From Darkness to Light

Like its subject, From Darkness to Light is not entirely complete, but it doesn't cut the viewer short on some jaw-dropping revelations. The Day the Clown Cried has always been an odd fascination with me, as is the case with a lot of lost or rare media, and this is as close as we'll ever probably get to seeing the film in its entirety. The documentary stems from a place of affection and respect, Lurie and Friedler giving us a compelling account of how this beloved entertainer tackled the darkest subjects. The duo trace the film's ill-fated progress which led to Lewis abandoning the project, or, did the project abandon him? It's generously illustrated with both behind-the-scenes footage of the film being made as well as raw footage from the film itself, presented mostly chronologically. The real coup here was their ability to get Jerry Lewis himself to sit down and talk at length about the trials and tribulations of making the film and its aftermath that haunted him to the grave. Painting a picture of a compelling story of Hollywood hubris that's by turns moving, shocking and blackly funny, whether or not The Day the Clown Cried will ever receive a release remains to be seen, but we can always hope.

An interesting and watchable documentary that I cannot help but feel is taken way too seriously by the film makers. It appears, to me at least, that they regard Lewis' not being able to finish his holocaust comedy/drama as a tragedy almost commensurate with that of Welles not having the final cut on "Magnificent Ambersons" and that the film's producer, Nat Wachsberger, to whom they assign the blame for this iniquity, is such an odious philistine that his face must be blocked from our view. I mean, talk about comedy! The fact is that, based on Lewis' own, unusually honest assessment and the out takes that are shown, Wachsberger did Lewis' reputation a favor by pulling the plug on the bathetic, pretentious embarrassment that is "The Day The Clown Cried". B minus.

I see from another review that this film was marketed to TV. And indeed it starts like a TV program, with a set of teasers to convince you to watch. And it claims to solve the last great mystery of cinematic history-- the mystery of what went wrong with Jerry Lewis's never-released film "The Day the Clown Cried." The documentary does apparently provide a definitive answer regarding the project's collapse as a business venture, and it shows us Lewis's own dissatisfaction with the footage although Lewis's own feelings and behavior are more difficult to explain and may to some extent remain a mystery forever. We do see several minutes of "The Day the Clown Cried," and it's obvious (to me at least) that one major mistake was casting Jerry Lewis himself as a German civilian in World War II when the New Jersey whine couldn't help creeping into his voice and putting him apart from the non-American actors playing the other Germans. Other criticisms are brought up, and they're all thought-provoking, even if-- unlike some of the interviewees-- you don't consider Jerry Lewis a great genius of 20th-century cinema.

What happened to Jerry Lewis's unreleased movie THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED? Interviews with Lewis, Martin Scorsese, Pierre Etaix and other people involved in the production are intermingled with extended clips from the film.

It's hard to think of Lewis as a serious film maker. He seems to be a maker of faces with the occasional small extended gag. Yet anyone who can actually do it will tell you that making people laugh is a difficult procedure, and directing it effectively for the screen is harder yet. Lewis did the former for twenty years, and the latter for ten until the pressure of doing both got to him and he decided he wanted to prove himself as a serious film maker and actor. Traditionally, all clown want to play Hamlet. Instead it was a movie about a broken-down clown who keeps the children happy in a concentration camp.

And between the shoddiness of his producers and his own inability to thread that needle, it broke him as a film maker. He didn't direct so much as a TV show for seven years, nor appear in a movie for nine, when he appeared in Scorsese's THE KING OF COMEDY, where his performance made the point: if you take away the things that delight us with laughter, what you are left is a serious actor. And his later interviews in which he talks about his "lost" movie -- which resides at the Library of Congress -- make me wonder what he might have done with HAMLET: not as the lead, but as the director.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT (2024) Well done documentary on the history of Jerry Lewis' legendary uncompleted THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED (circa 1972). Over the decades, much of the speculation has focused on why Lewis never finished the film and why he didn't "allow" it to be shown. A couple of years before his passing in 2017, Lewis' materials were donated to the Library of Congress with the proviso that they not be shown until this year (some scholars have seen the half hour incomplete assemblage - as well as, Harry Shearer).

What Directors Michael Lurie and Eric Friedler do so well in this documentary is to trace the film's ill-fated progress which led to Lewis abandoning the project - or, did the project abandon him? It's generously illustrated with both behind the scenes footage of the film being made as well as raw footage of CLOWN itself (presented mostly chronologically, one can put together a shortened rough cut of what the final film might have been like).

Still, the real coup here was their ability to get Jerry Lewis himself to sit down and talk at length about the trials and tribulations of making the film - and its aftermath that haunted him to the grave. Lewis had long grown weary of discussing his "failure", but here, shortly before his death, he opens up. Of course, being Lewis, one must always be leery of how truthful he is at all points. Still, he seems refreshingly frank for the most part. His deep self-criticism of himself as a writer, director and actor rings true. Honestly, much of the CLOWN footage backs up his hesitance about what he made.

The behind the scenes machinations about getting the film produced are astonishing themselves, with the shocking reveal that the underlying rights were never properly secured - nor was the footage! Just as disturbing is just how far the screenplay of CLOWN itself goes. OMG. OMG! OMG!! Give Lewis credit for following the story to its horrifying conclusion.

THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED is such a holy grail (or is it "Unholy"?) that it's best that it was never completed nor released. No single film could ever match one's expectations of it - for good or for ill. The surviving footage is sufficient to approximate what Lewis and the unfinished film would have been like. Make no mistake here - THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED does not exist as a full motion picture. There is missing footage. Scenes never filmed. Even the edited sequences are very rough. Most importantly, Lewis isn't here to edit nor complete whatever exists into his vision. An extraordinary amount of digital work would have to be done just to make it presentable even as an extended short subject.

Let it be.

For now, FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT (and a German documentary, DER CLOWN) is sufficient evidence of the production. Some things are best left to fate.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT had it's U. S. premiere on TCM. So far no further screenings have been publically announced.