:00:00. > :00:00.Lewis started working on a film so bizarre she ended up hating all the
:00:07. > :00:09.footage. Now we can see exclusive unseen footage of the film. -- so
:00:10. > :00:11.bizarre. It is the story of a clown,
:00:12. > :00:14.who was once the premier clown, who is no more the top clown
:00:15. > :00:33.and who is having a difficult time. Can you do fiction
:00:34. > :00:43.about the Holocaust? You will see wonderful things
:00:44. > :00:52.happen to a human being. Because some things things happen
:00:53. > :00:55.that make him think about others besides himself and that's
:00:56. > :01:17.all I'm going to tell you. I've been a comedian for many years,
:01:18. > :01:22.and a Jew for even longer. As a child of a Holocaust survivor -
:01:23. > :01:27.my mother fled from Vienna in 1938 with her playwright father
:01:28. > :01:29.and actress mother - the Holocaust has always been
:01:30. > :01:32.something I've been very aware of. Now, I can already feel some
:01:33. > :01:35.were you thinking "the Holocaust, But stay with us because as
:01:36. > :01:42.a comedian I've always wondered can you actually do comedy about this
:01:43. > :01:46.most difficult and taboo subject? To give you an example,
:01:47. > :01:49.when I used to compere Jewish gigs, I once received a piece of paper
:01:50. > :01:52.backstage and on it was written, "We are a bus-load of concentration
:01:53. > :01:55.camp survivors, can you say hello It just made me think,
:01:56. > :02:00."What should I do? Go out and say, hello
:02:01. > :02:02.anyone in from Auschwitz?" Now, I don't know if you found that
:02:03. > :02:07.story uncomfortable or wrong Maybe all of them, but I've always
:02:08. > :02:11.been interested in that complex area of comedy when these feelings
:02:12. > :02:18.meet and I'm not alone. A lot of Jewish comedians have found
:02:19. > :02:21.themselves exploring this area just because it's so central
:02:22. > :02:23.to their identity and one of the most remarkable examples
:02:24. > :02:26.of someone who tried this is Jerry Jerry Lewis shot to fame
:02:27. > :02:29.with his legendary double act My first guest became
:02:30. > :02:34.an international star Ladies and gentlemen,
:02:35. > :02:41.welcome Jerry Lewis. You met Dean Martin,
:02:42. > :02:45.how come the two of you teamed up? Well, he was out of work
:02:46. > :02:47.and he needed some help, so I put him on for ten years
:02:48. > :02:55.and then I had to let him go. This got him into films
:02:56. > :02:58.and in the 60s he became a worldwide superstar thanks to leading
:02:59. > :03:02.roles in family comedies. He eventually worked behind
:03:03. > :03:04.the cameras as well. Because you went on to not only
:03:05. > :03:09.do your own stuff but you wrote, From my crew then I wound up getting
:03:10. > :03:18.eight best director of the Year awards in Europe, one
:03:19. > :03:22.here in England. Your own people haven't really given
:03:23. > :03:30.you the kind of accolades that The Americans have no
:03:31. > :03:33.taste, we know that. Then in the early 70s,
:03:34. > :03:36.Lewis embarked on a completely Here is some rare footage of him
:03:37. > :03:42.arriving in Stockholm in traditional goofy Jerry Lewis style to scout
:03:43. > :03:45.locations for his new film It was a story a million miles away
:03:46. > :03:51.from the Nutty Professor. Lewis was to play a clown arrested
:03:52. > :03:54.in Nazi Germany during World War Two His character is then thrown
:03:55. > :04:00.into a concentration camp where he's beaten and forced to lead children
:04:01. > :04:03.into the gas chambers. They have everything I need
:04:04. > :04:09.here for this film and in the ten years that I have been living
:04:10. > :04:12.with this project I have never found The film was shot mainly in Sweden
:04:13. > :04:22.and if you think you've seen it then either you're a liar
:04:23. > :04:24.or you're Jerry Lewis Because the film has
:04:25. > :04:27.never been released. There are a few different copies
:04:28. > :04:29.of the script available online which each purport to be
:04:30. > :04:32.the material used in the film and it's often cited by movie
:04:33. > :04:35.historians as one of the most wanted This is an interesting
:04:36. > :04:44.lost film because very, very few people have really
:04:45. > :04:48.seen anything from it. He has certainly decided to do
:04:49. > :04:56.something different. Over the years, a few
:04:57. > :04:58.photos have appeared, but the air of mystery surrounding
:04:59. > :05:01.the production has created a massive following online with groups
:05:02. > :05:05.knocking around in various corners of the Internet discussing
:05:06. > :05:08.theories about the film. Some fans have even attempted to act
:05:09. > :05:18.out the entire movie. I read the screenplays
:05:19. > :05:20.and I was amazed. I thought, wow, this
:05:21. > :05:22.is actually pretty good, I thought, if we're not going to be
:05:23. > :05:27.able to see this thing, the least What interests me about this
:05:28. > :05:31.production is what exactly was the artistic interpretation
:05:32. > :05:34.and direction for Jerry Lewis when approaching this
:05:35. > :05:35.sensitive subject? It's suggested by many that this
:05:36. > :05:37.started out as a straight drama but gradually evolved with Lewis
:05:38. > :05:41.even attempting to introduce some For instance the main character's
:05:42. > :05:49.name was seemingly changedfrom -- For instance the main character's
:05:50. > :05:51.name was seemingly changed from the Helmut Schmidt
:05:52. > :05:53.to Helmut Doork. It's also possible that Lewis
:05:54. > :05:57.was trying to recreate the comedic Of course, Jews caught up
:05:58. > :06:00.in the Holocaust themselves Here's an example of a joke
:06:01. > :06:06.from that era that I heard. So a Jewish guy is walking down
:06:07. > :06:09.a country lane during the war and Hitler drives past in his car
:06:10. > :06:12.and he pulls up he gets out and he points a pistol at the Jew
:06:13. > :06:19.and says, I want you The Jew has to get down on the floor
:06:20. > :06:24.on the ground and eat the cow pat. Hitler laughs so much
:06:25. > :06:27.he drops his gun, the Jew grabs it, points it at Hitler and says, right,
:06:28. > :06:30.now you get down and eat Then the Jew goes home to his wife
:06:31. > :06:36.and his wife says what have And the Jew says, well,
:06:37. > :06:39.it was all right. Ooh, you'll never guess
:06:40. > :06:42.who I had lunch with! Comedy is our safety
:06:43. > :06:44.valve, without it I think I don't think a man could work,
:06:45. > :06:49.I don't think that a family I don't think that humanity
:06:50. > :06:55.could prevail without laughter. I always felt that there
:06:56. > :07:01.are countless examples of dark serious performances
:07:02. > :07:07.and darkwork by the comedians. -- serious performances and dark
:07:08. > :07:09.work by the comedians. There is a certain touch to it
:07:10. > :07:12.and I'm certainly this film must As you can imagine there's always
:07:13. > :07:20.been a lot of interest in the movie and the Swedish Film Institute has
:07:21. > :07:22.heard many stories There were many articles about it
:07:23. > :07:28.in the daily papers and I was very curious about it since I was a big
:07:29. > :07:31.fan of Jerry Lewis in the 70s I believe it was made
:07:32. > :07:48.in 1964 and even in the 70s you could still see it in Swedish
:07:49. > :07:50.cinemas almost every year. So when he was in this film,
:07:51. > :07:54.I thought it was an American Swedish movie, I thought it would
:07:55. > :08:01.be extremely interesting. I remember Jerry Lewis in prisoner
:08:02. > :08:04.costumes and he looked sad This was a time when I started
:08:05. > :08:16.to get really really interested. The archives of the Swedish Film
:08:17. > :08:19.Institute hold some rare treasures connected directly to
:08:20. > :08:24.the making of the film. This is donated from the stills
:08:25. > :08:30.photographer of the movie. It starts with a letter
:08:31. > :08:37.from Jerry Lewis from 1972 and then you can also find shooting schedules
:08:38. > :08:43.and also address lists to all the members of the team
:08:44. > :08:49.to the actors and actresses and then you have a lot of negatives
:08:50. > :09:03.with stills from the film. I'm very excited now because I'm
:09:04. > :09:06.about see something that no one has really seenbefore which is pictures
:09:07. > :09:09.of the actual film, so some some It's just very iconic,
:09:10. > :09:23.those outfits. It just doesn't seem like a comedy,
:09:24. > :09:27.just in that background. You realise just how powerful
:09:28. > :09:30.the potential is to go wrong This shot is just very effective
:09:31. > :09:37.because there you have a Jewish looking guy with a beard that seems
:09:38. > :09:42.very identical to mine, telling a Nazi exactly
:09:43. > :09:45.what they should be doing, It's a big two fingers stuck
:09:46. > :09:52.up to Hitler as well, and to Nazism because here's
:09:53. > :09:54.a Jewish director making a film, or trying to make a film
:09:55. > :09:57.about the Holocaust Who could look at these pictures
:09:58. > :10:05.and not want to see the film? What's most scary but also most
:10:06. > :10:10.exciting is when you look at the picture and it just looks
:10:11. > :10:14.like it's taken from the Holocaust itself and you just realize how easy
:10:15. > :10:19.it is to get things wrong, but if you got it right,
:10:20. > :10:27.just how strong would that be. I mean, this material
:10:28. > :10:30.because it's so on the edge, because it's so taboo
:10:31. > :10:34.is so dangerous but that's where you want to go as an artist
:10:35. > :10:37.but as a comedian as well, you want to go right to the edge
:10:38. > :10:41.to see if it's still funny to see And there's a whole difficult area
:10:42. > :11:09.of whether he has the right to keep, once a thing is made,
:11:10. > :11:13.whether he has the right to not allow it out there but I think
:11:14. > :11:21.when you look at these pictures and you realise just how badly
:11:22. > :11:24.it could it could go, how offensive it could be,
:11:25. > :11:31.then he's probably done the right thing to say, don't
:11:32. > :11:33.put that out there. So I'm torn, because I want to see
:11:34. > :11:38.the picture but on the otherhand I sort of respect him for thinking,
:11:39. > :11:42.no, it's not right, it's not worked I mean, it is a surprise to see
:11:43. > :11:47.the Nutty Professor making a film like this but in another
:11:48. > :11:49.way it isn't. I know comedians, I know "nutty"
:11:50. > :11:52.comedians and I can sort of understand that Jerry Lewis
:11:53. > :11:55.would would want to be seen as more than just this crazy guy who did
:11:56. > :12:00.slapstick and silly voices and had this urge to make a statement
:12:01. > :12:07.in the biggest way possible about his identity
:12:08. > :12:11.and his Jewish identity. What's amazing about this picture
:12:12. > :12:15.with Hitler is that it puts Jerry Lewis in a long
:12:16. > :12:19.tradition of your Mel Brooks, these people, Jews, who stick two
:12:20. > :12:24.fingers up at Hitler. There's the cigarette
:12:25. > :12:25.stuck up Hitler's nose. This is emblematic of
:12:26. > :12:29.what Jerry Lewis is trying to do, I imagine, to say, I'm still here,
:12:30. > :12:34.as a Jew, and I'm commenting on you. Hitler still defines us,
:12:35. > :12:38.he defines me as the son of a Holocaust survivor and it's
:12:39. > :12:44.great to turn that definition into if you'll pardeon
:12:45. > :12:51.my German, a lock you. My philosophy of comedy
:12:52. > :12:53.is a man in trouble. So how careful do you have to be
:12:54. > :13:01.when making a film Should a comedian ever
:13:02. > :13:04.try and make one? Can you have a fictional story set
:13:05. > :13:07.within the framework of such Dr James Jordan is an expert
:13:08. > :13:23.in the representation of Jewish What's interesting about the clips
:13:24. > :13:27.we have and the photographs we have of the Lewis film is that
:13:28. > :13:30.the ending, you have the children behind the barbed wire
:13:31. > :13:43.and you have a sense of him trying to rescue these children
:13:44. > :13:46.but what that recalls for me more than anything else is the Soviet
:13:47. > :13:48.images of the liberation of Auschwitz where you see
:13:49. > :13:51.the children coming up the barbed I think also what Lewis is doing
:13:52. > :13:55.is he's using that visual register and saying that this is a similarity
:13:56. > :13:58.and there is something It doesn't capture the horror
:13:59. > :14:02.of the sounds, the smells, the dirt. That's not there, but there
:14:03. > :14:04.is something recognisably We're presuming that he was bringing
:14:05. > :14:09.comedy to it, but we don't know He is a comedian but maybe
:14:10. > :14:15.he approached it in a way that this is not a comedy place,
:14:16. > :14:18.we don't know. I think the strength of what we have
:14:19. > :14:23.and this is going to sound terrible is that we don't have the dialogue
:14:24. > :14:30.but what we have from the stills is a sense of almost a silent movie
:14:31. > :14:34.and we can impose on that the story that we want and that
:14:35. > :14:36.makes it more emotional, more romantic and more of a canvas
:14:37. > :14:39.which we can imagine and I'd like to think that the film is good,
:14:40. > :14:42.I have that optimism that there is a very good
:14:43. > :14:47.film there but precisely because I haven't seen it
:14:48. > :14:49.rather than anything else. I think there's two ways
:14:50. > :14:53.to approach it, the Holocaust, in the same way as there
:14:54. > :14:56.are two, broadly speaking, There was a survivor that never
:14:57. > :15:00.wanted to talk about it again, and the survivor who only
:15:01. > :15:10.wanted to talk about it. In art, in general, you know,
:15:11. > :15:13.there are some people who feel you should never go there
:15:14. > :15:15.for comedy, you should never go there and then others,
:15:16. > :15:18.Mel Brooks and at some level myself as well, not that I'm
:15:19. > :15:20.on a par with Mel Brooks. But I maybe am, in that
:15:21. > :15:23.obsession with the Holocaust. If I could make a career out it,
:15:24. > :15:26.I probably would only do stuff We're filling the void
:15:27. > :15:35.of what we know about Jerry Lewis, but I wonder if he just,
:15:36. > :15:39.you know, it was in the 70s, he was out in America
:15:40. > :15:42.but it was like you know he feels that, yeah, I'm gooning around,
:15:43. > :15:44.I'm being funny but really I think that he is a serious man
:15:45. > :15:54.trapped inside a comedian's body. We arranged interviews with four
:15:55. > :16:04.members of the cast. All were happy to speak to us then
:16:05. > :16:08.just before the recording was due to take place they all mysteriously
:16:09. > :16:12.pulled out, however we were able to talk to one of the actors
:16:13. > :16:15.Lars Amble, who played one He was the chief Nazi guard and gave
:16:16. > :16:22.us this rare radio interview shortly He called me up, he was staying
:16:23. > :16:30.here in Stockholm in a hotel, and he asked me if you speak
:16:31. > :16:33.a little English and I told him I don't speak very well,
:16:34. > :16:36.but he said that's the meaning of it, you should sound
:16:37. > :16:39.like a German who A German Nazi officer,
:16:40. > :16:46.the head of the barracks where all the prisoners
:16:47. > :16:51.were and among them Jerry of course. For each scene, he knew exactly
:16:52. > :17:00.where he wanted the camera and what he wanted the actors to do
:17:01. > :17:03.and he was very professional He gave us confidence,
:17:04. > :17:15.he was a very nice guy and he knew exactly how foreign actors in this
:17:16. > :17:17.situation would feel. I don't know why he didn't
:17:18. > :17:20.release the film. I never saw it, not even see rough
:17:21. > :17:25.cuts, I just got a letter from the company just telling me
:17:26. > :17:34.that it wouldn't be released. So after a couple of months I wasn't
:17:35. > :17:37.thinking about it. We all got our money and everything,
:17:38. > :17:44.but I don't know, One of the other leading roles
:17:45. > :17:49.in the movie was taken by Swedish star Harriet Andersson,
:17:50. > :17:51.famous for her many roles Jan Lumdholt wrote a book
:17:52. > :17:55.with her about her career He remembers her stories
:17:56. > :17:59.of working on the production. Oh, I don't remember anything,
:18:00. > :18:03.I think was the first thing she said and then she said, I'm
:18:04. > :18:07.still waiting for my pay cheque, and two weeks later or something
:18:08. > :18:16.I asked her more and if she had any more recollections so I got
:18:17. > :18:24.a little more and she said, I take it they chose me
:18:25. > :18:31.because they wanted a name actress from Sweden
:18:32. > :18:38.because of the Swedish involvement. She told me about him being not
:18:39. > :18:49.a very pleasant to work -- She told me about him being not
:18:50. > :18:53.a very pleasant man to work with and he could be eratic
:18:54. > :18:55.and aloof sometimes as well, and she also mentioned that he had
:18:56. > :18:59.some back problems and took some painkillers and became a little
:19:00. > :19:01.strange, but she also mentioned that the sets were absolutely
:19:02. > :19:06.fantastic and very, very impressive, but then they decided
:19:07. > :19:12.that it was not going to be released and there are still some people
:19:13. > :19:16.waiting for their pay-cheques. Some of them are gone now,
:19:17. > :19:19.so that's taken care of, but if anyone sees this
:19:20. > :19:27.and remembers Harriet she would be very happy to get
:19:28. > :19:35.a little cheque, I think. Because of the image you project,
:19:36. > :19:37.the manic, hysterical character, do people expect you
:19:38. > :19:44.to behave like that? People expect you to behave
:19:45. > :20:01.like that in real life. Erik is the son of Jack Kotschack,
:20:02. > :20:20.one of the producers of the film and he remembers when his father
:20:21. > :20:22.was working on the movie. He was very thrilled to do this
:20:23. > :20:25.in the beginning. They made a decision to shoot
:20:26. > :20:28.the scenes from the concentration camp in Sweden and my father
:20:29. > :20:33.was a guy who made it possible as he knew all the people around
:20:34. > :20:38.in Sweden at that time It was a big story for
:20:39. > :20:52.the newspapers and the radio My mother also remembered,
:20:53. > :21:05.it's a special thing, but he throw his underwear and socks
:21:06. > :21:13.away, he didn't use it anymore! I met him once and he was a person
:21:14. > :21:21.who took the room in possession and was a big character
:21:22. > :21:26.and a big actor. With everyone seemingly excited
:21:27. > :21:29.about the project what actually happened that indicated things
:21:30. > :21:32.weren't going to plan and the film The problem occurred afterwards
:21:33. > :21:41.when the truth came out that the money was not
:21:42. > :21:47.paid to the actors. At the end of shooting
:21:48. > :21:49.the scenes in Sweden, it was sadly obvious that his father
:21:50. > :21:52.was no longer friends with Lewis. They were close before but not
:21:53. > :21:55.after and what really happened He sent a telegram,
:21:56. > :22:07.to "the smallest man in town In the beginning they were best
:22:08. > :22:28.of friends but in the end not so. So what does the Jewish community
:22:29. > :22:31.in Sweden think about a film featuring concentration camps
:22:32. > :22:33.being filmed in its country? It's kind of ironic,
:22:34. > :22:35.Sweden was basically the only country that didn't have any
:22:36. > :22:37.concentration camps. It wasn't occupied,
:22:38. > :22:38.nobody was deported, but maybe that's when
:22:39. > :22:41.he was interested in, But what about that difficult issue,
:22:42. > :22:48.is it right to have a fictional film Well, that's a discussion that
:22:49. > :22:58.comes up a regular basis. Can you do fiction
:22:59. > :23:00.about the Holocaust? My personal opinion is, yes,
:23:01. > :23:03.I think you can because we need different ways and different aspects
:23:04. > :23:05.of understanding the complexity I think you have to be careful
:23:06. > :23:10.and I think you have to be very clear that it's fiction,
:23:11. > :23:13.but I think it can be fiction in one way, but it doesn't mean
:23:14. > :23:15.that the framework is fiction. You can use fictional characters
:23:16. > :23:18.in a real environment. The big question is will we ever get
:23:19. > :23:26.to see this picture? Jerry Lewis took with him to America
:23:27. > :23:30.the physical last three days of filming, so, yeah,
:23:31. > :23:39.he took it with him. I went to a press conference
:23:40. > :23:43.in Cannes and I asked him about it, Are we going to ever gonna get
:23:44. > :23:48.to see The Day Simply because it's very easy to sit
:23:49. > :24:04.in front of an audience and expound It's another thing to have to deal
:24:05. > :24:11.with those feelings. And, in terms of that film,
:24:12. > :24:16.I was embarassed. I was ashamed of the work
:24:17. > :24:21.and I was grateful that I had the power to contain it
:24:22. > :24:26.all and never let anybody see it. It could have been wonderful
:24:27. > :24:37.but I slipped up, I didn't quite get it and I didn't quite have enough
:24:38. > :24:44.sense to find out why I'm doing it Recently, Jerry donated his film
:24:45. > :24:50.collection to the Library of Congress in Washington
:24:51. > :24:53.and this included his copy of The Day The Clown Cried
:24:54. > :24:59.under the French title. It's been reported that he has let
:25:00. > :25:01.them have these reels on the understanding they won't be
:25:02. > :25:07.shown to anyone until at least 2025. Of course, if the film does get
:25:08. > :25:09.released and the internet is anything to go by,
:25:10. > :25:12.there will be a huge line of people Either way it'll be some time before
:25:13. > :25:19.this becomes a reality.