Movie Considered 'Worst Ever Made' to Join National Film Registry

By: Dec. 28, 2015
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The New York Post reports that the film considered by many scholars to be 'the worst ever made' will join the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

Jerry Lewis stars opposite French actor Pierre Etaiy in THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED, a "comedy" from the early 1970's. According to the Sunday Times of London, the film is so horrendous only seven people have actually viewed it.

The Post reports that Lewis donated the only known copy of the film under the agreement that there will not be a public showing of it for the next ten years. It remains unclear why the National Registry want to include the film in their elite catalogue.

In the film, which was penned and directed by Lewis, the comic portrays Helmut Doork, "a German clown sent to a concentration camp for mocking Adolph Hitler. He's ordered to entertain frightened children to keep them quiet. Then Doork is put on a train to the notorious death camp Auschwitz with the kids. He proceeds to lead them into the gas chambers - where they all die."

Lewis has since described the film as, "bad, bad, bad, embarrassingly bad." Watch footage from the movie below:



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