LNHY: Matthew Almighty 3: The Final Part... Really... Honest

[Tom Russell]

Jesse Willey wrote:
> > His movies _do_ go on far too long, though.  They'd
> > be much more
> > effective as lean, mean hour-long B-features.  But
> > by that time, they
> > had stopped making hour-long B-movies.
>
>
>   The Day the Clown Cried wasn't funny at all. I had

I think that any comedy in the style of Jerry Lewis or early Jim Carrey
wouldn't read particular well on the page.  The script for Ace Ventura,
for example, is terrible; watching the movie, though, I laughed my ass
off.

I think physical, slapstick humour comes across a bit strained on the
page, which is why the best LNH comedy stories have been based on
character interaction or verbal wit; rampant silliness just falls flat
without a voice to give it the proper inflection and a physical body to
bear the brunt of abuse.

All that being said, THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED is a film about a clown
entertaining children in Auschwitz before they're gassed.  Those who
have seen it have certainly had a mixed reaction.

I think if it had come out, people might talk about how bad (or good,
or whatever) it was, and it would just be this obscure film in Lewis's
ouvre.  I think that because it's never been seen by more than a few
dozen human eyes has accorded it a somewhat legendary status; one only
hopes it lives up to its name, that it's magnificent, whether it's
magnificently bad or good (rather than being merely mediocre).

Tom, who adds in his Dvandom-esque comment-after-first-name comment
that he hopes Al Pacino will one day release THE LOCAL STIGMATIC to the
general public, and who is eagerly awaiting the eventual DVD release of
EL TOPO.