'FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT'.....JERRY LEWIS'S ELUSIVE DISASTER THAT NEVER SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY.....

 From Darkness To Light (2024).....a revealing, exploration of 20th century cinema's most maddening, notorious never-seen film....

        We speak, of course, of 'The Day The Clown Cried', the 1972 Jerry Lewis film that collapsed amid bitter disputes between Lewis and the film's producer. 

         Just a recitation of the storyline induces cringes and severe upward eye-rolling.....a washed up circus clown in World War 2 Germany condemned to a concentration camp and forced to entertain Jewish children as he leads them into the gas chambers.

         The assembled footage of this movie, as of today, has only been laid eyes on by Lewis and a mere handful of people. One of the few, actor Harry Shearer, said even if you imagined how bad it could be, the actual film would dwarf your imagination in its capacity for awfulness. 

          We don't doubt that for a second. Through the post war years and through the 1960's, the arrogant, egomaniacal Lewis reigned as a comedy partner to crooner Dean Martin and then as writer-director and star of his own hit comedy movies. Praised for his filmmaking innovations (like video playbacks), Lewis split his persona between playing the slapstick idiot or the oily, insincere showbiz hipster. 

         By the 70's his films degraded to near unwatchable and Lewis began to reveal himself to the public as the bitter, angry detestable man he'd been all along. 

        If nothing else, "From Darkness To Light" sheds some long overdue light on the inception, the production and the aftermath of 'The Day The Clown Cried'. Included are a rare interview with Lewis, who long refused to ever discuss the film, and actual extended film clips. 

          Lewis could only get the film financed and produced in Sweden by Nat Waschberger, a fast buck Euro-Trash schlockmeister. ("That Man In Istanbul"). After briefly meeting with Jeanne Moreau, Lewis managed to secure Bergman star Harriet Andersson for a supporting role, but the rest of cast was made up of third-rate non-entities.  (Which becomes painfully apparent in the film clips.)

           While actually still in production, the legal rights to the story and script became impossibly tangled and Lewis returned to the U.S. with copy of the film still unseen by all but a few. He donated it the Library Of Congress with the proviso they could hold selected screenings by 2024. As of this moment, no such screenings have happened and most likely the film will never be made available to the general public in any form. 

           From the clips shown in this documentary, it's painfully obvious that evoking realistic pathos was light years beyond Lewis's skill set. The scenes on view resemble outtakes from an aborted Ed Wood Jr. project. 

            Even more illuminating are the chunks of Lewis's interview about the film. Even as he grudgingly admits to his own failures, he remains defiant, combative and ultimately.....sad.  Mel Brooke, Rob Reiner, Sarah Silverman and Martin Scorsese chime in with their own insights and opinions. 

            Given that this could be as close to "The Day The Clown Cried" as we'll ever get, no cinema buff should miss it....

            4 stars (****).