Jerry Lewis’ Holocaust Documentary to Screen in Venice

Excerpt from Jerry Lewis’s unreleased Holocaust film The day the clown cried will be screened at this year’s Venice Film Festival.

From Darkness to Lighta documentary by directors Michael Lurie and Eric Friedler about Lewis’ project, features never-before-seen footage from the legendary lost film and will be screened in the Venice Classics section dedicated to film documentaries.

In 1972, the American actor and comedian directed and starred in a film telling the story of a fictional German circus performer, Helmut Doork, who insults Hitler and is sent to a concentration camp, where he is ordered to entertain Jewish children destined for the gas chambers.

But the star hid all the footage, and to this day, the full project has never been seen. Lewis himself said in 2013, “It could have been wonderful, but I made a mistake… I didn’t get it right.” Seven minutes of the film have since surfaced online, and in 2015, Lewis donated a version to the Library of Congress on the condition that Clown will not be screened until 2025. Lewis died in 2017, aged 91.

Now, a look at how the film was made and Lewis’s subsequent self-criticism will be shown in Venice, organizers confirmed as they unveiled the full lineup for this year’s 81st Venice Film Festival on Tuesday.

The day the clown cried began when publicist-turned-TV producer Joan O’Brien wrote the script with LA Examiner Television critic Charles Denton. The film was picked up by producer Nathan Wachsberger, who brought Lewis on board.

Venice opens on August 28 with the world premiere of Beetlejuice BeetlejuiceThe sequel to Tim Burton’s hit 1988 horror comedy, screened out of competition.