Alan Smithee
Alan Smithee and Allen Smithee are pseudonyms used between 1968 and 1999 by Hollywood film directors who want to be dissociated from a film for which they no longer wanted credit. It was used when the director could prove to the satisfaction of a panel of members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers that the film had been wrested from his or her creative control. The director is also required to keep the reason for the disavowal a secret. The pseudonym cannot be used to hide a director's failures.
The first movie to use it was Death of a Gunfighter. During its filming, Richard Widmark was unhappy with director Robert Totten. He arranged to have Totten replaced by Don Siegel. When the film was finished, neither Totten nor Siegel wanted to be credited with the result. The DGA decided the film could carry the pseudonym "Allen Smithee"; the work was praised by the New York Times film critic among others.
The name Smithee is used extensively in television, taking the direction credit for episodes of well-known series, including the pilot for the action-adventure series MacGyver. Jud Taylor twice used the pseudonym, for the TV movies Fade-In (a.k.a. Iron Cowboy) (1968) with Burt Reynolds and City in Fear (1980) with David Janssen. Taylor commented on its use when the DGA's Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award was awarded to "Smithee":
- I had a couple of problems in my career having to do with editing and not having the contractually-required number of days in the editing room that my agent couldn't resolve. So, I went to the Guild and said, 'This is what's going on.' The Guild went to bat for me. I got Alan Smithee on them both. It was a signal to the industry from a creative rights point of view that the shows had been tampered with.
Smithee has also been credited with works in other genres, such as the music video for Whitney Houston's cover song "I Will Always Love You" from the soundtrack for The Bodyguard.
DGA replaces the practice
In 1997, the comedy An Alan Smithee Film Burn Hollywood Burn was released, in which a director wants to disown a film but cannot because his real name is Alan Smithee. The publicity around this movie, and especially around the fact that director Arthur Hiller asked and got an Alan Smithee credit for it, made the Directors Guild decide to discontinue using the Alan Smithee credit.
Another affair that may have played a role was the one around American History X, where director Tony Kaye asked for a Smithee but did not get it, because he had broken the rule not to publicly attack the movie, and then went on to sue the Guild over its decision. According to some, American History X was the first good film for which an Alan Smithee credit was requested.
After this, the Guild decided to choose a pseudonym for each case separately, rather than re-use a particular pseudonym. The first such example is the Thomas Lee credit for Walter Hill on 2000 Supernova, a film whch starred James Spader.
This change has not ended the practice of using Smithee entirely. For example, the Canadian film Fugitives Run starring David Hasselhoff is also credited to Smithee.
Use in alternate versions
- The TV versions of films are sometimes disavowed, even if the theatrical release is not:
- A version of Meet Joe Black edited for in-flight entertainment was also credited to Smithee.
- A cable TV version of William Friedkin's The Guardian was credited to Smithee.
- Backtrack a 1990 film directed by Dennis Hopper and starring Jodie Foster, was originally credited to Smithee; a "director's cut" for a subsequent video release was credited to Hopper. Perhaps coincidentally, Joe Pesci, who appeared prominently in the film, also had the credit for his role removed.
- The version of Ganheddo released in the United States was credited to Smithee.
- A half-hour 1955 television drama called The Indiscreet Mrs. Jarvis starring Angela Lansbury was released on VHS in 1992 without its original credits but retroactively credited to Smithee.
Other films crediting Smithee as director
The following films credit Smithee; the actual director is listed when known:
- The Coroner
- To Light the Darkness, directed by Vance Kotrla
- Picture of Priority
- Dilemma, direct by Eric Larsen and Eric Louzil and starring C. Thomas Howell
- Sub Down, directed by Gregg Champion and starring Stephen Baldwin
- Le Zombi de Cap-Rouge
- Kevin Yagher
- Smoke n Lightnin, directed by Michael Kirton
- Raging Angels
- National Lampoon's Senior Trip, directed by Kelly Makin with a segment credited to Smithee
- Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh, directed by Dean Tschetter
- The Shrimp on the Barbie, directed by Michael Gottlieb and starring Cheech Marin
- Solar Crisis, directed by Richard C. Sarafian, starring Tim Matheson and Charlton Heston
- I Love N.Y., directed by Gianni Bozzacchi and starring Scott Baio
- Putz, directed by Robert Rothbard
- Appointment with Fear, directed by Ramzi Thomas
- Ghost Fever, directed by Lee Madden
- Morgan Stewart's Coming Home, directed by Paul Aaron and Terry Windsor
- Let's Get Harry, directed by Stuart Rosenberg
- Stitches, directed by Rod Holcomb and starring Parker Stevenson
- Gypsy Angels, starring Vanna White
- The Barking Dog
Trivia
The 1955 film Mr. Arkadin, directed by Orson Welles, includes the following exchange between the title character played by Welles and Guy Van Stratten, played by '27, right? So what makes you so sure your name is Arkadin?
- Arkadin: Hmmm?
- Van Stratten: Well, maybe it's Arkadine, or Arkadini, or Arkapopoulos, or Smithee!
- Arkadin: Don't be a fool. I know my own name.
Although there's no evidence that this scene is the inspiration for "Allen Smithee" as the pseudonym-of-choice in direction, the circumstances surrounding the production and release of Mr. Arkadin (also released in the United Kingdom as Confidential Report) suggest that Welles might have disowned the work if the convention were available at the time. The editing of the film was removed from his control, the film was first released in a Spanish version with different actors, and various scenes were included or excluded in other releases.
Related pseudonyms
External links and sources
