to Kalamazoo

What would I do without you when you're gone?

When you're gone?

Well, he was coming out of the post-war period

with him and Dean Martin.

They represented a total freedom,

a sense of freedom and anarchy.

Um, uh, Martin was the straight man, so to speak.

Uh, and he was the wild man.

The wild, the wild one.

Anything could happen with Jerry.

And that was kind of a break, I think,

from -- uh, you know, the break from the war.

Basically, people suddenly -- just suddenly,

um, felt free to be completely absurd

and completely out of line.

Dean had a lot to give to his craft,

as did I, and we both felt it was time for us to go

and just go pick our fruit out of the large garden

and do stuff for ourselves.

Now, if Dean and I didn't break up,

I would have never directed a film.

That would have been terrible.

You're nobody till somebody loves you

Every facet of show business is based on this guy.

He was capable of anything.

And I think it's what the world wanted at that time,

particularly America.

You may be king, you may possess the world

He was a standup comic. He could write music.

He could conduct orchestras, he could perform in concert.

The world still is the same

On top of that, he directed films.

He invented the video assist system.

As sure as...

Plus, he did talk shows. He did talk shows.

And I said, well, this is all in one.

You're nobody till somebody loves you

So find yourself somebody to love

Visually and cinematically,

I think he really broke new ground.

So for us, it was not only the antics of Jerry, but his, um...

pretty much surreal, avant garde technique of making films.

And this was a major advance, you know,

in filmmaking, I thought.

He was in a situation with a very successful

film career -- that was the voice of Hollywood saying,

come on, come on, let them know.

So Jerry Lewis started off with very successful movies,

but, you know, over the period of years, they became worse.

The last comedy movie he made before

"The Day the Clown Cried" was a man-made catastrophe.

It's hard to express how, uh, wrong he got it.

Fuhrer!

My strategists.

Kesserling?

Out, out, everybody, out!

I want to talk to Kesserling.

Very often, when you get depressed, it's about the work.

You're not happy about what you've done.

And, uh, a lot of performers don't want to go there.

They don't want to think about they're not doing too well.

But if you don't think about not doing too well,

you're never going to get better.

I wanted to be the best.

His run of getting Paramount to pay for

all his movies was long over.

Now here he is saying no, now I'm doing a non-comedy.

Stepping in this -- in this side --

I mean, was jumping from a bridge with an elastic,

but without the elastic, without, you know, uh, safety.

I mean, it was in the darkness,

as it was a total change of genre for him.

To do such a challenge, what were the motivations?

I think he wanted to do this part

because he wanted to prove himself in the film community.

He wanted to say, look, I can do a serious.

I can be Hamlet. I can put it off.

People say that comedians can't wait to play Hamlet.

I would like to protest against that

because comedians play hamlet all their lives.

Dramatic actors play Hamlet only for a certain time on stage.

It is very, very dramatic to play a comedy.

As a child, I used to use comedy to cover up

the torn sweater that I wore,

or the sadness that I felt as a child, and...

uh, I found that I enjoyed making people laugh.

And while I was enjoying making them laugh,

I was forgetting why I was doing it.

And then I continued to do it.

And it just stayed with me.

You know, it takes courage to play a dramatic role

as a comedian.

Some people say it's stupidity

or you have to be a fool to do that.

I think a comedian making this movie is important,

but I can't wait to get back to doing what I usually do.

If I can be good in this film,

that's going to be just as satisfying as any good work

that we all do, and how good we feel when we do good work.

I'm taking a very great gamble and a big chance.

I think it takes courage because it's so easy

to sit back and do nothing.

And the man who does nothing makes no mistakes.

I don't want to live without making mistakes.

I want to make a lot of mistakes.

That means I've done a lot.

The main producer was Nat Wachsberger.

He was the producer.

He was the man who wanted the film done.

He was very happy to get a big-time movie actor

like Jerry Lewis coming to Sweden and shoot the movie.

Dear Nat, my darling, you've been wonderful --

fun, knowledgeable and a good partner.

I haven't always been lucky with partners.

I'm so confident and excited about our baby.

I can't wait to roll the cameras.

But more than just the project,

you have been everything you claimed you would be,

and I am happier and more delighted

than I'm equipped to say.

Please know that I will break my back,

my mind, and every creative force

I have to make you proud of our project.

I thank you for many things, one of which

I believe is so vitally urgent to function -- your sense

of humor and understanding.

This may appear to be somewhat of a love letter.

Well, it is.

My father and Nat Wachsberger,

they were producers behind the film.

They were not really

that heavily invested in the emotional part,

maybe of the story,

but Jerry Lewis, I guess, felt very strongly for this story.

It is the story of a clown

who was once the premier clown,

who is no more the top clown

and who is having a difficult time handling

being just a small part of the circus.

And because of his self pity and...

his heartbreak,

Many things in his life change

and you will see wonderful things happen to a human being,

because some things happen that make him

think about others besides himself.

And that's all I'm going to tell you.

Hey, Jeanne. Yes.

What would you like me to do, darling?

I don't know. What do you want to do?

You want some tea?

Yeah, Jeanne will get it.

I mean, how do you want to -- How do you want to do this?

Like here.

Let's see.

Yeah.

Nat Wachsberger is the producer.

When he came to me and said this was something

he really believed in, it reignited my excitement.

I am going to have a meeting with Jeanne Moreau

in Paris a week from tomorrow.

It's about the role of the clown's wife.

But I don't know if that's a possibility.

I'm only going to meet with her.

Nat Wachsberger got hold of this script

and heard from Jerry Lewis that he wanted to do this movie.

And Jerry Lewis rewrote the script

during the nights, and so on.

During the script writing and the preparations,

and before he had his final script,

he was typing from the time

he woke up until the time he went to bed.

He had read the story, uh,

at least ten years before he made the film.

The shooting had started in Paris and in Stockholm,

and I think, from the start,

Jerry Lewis was very happy to be involved in this project.

And he thought, this is going to be a great, great movie

and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Everything was very, very nice.

But then came this abrupt stop of it all,

when Jerry Lewis just left the whole shooting

and went home to America

and never to be seen in Sweden again.

It's very hard to understand.

So something is rotten in this state of Sweden,

at least in this part.

Gerard, I'm going to a 25 on eighth.

25 millimeter. Take 15 off for this shot.

25.

One day, I get a call from Ed Mauricia,

who was a famous photographer,

and he called me to ask me

if I would consider being assistant of Jerry Lewis

for a bunch of weeks in Paris.

I couldn't imagine that it was true.

Assisting Jerry Lewis in the circus

where the filming started was the connection

between dreams and reality.

It was a big crew. There were several cameras.

It was an American picture.

So for us in France, American films,

I mean, it's Hollywood.

This circus was very convenient.

It was right by the French studio.

I went two blocks. I was in the circus.

And they gave me carte blanche.

Anything I wanted to do -- fliers, comics, animals.

They gave me everything I needed.

All I had to do was to point.

Got it.

This guy is different.

You know, he's different from everybody I've met.

And in the meantime, focused in his thing.

It was mesmerizing.

I'll give it my blood.

But Nat has to be made aware of a few facts

that I believe he is overlooking.

Each man works differently.

And in my case,

I have been on this project eight months to date,

and I loved every minute of it.

But when a man supposedly concerned with this project

refers to a deal because of an extra plane fare,

I'm not about to do a sales job on any of my people.

The indignity Nat Wachsberger

and one plane fare has really taken its toll,

calling Nat over the words and not reaching him

and trying and trying, etc.

The costs and my manpower

that I've put at the disposal of this project

to date has run into a literal fortune.

Watching the man telling me they are pressuring me.

"Jean-Jacques, you do not know.

I spent half of the night dealing with the producers,

and they are pushing me to the limits."

He... I don't think he allowed himself

to let this in under his skin during the shootings.

But if you know that guy is put under very tough pressure,

it's almost impossible to get rid of it.

No.

You were me,

what would you do?

What would you --

No, what would you do?

Scale. Scene. Go.

What would you do?

What would you do?

Now, proceed.

Now, if you were me,

what would you do?

You're going up too soon. What would -- together.

What would you do?

What would you do?

Now, if you were me, what would you do?

If I were you, I clean house.

Would you take the chance tomorrow night,

with an opening audience of 2,000 people,

would you take the chance of having an incompetent

destroy an entire performance?

I heard enough.

This is final. I don't want this man.

Get me another stooge.

Don't get excited, mister.

Pierre...

My dearest friend in the world.

He was the --

He was France's Charlie Chaplin.

He was wonderful.

Wachsberger hired French actors and technicians,

purchased raw stock from France,

shoot in French language,

and use a French production staff.

While we were shooting in Paris, we found out,

but not through Wachsberger,

that the French government's seal had never been obtained,

which meant that we were, in essence,

making an underground film.

I care about the money a man puts up,

and still I make a film with love, fun, harmony

and have a ball and still come in on budget.

Jack, if Nat doesn't really have faith in my ability,

judgment, concern for the film,

and if he is uncertain about how I perform my responsibilities,

then maybe we better get out now.

Okay, so that we're only on you now

because they're all out of the show.

With Mike? With Mike.

Okay, so that you then can

wait for the clowns to make the west corn--

And the next...

And then from here.

Ladies and gentlemen, Gustav, whatever.

I could sense his reluctance,

although he was here to finally make the movie

that he had hesitated to do for --

for -- for some -- several years.

I remember him saying that to play this character

scared the hell out of him.

And from himself,

he knew about the loneliness of the character of Helmut

and the angst and the desperation,

but also knowing that playing this character would be

the greatest challenge of his, uh, artistic, uh, career.

Man, as we know him, gets to a place in his life

where his own thoughts are challenging him.

Those thoughts are much better than what he said

and what she said and what he said and what they said.

The challenge is to do what you believe

and do it with your full heart and soul,

even knowing it's not wonderful,

but it's the best you can do at the time.

It's just...

I have nowhere to explode.

I feel so lost.

So alone.

I just can't

handle the pain of being a has-been.

Harriet Anderson, my God, she was spectacular.

And it made me feel so good to have her saying my words,

taking my direction.

It was wonderful.

Is it Gustav again?

When will you learn he's afraid of you

and he knows how vulnerable you are now?

He wants to beat you down.

Then he won't need to worry

about you coming back to haunt him.

Gustav worry about me?

Tsk.

He's a star.

I'm a stooge.

And he just took the last bit I had away from me

because of a stupid accident.

But he can't take your talent away.

That's what makes you strong.

What the hell are you talking about?

What talent?

You mean the talent I had? That's gone.

I am now nothing but a prop

to be used and reused.

You call that strong?

How do I rise above that?

By not quitting. Ahh!

You got to fight.

You got to fight because you're an artist.

Human being.

Go to him.

Make him listen to you.

Make him see the injustice

and don't let Gustav win.

Oh, please, Helmut.

Fight.

Make our world better by fighting for it.

You can do it.

I know you can.

I talked to Sweden's most famous film director -- Bergman.

I called him about the actors and actresses.

We didn't talk about the film itself.

I talked about casting and the actors and actresses I needed.

Will they understand my heart?

And I didn't necessarily know their work,

but I knew what this said to me.

Then I would talk to them, see where it's coming from.

That's it.

Klaus...

Again.

It's your funeral.

Aren't funerals usually in autumn

when someone dies?

To you, my Fuehrer.

A better dressed version than Herr Schmidt.

Here's to you both.

Heil Hitler and Schmidt.

Helmut.

Helmut.

Get him out of here.

If the film would have been on the screen in the '70s,

this would have been a unique film

and the first in a series of films about the Holocaust

that came much, much later.

Uh, the fictional series, uh, uh, "Holocaust,"

starring Meryl Streep did not appear until 1978

and caused quite a stir,

especially in Germany.

And the -- the world-famous documentary film "Shoah"

by Claude Lanzmann was not released until 1985.

Jerry Lewis played a non-Jewish German hero already in 1972,

way before "Schindler's List."

He really was a pioneer in that.

Well, he was he was completely stepping into an area

that, uh, was, uh, hmm.

Uh, use the word taboo, I guess.

But the point is that no one had gone there before,

or at least in the -- to the heart of it.

You were shooting off your big mouth last night

in a public place, attacking the state.

But that -- that was a mistake,

I-I meant no disrespect.

I -- I mean, I was, uh...

I was drunk, and, uh,

I was not responsible for my actions.

After all, it's, uh,

it's only a fair question, isn't it?

So I'm, uh, I'm going to repeat it again.

Why are you not responsible?

Why?

Why?

Why are you not responsible?

Why are you not responsible?

Answer me!

Because I'm frightened!

Do you understand that, Lieutenant?!

You frighten me!

I have butterflies in here before a show.

I even felt like I would spit up my guts from being nervous.

But I cannot ever remember being frightened!

Alright, you're dismissed.

That's all.

I-I can go?

Thank you.

Thank you, Lieutenant.

I will go and you will never have any more trouble with me.

I-I knew if you heard the truth,

everything would be alright.

Corporal.

Potentially very dangerous. Prison.

Prison, sir?

Yes. Of course.

I went to Germany.

We were looking for props and symbols

that we have to use in the film.

We found it very difficult.

I believe the history was too close of what had happened.

So we had to search and -- and only reluctantly

did people let us open their boxes.

I did it all. I was in Belsen for nine days.

Don't even ask me about it.

Belsen. Dachau. Auschwitz.

I did almost 11 months' preparation

before I started to shoot.

And I'd been all over Europe before I got ready.

I'm a very proud Jew. Proud to be one.

Happy that I'm one and my religion is in my heart

because I feel not only for my people, but for all people.

And yet my ears were open. My mind was open.

My stomach was open to what the Germans had to say.

They were in the same boat I was.

They had the same pain, the same hate,

the same uncertainty about what Hitler was doing to the country.

The saddest thing about the Germans

was that they were in the dark about everything.

They didn't know anything that was going on.

And when they did, they put it out of their mind.

I had as my technical advisor a wonderful man

Karl Schepp -- S-C-H-E-P-P.

He worked for Hitler

and was part of the SS that pulled the switch

that let the gas come into the ovens.

So he was busy killing people every day.

4,000, 8,000, 7,000.

And when he came to see me for the job,

we talked for 15 hours.

He came to my office at noon.

We were still talking at 3:00 in the morning.

And I hired him.

He was always begging for forgiveness.

I said, "Karl, you didn't do anything wrong.

You did what you were told to do.

That's it.

Because if you didn't do it,

you'd be in the same place they were."

A lot of people understood that.

We hated it, but we understood it.

The fact that Jerry used as a consultant

a former prison camp guard,

I only see as a sign of Jerry's ambition

to make things as real as possible

as they were in a concentration camp.

I'm not voting for death penalty,

but some persons are sort of not humans any longer.

They -- Some of them --

Some of the people during this period turned to rats

and should be treated like that.

He was a human being. He was just like me.

But he worked based on what they were teaching him to do.

During the shooting,

I had great problems with my business at home.

You pay, pay, pay.

The numbers just got bigger.

Jerry Lewis mini cinemas.

Well, I got all my money in it.

Am I involved? My God.

That one is known of putting everything on the line.

A lot of people think I only lend my name to it.

I did, but I also lent all of my money to it.

We were gonna build 700 theaters in 5 years.

That was our projection.

We are now projecting 4,000 in 5 years.

I went crazy a couple of times.

Thank God it didn't stay with me.

I'm normal now.

The most glaring flaw was the very concept

that anyone can own a theater

and operate it with minimal effort.

As with far too many get-rich schemes,

all of the involved parties have been blinded by their fantasies.

Most franchisees entered into the venture

without the skills or experience

to properly operate their theaters.

Lewis and company failed to adequately prepare

or support their primarily inexperienced cinema owners.

It was like dying because you lost your power of thinking

and you lost your own money.

And to try to explain that stupidity, I can't.

And because of the problems that the production had,

your whole mindset changes when the outcome of work

isn't what you expected.

When Nat talks to me,

he's precious and perfect with love and care and dignity.

But when he writes a letter, he makes me feel like a whore

he picked up at a film festival in Tijuana.

Does he know what I'm giving up to do this film?

This is a pre-production book on this film,

"The Day the Clown Cried."

I could direct 10 movies of the week in far less time,

be home with my family

and make a piss pot of loot besides.

I want to make this film for the right price,

but not the price of the project.

Anyone can grind out film.

This one has my name on it and my life as well.

Doesn't he know that?

We were 10 days away from finished the shoot

when the producer, ah,

from France and his Swedish counterpart turned up

and there was a conflict.

So as situation for me was that up here,

I had a feeling that something is wrong.

Something is really wrong.

I was holding the crew and the actors down,

uh, waiting for what was going to come out of the meeting.

Then I saw them just leaving.

Jerry was devastated.

I saw a broken man.

He just fell apart getting back to the house

where we were staying.

And as I remember, he --

he just went to his room

and I didn't see him until the next morning.

A man just leaving the project.

You know, I never had that happen before.

It's beyond frustration. Beyond frus--

It's crushing. Crushing,

you know, how he kept going after that.

The main producer, Nat Wachsberger,

let the whole project down, including my father,

and I think that my father had to carry a very heavy load

during the filming in Sweden, because he was the man

who had signed a contract with the actors and he was around.

So of course it was a very heavy burden on his shoulders.

And it's not about Nat Wachsberger as a person.

It's about the producer. It could have been anybody,

but he has to take care of his business

and obviously he didn't.

I made a big mistake when I didn't listen to you.

You were right about Nat Wachsberger.

Only that it was much worse than you predicted.

I'm sorry we had some differences,

but I'm writing this letter just to tell you that you were right.

And -- And I was wrong.

Never in my life, I have met the type like Nat

and I don't think there is one word true that comes out of him.

Can I see Larsa?

Jerry Lewis had to keep up a brave face

and continue. -Forward! March!

Whatever Nat Wachsberger did, they had to keep on shooting.

Jerry and my father and the actors

and all the technical, uh, crew.

There was this very high tension combined with,

I mean, the drama that was going on behind the scenes.

So to say it only increased our dedication and love

for doing what we were doing.

You are going to make us laugh

or I'll splatter you all over the yard!

Alright, alright!

You get paid for that?

Going without food is bad enough.

Having to watch that, no thanks.

You're not the clown I saw.

I am a clown!

I...

Come back! Damn you!

Come back and listen!

Listen to the children laughing! I am a clown!

Yeah, I think that is better.

That's much better.

Yeah, I think they'll like that.

Did you hear them laugh?

I mean, did you hear them laughing and reacting?

Yes, I did.

And they said I couldn't come up with anything new.

They? Who are they? Well, the circus.

You know, Schmidt and all the others.

I mean, if they could see me now.

I really felt funny again.

It was funny, wasn't it?

The children certainly enjoyed it.

Well, like I said, all I needed was time.

A man needs time to concentrate.

And I've really come up

with some terrific ideas, Johann.

I really think that's gonna work.

You're right.

Then came this abrupt stop of it all,

when Jerry Lewis took the last two or three film reels

and just left the whole, uh, shooting.

When we shoot the last days of the film,

we reload our cameras,

and Jerry Lewis took the can with the exposed film with him

when he went to Los Angeles

and process -- process it there.

Very strange.

And it's just, uh, like in a Greek drama,

if he's the hero or the villain, it's hard to tell,

but it's even harder to tell of his motives for doing that.

Was a huge, fantastic, big shooting in a film,

and it ended up on a shelf

at the Rapa Films Studios here in Stockholm.

And so Rapa Film,

who provided the studios and all the technical equipment,

they didn't get all the money from Nat Wachsberger.

And then the raw material

was kept by Europa Film.

Uh, they went bankrupt anyway some years later,

and they kept the raw material somewhere

in their film laboratories.

They -- They hope to use to keep that one to

to pressure the producer of money,

but it didn't help.

I had a friend who was working with me

and I convinced him to help me.

So I told Cal that we should do this,

and he said, "Okay, are you sure?"

I said, "Yeah, if we don't do this,

I'm sure it's going to be lost."

And over the weekend, I think it was a Friday, Saturday,

Sunday night with a lot of pizza and beer,

we took all the nine rolls and we transfer them to one inch.

Rapa Film in the '70s by night were copying pornographic films.

You got to bear in mind

that this was in the absolute beginning of VHS cassettes.

We were talking really, really first couple of years

and of course, the porno market exploded from out of nowhere,

so the bosses didn't want Rapa Film to --

to promote that we were doing pornographic copies.

So they took it to night shift.

All pornographic movies were copied

from like 9:00 in the evening till 4:00 in the morning.

So in all the monitors in the machine room,

we screened the pornographic movies,

but in the background, we were transferring Jerry's films.

This is true.

So in case somebody would walk in,

it would be pornographic instead of something else.

My friend and I did this,

and we have never talked to anybody about it,

which is interesting because secrets are hard to keep.

And, um...

uh, to my knowledge, nobody else knows about this.

Now fewer -- More and more people will know about it,

but it's -- it rested very well where it was hidden.

-Hi, Jack. -Hello, Jerry.

Hi, Ed. How are you? Hi, folks!

Hi, Johnny.

At that time, he was pretending

that everything went according to plan.

He thought very highly of the production,

at least in his public statements.

He would go on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,"

and he'd start telling these stories to Johnny.

You've been shooting a picture in Sweden?

Yes. That's right.

Yes, I completed the film in Sweden.

I'm in the process of cutting it now.

And hopefully we'll release it in the spring.

Of this year? Yes.

Of this year.

The spring of this year?

Yes.

I better hurry and finish the last reel, wouldn't you think?

It's a marvelous film.

Although the whole drama almost ripped his heart out,

he didn't want to give up.

He still wanted to finish the film,

which was very difficult

because he would have to reshoot

or add a few sequences.

"The Day the Clown Cried" will be finish--

I hopefully will finish cutting it

the next six or seven weeks.

And we've been invited to the Cannes Film Festival,

so I think we will open it then in May.

Then it'll be released in America.

And then all of a sudden,

having to find out that the rights to make the film

on this story was not secured.

I think that would kill anybody.

It's very hard for me to understand

that Nat Wachsberger had the option on the script.

The shooting had started in Paris and in Stockholm

and without anybody knowing it,

his option expired and he didn't pay the authors.

And he obviously didn't tell Jerry Lewis or my father.

In America and also in Europe,

you never, ever, ever go on a project

without "secularizing" the chain of rights.

Otherwise, you're not a producer.

You are a criminal. I mean, you should go to jail.

It's absurd. Absurd.

Unless you want to kill somebody.

My producer let me down.

And it's hard to find words

to express my feelings when I think about what happened.

But still, I was simply not allowed to run away.

You can't commit to something like this

and just walk away from it.

But I did.

The only reason is

I was ashamed of it for the lack of a better word.

Ashamed. Embarrassed.

Why?

Because it was not good work.

It was bad work on the part of the writer,

the director, the actor.

None of his work was any good.

Well, if you're a good filmmaker,

you're entitled to make a mistake.

You're entitled to do bad work.

If you lost your --

If you lost your power of thinking

and committing all of these marvelous thoughts to the work,

it's not gonna be good work.

When I came back,

I watched the footage I brought from Sweden

and sat down to look at what I've done,

and the last time I did that was the last time

I looked and only I could see it.

I had people in my company that were saying, "It's wonderful."

I say, "You don't know what the hell you're talking about."

It's not wonderful.

It's almost wonderful!

Almost is not there.

Almost is not good enough.

It's got to be right there, perfect.

I cannot imagine that it was so bad

because I saw the pictures and I saw the footage.

So don't you think that you --

your judgment on yourself is maybe too hard?

Maybe. Maybe.

But I've got the only judgment that means anything.

That would never change my opinion of the work.

Someone will say, "That was wonderful."

And I look at them, "Thank you" and I move on.

Peek.

What is that supposed to be?

What is that supposed to be?

Well, uh, you see, sir,

one of the prisoners used to be a circus clown.

Sometimes he gives a sort of show for the children.

A show for the children.

You mean the Jews?

Well, I was in the middle

of one of the roughest shooting days,

and I was staging a scene

where I was using 200 some prisoners

in the concentration camp.

Now, this is your newest movie.

"The Day the Clown Cried." "The Day the Clown Cried."

Yeah, I do know about the film.

I was really having a difficult time, uh,

getting it the way I wanted it.

And I was dealing with, uh,

Swedish actors who did not speak English,

and I had to work with a translator.

And still I was quite disappointed

about the way the actors spoke.

I should have known that you all

have much too much energy for the confined life you lead here!

We are going to correct that!

All rations are canceled for the next 48 hours!

You shouldn't get Swedish actors

try to speak like German officers.

It's terrible.

I mean, oh.

The Germans always speak like this.

And they had the highest-pitch voice.

Heil, Hitler...

Because that's the way we're supposed to believe

movie Germans.

I love movie Germans,

but I hate Swedes who are trying to play movie Germans.

That's sad.

And it's rude against Germans, I think.

Shoot.

I remember one scene where I, as an SS officer,

should show feelings.

That's all. Show's over. Everybody clear out.

Get inside.

But for me, that was simply not realistic.

And, you know, far from reality.

I think he -- he put a little bit too much

of emotion into the part.

Can I just ask you --

Do like I tell you, get inside.

I don't understand. What happened?

You know the rules.

No mixing with the Jews.

But I wasn't mixing.

The Jews?

They're children.

Listen.

I don't give the orders.

Now do as I tell you

and save yourself a lot of grief.

Get inside.

Probably he wanted me to show another side of this officer,

that he also was a bit human

when he saw these children and everything.

What happened?

He said I have to stop with the children.

I have been expecting it.

Because they're Jews.

No. Because of the laughing.

Why should that bother them?

When you rule by fear,

laughter is the most frightening sound in the world.

He was very, um, courageous with what he was doing,

but above all,

to -- to make children happy with the film

was the most important matter for him.

He also wanted to make the film for them, for the children.

Can you imagine?

He wanted to make children laugh with this film,

which was quite absurd.

He was playing a clown,

but he didn't know when the kids would be laughing,

that he -- he's a part of their, um, their death.

Stay behind the man

and keep an eye out for the guards on the other side.

Right.

Then make it quick. They won't have much time.

Oh, one thing more. Keep the children quiet.

We don't want trouble.

Do a trick, Helmet. Do a trick, Helmet.

Please. Please.

I can't. Uh, the guards won't let me.

Not now. Maybe another day.

They are bad men.

Yes, sweetheart. They're bad men.

Do a trick, Helmet. Please.

I-I really can't right now, honestly.

-Just one, Helmut. -Just one.

Just one. Just one.

Okay.

Helmut, hurry up!

Yeah, okay.

I was playing France,

the youngest prisoner who was killed

because he wanted to help Helmet the Clown.

The scenes Jerry played were slapstick

and often simply exaggerated.

Rarely funny.

This is -- This is too much.

I was the comedian king of comedy

doing such what he's doing.

It's not a comedy. He's not being funny at all.

It's a totally serious piece of work.

That's the problem.

Um, Jerry Lewis's gift, such as it is, is in comedy,

and, uh, it is so heavy handed.

So, um...

uh, as the English say, over-egged.

Um, that's what makes it so hard to take.

Get up!

You wouldn't listen, would you?

Come on, get back! You back there!

Get them out of here!

It wasn't their fault. It was all my doing.

The children. Not in front of the children.

I had great crew.

They thought I was nuts because I hated everything I did.

This must have been a very hard time

because you could have also said, "Look,

the company doesn't pay.

I don't want to end the film."

Why did you want to end the film?

When you get that answer, you can rule the world.

The answer to what you're talking about.

You could be the president and the king of the world.

Yes, I understand perfectly.

However, I don't see how he can be held responsible.

Oh, no. Our orders were very clear.

We were to have the car ready to be picked up at midnight.

Yes. Yeah.

Of course, I am aware that the operation --

That the operation must be kept secret.

Yes, General. You can leave it in my hands.

Heil...Hitler.

-Sir. -Yes?

I think I have the perfect method.

You think you have a perfect method?

The clown.

Clown. What clown?

The one who makes the children laugh.

Could we use him?

So Jerry went immediately to contact the author

of the -- of the novel.

He tried to get back the rights of the original story,

and when he showed the sequences to the author,

she didn't like it.

She didn't like what she saw.

She said, "I don't like the film.

I don't want to give you more time."

Then it was like the -- I mean,

the whole thing was just buried and dead.

Of course, one can blame the producer,

but still, I didn't want to go against him.

At the end, I blame myself more than him

because I hated everything I did.

The love I had for the work

was completely reverse of what I believe it is now.

Bad work.

Just after this chaotic situation, Europa Film

were hoping Jerry Lewis would come up with money

and pay his way out, of course, but he didn't.

Why should he do it?

He didn't see any sense of doing it

because he didn't own the rights for the story.

They thought, "Okay, let's keep it and have him begging for it

and pay a lot of money for it."

Eventually they found that nobody was begging for it.

They wanted to have money or nothing at all

or just throw it away, so to speak.

Can you imagine what is a film

in the life of a director?

I mean, it's a tragedy. It's -- it's a tragedy.

It's like you --

you -- you -- you lose the manuscript of a novel.

It's not only that "The Day the Clown Cried"

is not achieved, but unreleased.

I mean, this film is concealed.

It's the worst thing you can have because you never know.

It's like you're -- you go to a trial, I mean,

in court, and there is no judgment ever.

You cannot say I am guilty or not guilty.

You've -- you've lost your part of your honor.

How -- How long have they been here?

In there?

Get inside and keep them quiet.

Listen.

You do a good job, and I'll personally see to it

that you get a favorable decision on your case.

Understand?

Yes, sir.

So this is where you've been hiding.

It's Helmut! It is!

It is!

Helmet! Helmet!

Come on! Come on, come on!

I'm so happy to see you all.

Oh, okay. Okay.

The biggest challenge was to just walk on the set

and make it,

because you're dealing in touching people's hearts.

The minute I woke up with a happy heart, it went away.

I never could bring a happy heart to the set.

And I'm one of those performers that has to have a happy heart

or I'm not gonna be funny.

When I say, "Roll 'em,"

I think of thousands of children that are gonna be laughing.

There's certain subject matter

once you start to put yourself into it,

particularly being so personal,

it's almost horror

to such an extent that you can't --

You can't live in it.

He's got to live in that. You know, how can he absorb it?

-What is it? -Are we there, Helmut?

-Where are we? -Why are we stopping, Helmut?

Everybody up and no noise.

And let's get going.

Okay, sir.

Alright. Get in the truck.

It's alright. Come on.

You think the subject Holocaust was too high for you?

Well, some things are not --

not necessarily too high, but they get convoluted.

They get confusing.

That means that the filmmaker hasn't got it right.

If he can leave your audience with his film

and they go, "What was that?"

He didn't pull it off.

Now we want you to, uh...

to lead the children quietly to, uh...

to that building over there.

Oh, God, not the children.

It isn't like killing the enemy in battle.

It's far more humane.

Enemy?

Humane?

They're babies. They're just babies!

Why?

We are fighting tomorrow's battles now,

and we are sure to win.

Fight battles against children?

Yes.

Oh, yes, of course.

For the adult mind can be induced

to do anything, like forgetting.

The children remember everything.

Now, we don't want them, uh, growing up remembering

and, uh, maybe one day turning on us, do we?

When you think about this work

and you analyze what the problem could be,

what do you think was the problem?

What happened 40 years ago?

I-I thought about it a thousand times.

And it's a hell of a question.

And the thousand times I thought about it was,

where was the comedy

in walking 65 children into the oven?

Jews that were just gassed.

Where's the comedy?

You can find it.

If your head is right and if your system is clean,

you can find the comedy.

You can find the comedy in a funeral.

You have to concentrate on it.

You have to be sure that you understand

that this doesn't diminish what happened.

The laughter will put a button on it.

I can't, I won't!

Not even to save your life?

I thought you would reconsider.

General.

I wonder if I could possibly have

a little time with them.

I'd like to do something for them.

Yes, of course.

I'll give you half an hour. Hmm?

It's Helmut!

Helmut!

Helmut! You're back!

Clown. It's time.

Just a few more minutes?

What's wrong now, Helmut?

Where are we going this time?

We're just, uh...

We're just going to another building, that's all.

Where we'll have more room to play, see?

Now, I would like you all

to line up behind me, okay?

Those children followed me around, like --

like the Pied Piper.

They were wonderful.

You had to have children that were quiet, soft,

and then, of course, you never, ever saw them get frightened

because I led them into the oven

and then just closed the door.

Okay.

There isn't a day in my life when I don't think of it.

Somewhere in the day, I'll think of it

and just get it out of my mind.

I remember

walking 65 children into the oven.

It was very hard.

Very hard.

And the looks of the faces of those children

drove me to the highest point of great work.

But that great work didn't fit in with the bad work.

In this case, I have struck out --

you know the expression "struck out"?

Maybe 20 times in that film I fell apart.

Something that was very, very much against humanity

happens over here.

And you're gonna bring it over there

because it becomes part of your wardrobe.

And until you recognize that's the probability of it,

you can get in terrible trouble.

You can become much too interested

in what you think and what you do,

because a filmmaker has to live

by messages he gets through the work.

I've been depressed for a long time.

If you do a terrible thing, everything gets caught up in it

and it's all terrible.

I was so emotionally shattered by the breakup

that everything else broke up.

And when it happens once for a performer,

there's no way he will ever forget that

for as long as he lives.

Clown. It's time.

Why are you not responsible?

Help!

Walk forward!

The commandant issues the following special order.

A show for the children?

You mean the Jews?

We are fighting tomorrow's battles now,

and we are sure to win.

Ruled by fear,

laughter is the most frightening sound in the world.

It's damage to his soul,

and I think he had to simply face it and say,

you know, "Okay, I accept that I failed."

And I think that's the only way he can get through it.

There is a term like heartbreak

where you do feel it in your heart.

You do feel the pain, and you feel it

in your physical makeup, your body, you know.

It's very, very real.

It's very real, the pain of this sort of thing,

and it's -- I don't know how many people come out of it.

You certainly don't come out -- you don't come out of it whole,

I can tell you that. Part of your life is gone.

Part of your -- part of who you are is gone.

You know, it's been destroyed.

Some of that, as he says, could be his own fault, you follow?

That makes it even more interesting and harder in a way.

But he came through. He came through again.

When I saw the film, slowly, I said,

"I was aware of this. What the story is about.

My God, it looks like Jerry's film."

I'm sure he felt that way

when Benigni came out with "Life Is Beautiful,"

you know, 15 years later and won an Oscar.

To make a comedy

about a concentration camp

and avoid what really went on there --

well, it's a great trick, but it's --

I mean, it's absolutely ludicrous.

I thought he did a wonderful job.

He's a good comedian.

"The Day the Clown Cried." Oh, God, yes.

Oh, I just didn't pull it off.

That happens. It happens to all of us.

See, I like a film with a puppy dog,

a little child,

and a bowl of orange soda,

and I would be a happy man.

Jerry, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Eric.

Someone will hear this interview and say,

"I don't want to be in the movie business."

After "The Day the Clown Cried,"

I wasn't part of a film for 11 years.

And then "The King of Comedy" brought me back to life.

I mean, that was as dramatic as I've ever had to be.

Well, it's a great compliment

because I always wanted him to be happy with it.

And -- And I'm glad that he lived long enough

to know the appreciation

that the picture's received around the world.

Every facet of show business is based on this guy,

and so he has to be the king of comedy in the film.

Robert De Niro,

Jerry Lewis

in a Martin Scorsese picture,

"The King of Comedy."

I would laugh so much on the set

that I'd get an asthma attack.

He'd say, "Somebody get a goddamn ambulance.

Get this guy outta here."