The clown cries at last?

Some people are getting excited by the prospect of Jerry Lewis’ infamous The Day the Clown Cried finally being released this year. After decades of keeping the thing locked away from human sight (though the script has long circulated online), he donated it to the Library of Congress with the stipulation that they not show it before June 2024. You may have noticed that it’s now 2024, and June 2024 is just a few months away. So I’ve seen a couple of things online like this suggesting the film’s release is therefore impending.

I, on the other hand, am remaining a bit sceptical cos, apart from the fact that the LOC themselves evidently haven’t said anything on the subject, I don’t know what the actual legalities over the film are, beyond the fact that they’re complicated… Given that the thing was never actually released, I don’t know if it was copyrighted or not, or if it was then was the copyright renewed. If not, then does that make the film public domain? But what about the script, which was the real source of the film’s trouble from what I can gather?

Cos apparently Lewis’ producer, Nat Wachsberger (who was also to blame for Starcrash a few years later), never actually paid the screenplay author, Joan O’Brien, the full price for the rights to her script and so actually didn’t even have the rights to make it in the first place. So all the changes made to the script (like the characterisation of the titular clown) and the film itself were completely unauthorised, until Wachsberger finally realised maybe he should belatedly get O’Brien’s permission, and a rough cut of the film was assembled to see if she’d agree to it being released.

The answer to that question, unfortunately, turned out to be “go fuck yourselves”; O’Brien apparently found the whole thing so appalling she refused to permit its release, and though she’s no longer a direct obstacle (having died in 2004), it looks like some of the legalities are still thorny. Anyway, Wachsberger then proceeded to legally threaten Lewis, who nicked the print and locked it away so no could see it (apart from Harry Shearer, bizarrely enough), until giving it to the LOC with instructions not to show it until this year, presumably cos he knew he’d be dead by then and not have to deal with it then.

So what can the LOC actually do with it, assuming they’re planning anything at all? From what I can see, not a lot; apparently they can show it on their own premises, but anything else seems to require the Lewis estate’s permission, and I feel like they’ll be so sick of this fucking thing they’re not going to grant that easily. I feel like what’ll happen is this: LOC will hold a screening, there’ll be a bunch of film people and historians invited to it, and the film will prove to be as bad as legend suggests it is, all these people will say as much, the Lewis estate will say “Jerry told you so”, and that’ll be as far as it goes. The clown will stay crying in the vault after that, I suspect…