# Famous unreleased movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 11, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189 "2008-02-11T19:52:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/1 "2008-02-11T19:52:09Z")
I was thumbing through a Jerry Lewis biography that had a chapter about the movie “The Day The Clown Cried”. It was a early 70’s movie where Jerry played a clown charged with keeping children in the Nazi concentration camps occupied. Due to financing problems the film never got a cinematic release. Jerry now hates the movie, and as a result it has only been seen by handfulls of people and may never put out on DVD. Are there any other unreleased films that have acquired any notoriety? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/2 "2008-02-11T19:53:45Z")
The Stones documentary [Cocksucker Blues](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocksucker_Blues). [Lyrics](http://www.keno.org/stones_lyrics/Cocksuckerblues.htm) to the titular song- I can’t believe Decca wouldn’t release it… ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/3 "2008-02-11T19:54:58Z")
Terry Gilliam’s [Don Quixote](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Gilliam) movie. There was even a documentary _about_ the disasterous attempt to shoot it - “Lost In La Mancha.” ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/4 "2008-02-11T19:58:40Z")
The original **Fantastic Four** movie. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/5 "2008-02-11T20:38:54Z")
**Billy Jack Goes to Washington** seems to have played in a few locations, but never got any sort of wide release. There was also a movie a couple of years ago whose entire release was a single performance in a small theater in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/6 "2008-02-11T20:57:01Z")
[A Day at the Beach (1970)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065616/), a Roman Polanski film starring Peter Sellers. Don’t think it was ever released. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/7 "2008-02-11T20:58:47Z")
_Shoreditch_ - It had a one week run, raised about 2000 Brit pounds and then slunk away into the vaults. Its star, Shane Ritchie, had invested half a million pounds into the production. AFAIK it’s never gone to DVD. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/8 "2008-02-11T21:46:46Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] There was also a movie a couple of years ago whose entire release was a single performance in a small theater in Texas. [/QUOTE] [_Zyzzyx Road_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyzzyx_Road)- last in the dictionary and last in box office gross! ---
**Author:** ![Cheez\_Whia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Cheez\_Whia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheez_Whia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/9 "2008-02-11T22:55:58Z")
Disney’s [Song of the South](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038969/) may never see daylight again. It’s a shame, really. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/10 "2008-02-11T23:11:42Z")
Terry Gilliam’s _Don Quixote_ was never actually finished. If you see _Lost in La Mancha_, you’ll know why. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2008, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/11 "2008-02-11T23:23:22Z")
If unfinished films count, the 1930s attempt to film _I, Claudius_ is of note. _The Other Side of the Wind_ has been “just a short time from release” for over thirty years. To count a short and lost film, _Humor Risk_ would be of some interest, if only to resolve the loose ends about any content other than the presence of the Marx Brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/12 "2008-02-12T00:52:09Z")
The first Marx Brothers film was a disaster at it’s première, never released, and is now considered lost. > **[Humor Risk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor_Risk)** > > Humor Risk, also known as Humorisk, is a lost unreleased 1921 silent comedy short film that was the first film to star the Marx Brothers. They wouldn't make another movie until 1929, The Cocoanuts. > Information about the plot of the film is sparse. It is known that the brothers were working separately, rather than as a team, and did not incorporate their trademark comic personalities for which they later became known.\[citation needed\] > According to Kyle Crichton's 1951 biography of the brothers... ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/13 "2008-02-12T01:01:17Z")
[QUOTE=JThunder] The original **Fantastic Four** movie. [/QUOTE] Unless I’m mistaken, **JThunder** means [this one](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109770/) not [this one](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120667/). ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/14 "2008-02-12T01:04:52Z")
[QUOTE=installLSC] I was thumbing through a Jerry Lewis biography that had a chapter about the movie “The Day The Clown Cried”. It was a early 70’s movie where Jerry played a clown charged with keeping children in the Nazi concentration camps occupied. Due to financing problems the film never got a cinematic release. Jerry now hates the movie, and as a result it has only been seen by handfulls of people and may never put out on DVD. [/QUOTE] And yet, somehow **Jakob the Liar** got made and distributed. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/15 "2008-02-12T01:22:32Z")
The incomplete [_Something’s Got to Give_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something's_Got_to_Give) (George Cukor 1962) was beset with problems, mainly in the shape of Marilyn Monroe and, to a lesser extent, Cukor himself. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/16 "2008-02-12T01:25:02Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] **Billy Jack Goes to Washington** seems to have played in a few locations, but never got any sort of wide release. [/QUOTE] [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Billy-Jack-Washington-Sherri-Ackerman/dp/B00004XPOO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1202779472&sr=8-1) has it in stock. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/17 "2008-02-12T03:15:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Terry Gilliam’s Don Quixote movie… > > The incomplete Something’s Got to Give … Guys, this thread is about completed movies that were never released, or had a very limited screening. Incomplete movies is a topic for another thread. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/18 "2008-02-12T03:20:03Z")
Most of **Greed** was never released. There also Orson Welles’s documentary **It’s All True** , which he never completed, though footage has been put together into a documentary of the same name about the attempt to make the film. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/19 "2008-02-12T03:44:25Z")
[The House of God](http://imdb.com/title/tt0087429/) was completed in 1979, but saw only a very, very limited release on cable TV in 1984. I loved the book, but from what bits I’ve glimpsed of the movie (and I do own a copy but couldn’t bear to watch it in its entirity) I can see why it never was released in theaters and am amazed it was shown on cable at all. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2008, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189/20 "2008-02-12T09:14:11Z")
Was [**The Kid & I**](http://www.avclub.com/content/node/59122) ever officially released? > [@](#): > > [Henry] Winkler tells [Tom] Arnold to put off suicide temporarily so he can write and star in an action-comedy with one small catch Arnold doesn’t discover until much later: the True Lies-like action-adventure is designed exclusively as wish fulfillment for Eric Gores, the True Lies-obsessed son of divorced billionaire Joe Mantegna and will be shown only at his upcoming birthday party. Oh and Gores, the son of real-life billionaire (and The Kid & I financier) Alec Gores, has cerebral palsy. This all closely mirrors the film’s actual origins: the elder Gores hired real-life neighbor Arnold to write and star in The Kid &I as an insanely elaborate present for his beloved son. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-unreleased-movies/437189.md?page=2)