Abramoff Sought To Remake Jerry Lewis' Shoah Comedy
Via Sploid:
In 1972, funnyman Jerry Lewis directed and starred in “The Day the Clown Cried,” the story of circus clown Helmut Doork, who entertains children to their deaths. Filming stopped after the story got caught up in a copyright fight, so only a rough cut was ever finished.
[…] Legend has it that Lewis is so ashamed of the film that he keeps it locked in a briefcase in his office. In this age of You Tube and Bit Torrent, it is one of the few pieces of video not readily available.
According to a letter published in this month’s Harper’s magazine, convicted lobbyist, hack filmmaker and grand wizard of the chilul hashem Jack Abramoff “made every effort possible to secure funding” for a remake of the film.
Source.
Weird. The story I had heard about it years ago was that Lewis considered it the best thing he ever did and has always regretted the legal problems that have kept it in limbo.
However, knowing what the script is, I always found that hard to believe.