One of cinema’s most notorious films may soon be seen in its most complete form after being thought lost for 45 years.
“The Day The Clown Cried,” a 1972 film featuring comedian Jerry Lewis as Helmut Doork — a World War II-era clown ordered by Nazis to entertain kids in a concentration camp and then lead them to the gas chambers — was never officially released, and was thought to be unfinished.
However, a Swedish actor named Hans Crispin recently claimed to have stolen a version of film from the Europafilm studio in 1980, according to the AV Club.
The footage Crispin allegedly stole didn’t have the film’s first act, but then he received the first act from a former colleague who figured out Crispin had other parts of the film, according to the Sweden Herald.
Back in 2015, Lewis donated five hours of unfinished footage to the Library of Congress but stipulated it not be available for viewing until 2024.
Crispin said his full copy of the film, as well as some other original manuscripts, are locked in a bank vault for safekeeping, according to the Sweden Herald. However, he hopes his material can be added to Lewis’ Library of Congress archive.
“The Day The Clown Cried” is legendary among film fans because of its unfinished status, but people who’ve seen clips of the movie have stretched their imaginations to describe the experience.
Back in 1992, comedian Harry Shearer told radio personality Howard Stern that watching the film was like “if you flew down to Tijuana and suddenly saw a painting on black velvet of Auschwitz.″
He added, “This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. ‘Oh my God!’ — that’s all you can say.”
For a variety of reasons, including budgetary issues and squabbles over ownership, the film was never released.
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Back in 2015, Lewis expressed concerns over the film’s quality.
“It was all bad and it was bad because I lost the magic,” Lewis told reporters in 2015. “You will never see it, no one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work.”