Jerry Lewis' son is on '30-year quest' for star's lost Holocaust film

Jerry Lewis’ son, Chris Lewis, has been searching for his late father’s most controversial film — one that never saw the light of day in its entirety.

In 1972, the comedian left Hollywood for Europe to write, direct and star in "The Day the Clown Cried." In it, the "Nutty Professor" star plays a circus performer who is taken in by the Nazis and winds up in a concentration camp. There, he befriends the children before leading them into the gas chamber.

The notorious film was plagued with problems, and it has never been officially released. Only small snippets of footage have made their way to the public. The behind-the-scenes debacle was chronicled in the 2024 documentary, "From Darkness to Light."

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"I have been looking for the film for the last 30 years," Chris told Fox News Digital. "It’s been a 30-year quest. And we have had some pieces found. There’s a rough cut that’s 30 minutes shy of the final version… I have made that one of my personal goals, to try to find the elements of the film and then see if we can get the rights, or find out where the rights are, and try to put them together."

Lewis passed away in 2017 at age 91. The late star, who was Jewish, is being honored at this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF). On Sunday, Chris will be present for the screening of "From Darkness to Light."

Chris said he was given his father’s blessing to embark on his search.

"My dad gave me all the production materials for the film, including his shooting scripts," he explained. "I’ve been archiving my dad’s life since the ‘70s. I’m like the keeper of the flame. I’ve read through hundreds of documents, and it was fascinating to me. But it seemed that as the decades passed, there would be a chance that the film was gone… But I’m determined to find the missing elements and put it all together."

Lewis’ problems began right from the start. The movie was first scripted by Joan O’Brien and Charles Denton, The New York Times reported. According to the outlet, the film was in production when Lewis learned that O’Brien was never paid her due. The story rights hadn’t been secured.

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In his memoir, Lewis said his producer had "skipped town" without paying for the rights and other expenses. The Times shared that Lewis struggled to close the gaps as checks bounced. Lewis said he personally lost $2 million. Due to growing lawsuits and debts, a completed film never emerged.

"It was embroiled in so many legal battles on three continents that it was just absolutely impossible to release it," said Chris. "The producer skipped town with the money, never paid the writer for the rights. It’s been said that Joan O’Brien saw the film and she hated it. That’s not true. I have a letter proving that she was in tears when she saw it. She was just a little disappointed that he didn’t use more of her dialogue."

"The film just could not be put together," Chris shared. "There were some negatives in France, some in Sweden. It was a French-Swedish co-production. The producer just torpedoed the whole thing from day one. And my dad, he could never get any of the big studios to jump in when he was trying to sell his 117-minute final cut of the film. He finally gave up in 1974 and shipped it back to Sweden."

The Times shared that Lewis retained partial negatives. He told Chris that the remainder might be somewhere in France and Sweden. Then in 2016, a 30-minute sample was leaked online. The following year, French film critic Jean-Michel Frodon claimed to Vanity Fair he saw a cut in the early 2000s.

The New York Times reported that when the Library of Congress acquired Lewis’ archives in 2015, the Los Angeles Times revealed that the library’s moving-image curator, Rob Stone, indicated that the library had whole negatives that were not to be released until 2024. 

Stone clarified that the library had only partial negatives, or 13 cans (almost 90 minutes) of unedited camera rushes without sound. There was also behind-the-scenes footage.

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Stone also said that he had been contacted by someone describing himself as a rights owner.

Chris is hopeful that "The Day the Clown Cried" will finally get an audience.

"I always see the glass as half-full versus half-empty," he said. "I’m optimistic that with the rough-cut footage that is available, if we can find any of the footage shot in France, that would allow us to at least put together something… But unfortunately, when Europa Films went out of business, they were filling dumpsters with old films that they couldn’t identify."

"My dad’s final cut may have gone in that dumpster," Chris admitted.

In his lifetime, Lewis had mixed feelings about whether the film should be viewed or not. In 2013, while at the Cannes Film Festival, Lewis said "The Day the Clown Cried" was "all bad."

"It was bad because I lost the magic," he said, as quoted by Reuters. "You will never see it, no one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work."

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But in the documentary, "From Darkness to Light," which was shot months before his death, Lewis described the "heartbreak" of not being able to finish and release the film.

"The second half of the ‘60s was not good for his career," said Chris. "The whole film industry was changing, and the studios were trying to put him in hipper sex comedies… He struggled through the end of the ‘60s."

"He had seen the original script of ‘The Day the Clown Cried,’ he said, 10 years earlier in the early ‘60s," Chris shared. "And in 1971, when it was presented to him, he thought it might be the right time in his life to do something like that. It was a very meaningful script for him and the subject matter. And more than that, he was a clown. He understood the clown from the inside out."

The plot was taboo at the time. But aspects of the story hit close to home.

"My dad was born into a vaudevillian family," Chris explained. "His parents were vaudeville entertainers. They were living the bohemian lifestyle. Therefore, my dad was left with his grandmother. 

"He described his childhood as ‘tears of loneliness.’ So the clown came out of him to be accepted, to be loved. The clown is the root of the love in his life, and all the good things came from his ability to be that clown and interpret the world and life from that point of view."

"And the humor [in the film] was for the children," Chris continued. "Comedy became their outlet. That was the warm, fuzzy blanket my dad put around himself when he could make children laugh at him."

Chris said that over the years, he tried to talk to his father about the film. He faced some resistance before Lewis eventually opened up.

"People kept pestering him so much about it," said Chris. "It became something he hated in private conversations… But when I told him about wanting to write my book [‘Jerry Lewis on Being a Person’] and wanting to tell the true stories about how felt, he thought it was a great idea. He said, ‘You’re the only one that can tell that story.’"

"I was his road manager for years… he wouldn’t answer more than two questions [about the film] and then he’d change the subject," said Chris. "But I did get quite a bit out of him over the years."

Today, Chris said there are still lessons to be learned from his father’s life.

"Laughter is very healing," he said. "I can tell you personally of stories that I’ve heard all over the world about how my dad’s humor helped people through the toughest times in their lives. He would say, ‘I was falling down and making faces. What are you talking about being important?’ I said to him, ‘You have no idea how you touched people.’"

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"He knew he was loved," Chris reflected. "He knew there was more he wanted to do. But he was very happy with what he achieved. He said, ‘I’ve done it all, and I’m happy with what I’ve done. I wouldn’t go back and do anything differently.’"