The Premise: A washed-up circus clown, Helmut Doork (Jerry Lewis), gets drunk and starts ragging on Adolf Hitler, leading to him being arrested and thrown in a Nazi camp during WW2. He eventually starts socialising with the Jewish inmates in the other area of the camp, using his skills to entertain them. Helmut's only friend, who stands up to a Nazi guard, then gets beaten to death near the end of the movie. The horrifying climax has Helmut being used to usher unsuspecting children into the gas chambers, and he ultimately decides to stay in the chamber with them, entertaining the kids as they breathe their last breaths together. Why It Never Got Released: It's a staggeringly screwed up premise for a film, though undeniably fascinating, and as such a movie film fans have wanted to get their grubby mits on ever since. Lewis took the project extremely seriously, visiting concentration camps and losing 35 pounds for the part, with filming taking place in 1972. By 1973, the movie was embroiled in legal disagreements between Lewis and producers, and was never released to the public. Since then, it's become one of Hollywood's most infamous unreleased films, with actor Harry Shearer managing to see a rough cut in 1979 and commenting of it as, "so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced". Lewis has said of the film, "You will never see it. No one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work", and the only remaining video tape of it apparently remains locked away in his office, even if footage has periodically appeared on YouTube over the years. Which of these infamously unreleased movies would you most like to see? Shout it out in the comments! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lkjyr_10-films-banned-for-insanely-stupid-reasons_shortfilms
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
