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The Day the Clown Cried, the 1972 Jerry Lewis World War II (WWII) Nazi Germany concentration camp persecution-of-Jews clown melodrama (about a non-Jewish German circus clown at the start of World War II; he gets drunk and criticizes the Nazis and is put in a camp for political prisoners; he brags to the other prisoners that he was once a famous circus clown, and they ask to see his performance, and he is terrible, but Jewish children temporarily in the camp see him and laugh at him, and he is thrilled to have an audience; he starts performing for the children, and he is told he can't do that, and he is beaten, and he is used to be a "Judas goat" who leads children into the gas chambers, because they will willingly follow him; he is so filled with remorse that he stays with the children in the gas chamber, as the movie ends) starring Jerry Lewis (in the title role as the Clown, Helmut Doork), Peter Ahlm, Lars Amble, Harriet Andersson, and Jonas Bergstrom. Note that this is a legendary movie. A writer named Joan O'Brien came up with the story around 1962, and it was apparently called "Clown" at that time, and she may have written a script herself in 1967, or perhaps she hired a German screenwriter named Peter Berneis to write the script from her story (which may have become "The Day the Clown Cried", and then reverted back to "The Clown" based on a script of this screenplay we have seen), but we can find no reference to his involvement on the Internet. We have seen a hand-typed script that is from 1967 that has extensive corrections and changes on it, and we suspect that O'Brien typed the script herself and then Berneis is the one who extensively edited it, but we can't say for sure. Apparently, this script went nowhere, and O'Brien hired a writer named Richard Eamer to give his opinion of how to improve the script. Joan O'Brien next co-wrote a new script with Charles Denton, and it was now called "The Day the Clown Cried". At some point after that, Loel Minardi made revisions to the script by O'Brien and Denton. Filming on it finally started in 1972, but it was a troubled production, both because the producer did not have sufficient funds, and also because Joan O'Brien was not happy with the changes to her story, most notably because in her original story, the central character was an arrogant self-centered man, but Lewis had changed him into a more sympathetic character, and that the ending was intended to show his redemption, but that was not what she (or the others who worked on the script with her) had intended. There were lawsuits, and the movie, which had been completed, was never publicly shown. In 1992, Jerry Lewis said "You will never see it. No one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed by the poor work." However, over the years since, Lewis has shown the film to a select few people, including the comedian Harry Shearer, and there are varying reports as to the quality of the movie. Very recently, a few clips from the movie have been put onto YouTube, and there is talk that the movie will finally be released, over 40 years after it was made! Is it one of the worst movies ever made, or Jerry Lewis' "Citizen Kane"? We will know when everyone finally gets to see it.
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Important Added Info: Note that in September of 2015, we auctioned a set of 3 early scripts from this never released movie. We thought that that was everything we could ever hope to find from the movie, but our consignor discovered he had more material, which was not auctioned in that set of 3 scripts in 2015! What is this additional material? There are six different items! First, and most important, is an unbound script from 6/12/67. The title that was typed on the script is "THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED", but that has been crossed out and "CLOWN" has been written above it. The script contains 77 numbered pages (each is numbered with a typewritten number in the top right corner) and they are not bound, but the last page ends with "THE END", so it is complete. There is no author credited, and we suspect that O'Brien (the original writer of the story) typed this script, but we can't say for sure. There are a massive number of corrections and changes on all the pages and pages 46 through 56, plus 60 through 66, and 69 through 77 are all printed on a different paper, indicating that they were almost surely changed from the original script and are "revision pages" (and we suspect all the changes are by Peter Berneis, but we can't say for sure), and the yellow pages also have a great number of changes and corrections on them. Second is 4 pages that are dated 6/6/67, and two of them are stapled in the corner. They give the names of the characters from the script described above and the pages on which they first appear, and all four pages are entirely handwritten. Third is a 13-page stapled "new story ideas and outline" by Peter Berneis dated 7/23/67, and in these ideas includes the idea of making Karl more arrogant and more self-centered, and also eliminating the concentration camp background altogether. Fourth is three typewritten yellow sheets that are paper clipped together and a duplicated set of three sheets that are dated 8/8/67. They contain "Notes on CLOWN STORY as outlined by Richard Eamer". They give his criticisms of the script, most especially that of the character "Karl" (the clown), and he find shim "neither lovable nor hateful and uninteresting". Reading what is written, it is clear that he is commenting on a revised version of the script, but he doesn't say which one. Fifth is a "synopsis of new story idea of 'Clown'", which consists of 52 typed pages that are clipped together, and it drastically changes the plot of the movie, including the ending, but because it is undated, we are not sure where it fits in with the above items. Sixth, and finally, is a 1-page undated synopsis of the story of the movie, which seems likely to have been written at the time of the revision pages of the 6/12/67 script described above, because it is on the same yellow paper with the same significant corrections. Together with all of the above is an envelope that contained all the material, and written on the flap is "CLOWN" and "Peter Berneis"! Note that this is a script for a screenplay that was sent to agent Paul Kohner (see below), and it is 100% certainly an original script that was created at the time we indicate above, and it is NOT any sort of copy or later creation. The person who purchases this script is solely purchasing the script itself, and NOT any right to reproduce it in any way, or publish it. This script comes from the estate of Paul Kohner, who had a remarkable life! Kohner was born in Czechoslovakia in 1902, and he was a journalist working at his father's newspaper. He came to Hollywood after interviewing Carl Laemmle, who gave him a job as a publicity man. He became the head of Universal's European department in Berlin, and returned to the U.S. in the early 1930s, and left Universal in 1938, becoming a publicity agent. Among his clients were some of the greatest film stars ever, including Greta Garbo, Ingrid Bergman, and also great directors such as John Huston and Billy Wilder. He had close personal friendships with many of his clients, and he saved every bit of correspondence and paper work from his agency! He was married to actress Lupita Tovar from 1932 until his death in 1988. Amazingly, after his death, few institutions showed interest in his immense files, and only a small amount ended up being saved, with a lot literally thrown away! Our consignor purchased the item offered here from Mr. Kohner's estate in 1989, and he has held it until now, when he has consigned several items from Mr. Kohner's estate to eMoviePoster.com, and each item is being auctioned separately.

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