For of those of you who haven't been weened on golden film lore, The Day the Clown Cried is one of the most highly anticipated films ever to not be released to the public. The film was a passion project for comedian turned director Jerry Lewis that proved to be a major death kneel for his career and the biggest source of his derision. Its plot revolves around a deadbeat clown who is captured and imprisoned by the Nazis during WWII and the film climaxes with an infamous ending, where Lewis' character leads a group of children into a concentration camp's "showers". Remember, this is supposed to be a wacky comedy from a man who didn't know the meaning of subtle.
Over the weekend, a YouTube user by the name "unclesporkums" was noticed for uploading a short making of documentary of the film. Taken from the Belgian website Cobra.be, where it was originally posted back on April 9, 2012(!), the video mostly consists of three gags set at a circus: a candle that refuses to light Lewis' cigarette, a paper airplane that "comically" becomes real off-screen, and a juggling act. The latter is shown raw as Lewis is constantly flummoxed by the juggling and the mis-steps of his crew. The rest of the footage shows him working behind the camera, applying his make-up, and having a soft-ball conversation about the idea of temporary music, complete with a pretentious statement of it being something passed down by Charlie Chaplin and the silent era.
This is a great find for cinephiles and may once again lead to many asking the grumpy star to finally bring the film out from the vaults.
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