Hardly Working (1980)

January 6, 2025 7:05 PM

After The Day The Clown Cried fell apart, Jerry Lewis stopped directing for the rest of the Seventies. Then he launched a comeback with this episodic comedy about an unemployed circus clown trying to find employment. Roger Ebert called it "one of the worst movies ever to achieve commercial release in this country".

The full movie is on YouTube but you can sample its flavor in this clip.

posted by Lemkin (10 comments total)

I might have to look at this because it's got a couple of Star Trek actors in it--Susan Oliver, aka Vina from the first pilot (previously on the blue), and Roger C. Carmel, aka Harry Mudd. Aside from that, I'd probably be more interested in The Day The Clown Cried if anyone ever wanted to take a whack at trying to put together the footage into an actual movie; as at least one person has remarked, it's basically the same premise as Life Is Beautiful, which got Roberto Benigni an Oscar.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:12 AM on January 7 [2 favorites]

if anyone ever wanted to take a whack at trying to put together the footage into an actual movie

A scholar who got access to what Lewis deposited with the Library of Congress described it as ~4 hours of film, most of it without synchronized audio, much of it repeated takes of late scenes in the story.

In summary: There is nothing even approaching a movie to be found there.
posted by Lemkin at 9:22 AM on January 7 [1 favorite]

Amazing (though very 1992) article from Spy interviewing eight people who have seen the rough cut of The Day the Clown Cried.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:32 AM on January 7 [4 favorites]

I have come to disbelieve Shearer’s claim to have seen the film.

His unnamed insider at the Telethon was able to pilfer not just any copy of the footage but a more complete version of the film than Lewis was himself able to provide the Library of Congress?

That dog don’t hunt.
posted by Lemkin at 9:40 AM on January 7

I've never seen Hardly Working but I read the Roger Ebert review years ago and it is spectacular:

In "Variety" I'd read that the critics were barred from the Miami premiere of the film because, and I paraphrase, Jerry Lewis makes films for the masses and critics are unequipped to understand his appeal. Horse manure. HARDLY WORKING is one of the worst movies ever to achieve commercial release in this country, and it is no wonder it was on the shelf for two years before it saw the light of day. It is not just a bad film, it is incompetent filmmaking.

posted by Ashwagandha at 9:54 AM on January 7 [3 favorites]

I don't know that Shearer was lying. It wouldn't surprise me if Lewis had a more complete print he ultimately decided to never share with the world. That movie was a pretty sore subject with him.

"Amazing (though very 1992)" is an apt description of Spy Magazine in general.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 2:41 PM on January 7 [1 favorite]

The article describes Lewis as having a tape of a rough cut he kept in an old suitcase. Other accounts I have heard describe him as having an assembly cut on tape and this doesn't really conflict with that or seem like anything more than the Library of Congress has.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:04 PM on January 7

posted by Ursula Hitler

Eponysterical?
posted by Lemkin at 3:19 PM on January 7

With respect to the Spy article: Drew Friedman is the best. That is all.
posted by whuppy at 4:42 PM on January 7 [1 favorite]

The rough cut reconstruction of 'The day the clown cried' is available on YouTube.

I saw a new, 2-hr German documentary about the unlucky production called 'From darkness to light'.

But afterward, I read the Wikipedia article about it, and it's the better summery of this sordid story.
posted by growabrain at 7:58 AM on January 21 [1 favorite]