Robert Totten spent a year directing Death of a Gunfighter for Universal but had frequent clashes with the star, Richard Widmark and was replaced by Don Siegel. When it was to be released Siegel didn't think he should have his name on it since Totten had shot most of it. The Director's Guild of America decided it would be credited to a fictional Alan Smithee. Since then, it was a Hollywood secret that if a director felt their work was compromised they could contest to have their name removed and Smithee could be used instead. By the time An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (the less said about that, the better) was released the "secret" was known by much of the public and the name lost its usefulness. I made this collection based on the idea of "what if Smithee actually was a man that directed these movies" and gave this "great" director a box set like Hitchcock, Wilder, etc. have gotten.
