8 Films Disowned By Their Directors Before They Were Released

8. Death Of A Gunfighter (1969)

Death of a Gunfighter, unlike most of the films on this list, has the rare distinction of not being completely awful. It's garnered decent reviews and, due to its place in film history, has a small cult following.

The film itself is actually what birthed the Alan Smithee pseudonym, as the original director Robert Totten (of Gunsmoke fame) clashed with the film's star, Richard Widmark, and was dropped by the studio. He was then replaced by Don Siegel, director of Dirty Harry, who completed filming.

Once the film was completed Siegel protested his own directors credit, attributing too much of the work to Totten. With neither director wanting to take credit, the Director's Guild of America invented the pseudonym "Allen Smithee", and the rest is history.

The studio behind the film neglected to inform the press or reviewers of this fact however, so once the film was released to the public people began raving about this new up-and-comer. Robert Ebert himself said in his 3.5/4 review of the film that "director Allen Smithee, a name I'm not familiar with, allows his story to unfold naturally."