Details

Release year: 1972

Storyline

A circus clown is imprisoned by the Nazis and goes with Jewish children to their deaths.

Top credits

Directors

Jerry Lewis

Writers

Cast

Jerry Lewis — Helmut Doork
Harriet Andersson — Ada Doork
Anton Diffring — Captain Curt Runkel
Ulf Palme — Johann Keltner

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Did you know

• In 2008 Jerry Lewis took questions at a press conference and was asked by one person: "When are you going to release 'The Day the Clown Cried'?" to which Lewis snapped, "None of your goddamn business!"

• Jerry Lewis had the only copy locked in a private vault and vowed to keep it from ever being viewed again. However, according to an article in the 8/26/15 issue of the "Los Angeles Times", he allowed this film--along with some of his other movies--to be preserved at the Library of Congress, but part of the deal was that the film would not be screened there until 2024 (as it turned out, this would make its first showing several years after Lewis' death in 2017). The Library of Congress also released a statement that it hadn't decided its specific screening plans, but would neither share the film for viewing with other government facilities nor release it for any kind of home media.

• In order to lose weight for the concentration camp scenes, Jerry Lewis ate nothing but grapefruit for six weeks. He eventually dropped 35 pounds.