Jerry Lewis: Another Year Older/Still Hasn’t Released Holocaust Film

It was 84 years ago today that Jerry Lewis was born in Newark, New Jersey.  In the years since, the man born Joseph Levitch, would go on to have one of the most esteemed careers in show business: from his comedy team with Dean Martin, to the brilliance of the original Nutty Professor, and his underrated role in Martin Scorsese’s 1983 film, The King of Comedy.  To call Lewis anything other than a legend, would be an understatement.  But as brilliant as much of his work is, it’s an unreleased film that Lewis wrote, directed, and starred in which is as popular a topic among film buffs as his dual roles playing the nerdy Professor Julius Kelp, and the studly Buddy Love.  The Day the Clown Cried, the 1972 film that supposedly sits in a locked vault in Lewis’ office, has Lewis playing Helmut Dorque, a German clown who performs for the Jewish children in a concentration camp. If reports are to be believed, it might be the mother of all depressing Holocaust films, but it’s also been said by Hollywood insiders who have seen the film, that it’s a masterwork of "Chaplinesque dark comedy".  If you’re thinking "sure, that’s what the world needs, another Holocaust film", we would normally agree with you. For his own personal reasons, Lewis doesn’t want the world to see the film, leading us to believe it’s either worth the hype, or a total piece of garbage.  But if we are to listen to the murmurs that have been uttered by the few who have seen it, it’s not only a major achievement for the comedic genius who’s birthday we celebrate today, but a landmark of a film that may never see the light of day.