Jerry Lewis: The Day the Clown Cried

[post 336]

Jerry Lewis' over-the-top clowning doesn't appeal to everyone, but in his prime he was an excellent physical comedian, not to mention being a skilled filmmaker with quite a few technical innovations to his credit. Lewis directed and starred in over twenty films, but one from 1972— The Day the Clown Cried — was intentionally never finished.

Why?

The story centered around a clown arrested by the Nazis and forced to merrily lead children to the gas chamber. Admittedly, pulling this off is no easy task, though Robert Benigni did something similar with Life is Beautiful (1997) and won an Academy Award for best foreign-language film. But Lewis freely admits his effort simply didn't work: “It was bad, and it was bad because I lost the magic. You will never see it. No one will ever see it, because I’m embarrassed at the poor work.”

Of course if something is unattainable, everyone wants it, so the mystery has grown over the years. And now there is a 7-minute behind-the-scenes clip that comes to us by way of Caroline Simonds, thank you very much! There's nothing gruesome about this segment, nor is it super illuminating, but it does provide an interesting enough look at Lewis on the set playing with various comic bits.




 UPDATE (1-2-13):   Here's more video footage that has recently surfaced:

 

Jerry Lewis (Almost) Smashing Vases

[post 223]

Here's how this here blogopedia works: I come up with great ideas for posts much faster than I can research and write them. (Yes, I have a life.) For every post you see, there are five in some stage of development, which may or may not see life. The sidebar item, "Coming Soon-ish or Later-ish on the Blogopedia," is merely the tip of the iceberg.

I mention this because..... my most recent post on that Jerry Lewis documentary included this quote from the NY Times:

This physical comedy is beautifully illustrated by a scene from “The Patsy” (1964), in which Mr. Lewis’s character knocks over an assortment of expensive-looking vases and catches each one just before it hits the floor. Mr. Lewis says he broke hundreds of vases in the process of rehearsing and shooting the scene.

As that post revealed to my utter shame, I'm too poor white trash to actually afford cable tv and therefore view that documentary, BUT somehow I managed to come up with the $11 to buy the DVD of Patsy (not available on Netflix) just to check out the vase scene. And here it is, co-starring the late, great Hans Conried. Vase business + chair business = quick post. My $11 Christmas present to you all. Now to the rest of my shopping...

Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis

[post 222]

I recently gave up my cable tv subscription so I don't know when I'll ever see this, but there's a new two-hour documentary on Jerry Lewis airing tonight (December 17th) at 8 p.m. and at midnight on Encore. The network is also dedicating much of today’s afternoon programming to a Jerry Lewis marathon, broadcasting films including The Bellboy starting at 1:50 p.m. I imagine the documentary will be shown again in the future, given the name of the channel.

It's gotten mixed reviews from newspapers, but looks like a must-see for the student of physical comedy. As the Los Angeles Times review said,  "It isn't particularly incisive or intimate, but it has lots of good things to show you, at least a few of which, unless you are very dour, should also make you laugh."

Here's a preview:

A couple of quotes from a New York Times article on the documentary:

“Jerry went back to the silent era and he brought visual sight gags back to the American movie theaters,” says Mr. Spielberg, who once took a class taught by Mr. Lewis at the University of Southern California. “They weren’t doing that for a long time.”


This physical comedy is beautifully illustrated by a scene from “The Patsy” (1964), in which Mr. Lewis’s character knocks over an assortment of expensive-looking vases and catches each one just before it hits the floor. Mr. Lewis says he broke hundreds of vases in the process of rehearsing and shooting the scene.


“He’s much closer to Buster Keaton than a Charlie Chaplin,” Mr. Tarantino says, “in so far as actually taking the film medium and trying to get laughs by the way you shot stuff, by the art form itself, not just the pratfalls.”


• The Encore web page for the documentary is here.
• A (negative) Washington Post review of the documentary is here.
• A (positive) review from the Cleveland Plain Dealer is here.
• A 2-hour biopic of Lewis from the Biography cable channel is viewable online here.
• My two earlier posts on Jerry Lewis are here.

Jerry Lewis vs. Family Guy

[post 207]

This is an amazing split-screen comparison of Jerry Lewis in The Errand Boy (1961) — where Jerry the lackey is miming being the boss — and the "Brian & Stewie" episode of Family Guy (2010), put together by YouTuber MrEthernex. The music is Count Basie's "Blues in Hoss Flat" and appears in both original versions in lieu of dialogue.




In the lawsuit that followed, Seth MacFarlane claimed the similarities were purely coincidental! Can you believe it? Well you shouldn't, because I just made that up. No lawsuit, no plagiarism; take it as a sweet tribute to Lewis.  Thanks to Tom Etzel for the link!

Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin Dancing Lesson

[post 129]

A few posts back we looked at Lou Costello taking a dance lesson.  This time we see Martin & Lewis going at it.  Yes, I know the world is divided into those who like Jerry Lewis and those who don't, but whichever side you're on I think you'll enjoy the physical comedy moves in this piece from the old television show, the Colgate Comedy Hour.  Dean Martin is the instructor, Lewis the oafish and slow-witted student.  The first half is full of solo gyrations by Lewis, while the second half has some real nice partner work.








Update (4-1-12): The blog New Slapstick has a post analyzing a segment of this routine: Creating Simple Double Act Material