This is the film that Jerry Lewis buried, the story of a clown who entertained children at Auschwitz. Although there is a lot of footage in the Library of Congress, it was thought impossible to assemble the full 1972 film. It turns out that a Swedish actor named Hans Crispin stole 8/9 of it from a Europafilm archive in 1980.
All this time I have been terrified of getting caught so I have not said anything. There have been days when I have been convinced that the police are going to knock on the door.
Given that he committed many crimes to obtain it, he kept it hidden all these years. In 1990, he received an envelope containing the missing first act, the one where the clowns parade in the circus ring. He now has a complete film edited to match the final script, and finally brought it out of the closet last week, screening it for some journalists.
One reported:
Hans Crispin asks me to sit on the couch and watch the huge TV screen on the wall. A few clowns, including Jerry Lewis, appear in a rose-colored circus ring that is for some reason completely empty of spectators. I will be, according to Crispin’s calculations, the 20th or 21st person in the world to see the lost film in its entirety. Complete with this first act which, unlike the rest of the film, was shot in Paris.
The plot is this: Helmut Doork (Lewis), a former prestige clown, half-self-absorbed, has lost his spark in his work and has been demoted. To what? I don’t know, some kind of low-status clown. After making a joke about Adolf Hitler, Doork is sent to a concentration camp where he gets an offer: lead the children to the gas chamber with your clowning skills and you will be free.
An hour and a half later, I have finished watching the work that changed Jerry Lewis’s career, influenced Hans Crispin’s life and has baffled film enthusiasts for over 45 years. I have seen Swedish Dramaten actors play Jews and Nazi prison guards. They speak the kind of English you would if you learned the language in elementary school in the 1950s, but here with a simulated “German” accent. At times, it is impossible to understand what they are saying. There is no humor here, only tragedy. Quite boring, too.
“The feel-good movie of the year!!”—Stephen Miller
Perfect.
Roberto Benigni* tried to do something like this in 1997 with a movie called “Life is Beautiful”. I don’t think it did his career a lot of good either. Was “Schindler’s List” a barrel of laughs? (I never saw it because I thought I was depressed enough already.) Because if not, I think it’s still “too soon”.
* How many people here have never heard of him?
Well, Benigni won the Best Actor Oscar for “Life is Beautiful”, so it didn’t hurt his career. (He was also nominated for Best Director.)
Now, his version of “Pinocchio” is another story . . .
Benigni has his moments, mostly working for Jim Jarmusch. In Night on Earth, he’s pretty funny as a manic Roman cab driver. In Down by Law, he’s an accidental murderer. Either of these is worth looking up.
I got talking with some Italians, seems he’s biggish over there. I’ve never found these, but they recommend something I will mis-spell as Rocomincio da Tre – a road movie – and another one that translates as Nothing to Do But Cry.
“I got talking with some Italians…”
No, really? How did you get them to open up?
Yeah and we agreed in our lease not to smoke in the place. The Italians came over, took their smokes out. We explained there was no smoking allowed. They laughed and lit up; not a clue we weren’t kidding.