10 Movies Disowned By Their Screenwriters

6. John Steinbeck - Lifeboat

American writer John Steinbeck is far better known for novels like East Of Eden, The Grapes Of Wrath, and Of Mice And Men than for his screenwriting, and he would have liked to keep it that way. Although many films have been based on Steinbeck's work, one of the few original screenplays he worked on was the script for Alfred Hitchcock's 1944 movie Lifeboat, a drama about a handful of people who are forced to depend on one another while floating in the Atlantic Ocean on a lifeboat in the aftermath of a World War II naval battle.

While Hitchcock came up with the initial concept, he asked Steinbeck to write a novel based on the premise that Hitchcock could then film. Though the story was never published as Steinbeck wrote it, screenwriter Jo Swerling adapted Steinbeck's story as a screenplay. After watching the movie, Steinbeck thought that the lone black character, Joe (played by Canada Lee), was depicted as an offensive stereotype even though he did not write the character that way. He even told his agent he thought the portrayal was "dangerous to the American war effort."

Steinbeck asked 20th Century Fox to remove his name from the movie, but his request was denied because his name was a major selling point for the movie. Despite his dislike of the movie, Lifeboat actually resulted in Steinbeck's first Oscar nomination for Best Original Story.