10 Movies So Bad Their Directors Disowned Them

By Shaun Munro /

4. Catchfire (Dennis Hopper)

Catchfire, a film so awful that when it was released to US cable TV, they renamed it Backtrack in an attempt (and an ironic description of that attempt) to distance themselves from the film's tawdry reputation. Dennis Hopper disowned the film ahead of release, prompting the Alan Smithee credit, which some have speculated is due to the editing constraints placed upon him; the theatrical cut was a mere 98 minutes, while Hopper's own unreleased cut runs at a seemingly torturous 3 hours. The only released cut that Hopper was happy with was the cable TV cut, which included 18 extra minutes. Either way, the film's awful, and he did well to keep his name off of it.