Hispamex Films released The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman in Spain on 17 May 1971. Of course, they released it as La Noche de Walpurgis.

This film is part of an 11-film series, Hombre Lobo. It’s a 12-film series if you believe that Las Noches del Hombre Lobo (The Nights of the Wolf Man) was a film. I do not.

Paul Naschy starred in all of them. He also wrote them all with one exception. Fred Olen Ray wrote and directed the last, Tomb of the Werewolf. Interestingly, Gary Graver shot the film. Naschy was pushing 70 when it was released.

The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman was the most successful of the series. It was a low-budget effort. But you wouldn’t know it. It was shot on 70 mm film. And it looks great. Of course, there are few sets and actors. It’s the kind of thing we see in Corman’s Poe Cycle.

The film features an easy plot device that we saw over and over in the Hammer Dracula films. Some blood drips on the dead vampire and… She’s back! Similarly, the werewolf was brought back by simply removing the silver bullets. Of course, Hammer only made one werewolf film, so they never had to stoop to that!

But other than that, this film is very different from the Hammer films. They more anticipate Lucio Fulci’s horror films from later in the decade. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. If a scene works to frighten the audience, it’s included!

Still, the base plot is simple enough. Two female college students are on a road trip to investigate an old legend about a female vampire. They stay with Count Waldemar Daninsky, the recently revived werewolf. One of the women bleeds on the vampire corpse, bringing her back. The vampire turns the bleeding student into a vampire. The other college student falls for the werewolf. the werewofl defeats the vampire. The college student, because she loves him, kills the werewolf.

But don’t worry! He’ll be back in 7 more films!

Other 17 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Maureen O’Sullivan (1911-1998): Actor who played Jane in six Tarzan films throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s.
• Dennis Hopper (1936-2010): Iconic actor in Blue Velvet and Waterworld.
• Bill Paxton (1955-2017): Actor known for Aliens and Twister.
• Matthew McGrory (1973-2005): Actor known for House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.

Films:

• The Cat Creeps (1946): Murder mystery starring Noah Beery Jr.
• She-Wolf of London (1946): June Lockhart thinks she might be a werewolf.
• Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974): Chase film starring Peter Fonda and Susan George.
• Galaxy Hunter (2005): Space alien cop saves Earth.
• Ghost Lake (2005): People drowned a century earlier are rising from the dead.
• Sci-Fighter (2005): Kung Fu virtual reality.
• Skinwalker: Curse of the Shaman (2005): Native folk horror and shockingly not a porn parody of Star Wars.
• Zombiez (2005): Woman versus zombies.
• John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019): The most ridiculous John Wick yet!
• The Strangers: Chapter 1 (2024): A couple in a remote cabin are stalked by three masked men.

The Werewolf vs Vampire Woman (1971) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Today, Danny Trejo is 82 years old. He was born on 16 May 1944.

Trejo is a character actor who somehow became a star. His backstory seems to be more legend than anything. He started using drugs very early in life. This led to spending much time in jail and eventually prison. I don’t doubt that. But by the age of 25, all that was in the past. And he seemed to find a good life as a working man in Southern California. That led to work as an extra. And the rest is pretty well documented.

On screen, he comes off as a mean guy. But I saw him at the 2024 FAN EXPO San Francisco, and he reminded me so much of all the men I grew up with in the construction industry. He seemed downright sweet with an obviously fake humility. It would not have been surprising if he’d said, “Gee! I can’t believe all you people like me!”

Of course, no one gets upwards of 500 screen credits without being easy to work with. If he were anything like the characters he plays, he would have gone back to lawn care long ago!

Trejo is a classic screen actor. He always seems authentic. But he doesn’t exactly play varied characters. It’s absurd to imagine him being hired to play an old Scottish man from Ferguslie Park. That’s not what he does. Nor is it what he should do! And I’m not waiting around to see his Broadway debut. (Just the same, I don’t think he is any more limited as an actor than Robert De Niro!)

So let’s celebrate Danny Trejo’s birthday by watching him in his iconic role in Machete. It’s a wonderful film. And extremely funny. It is Robert Rodriguez at his over-the-top best!

Other 16 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Henry Fonda (1905-1982): Actor known for 12 Angry Men and Once Upon a Time in the West.
• Barry Atwater (1918-1978): Actor known for playing the vampire in The Night Stalker.
• Yvonne Craig (1937-2015): Batgirl on the Batman TV series.
• Pierce Brosnan (1953-): Actor who was the best Bond and starred in The Ghost Writer.
• Debra Winger (1955-): Big star who was in Legal Eagles and Black Widow.

Films:

• Peeping Tom (1960): A serial killer films his murders — for science!
• The Blood Beast Terror (1969): Half woman and half moth needs blood.
• Don’t Look in the Basement (1973): Things go wrong at an insane asylum.
• The Bare Wench Project (2000): Jim Wynorski’s sexy parody of The Blair Witch Project.
• Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones (2002): The second of the first (but really the second) trilogy.
• Slaughterhouse Phi: Death Sisters (2006): Slasher mystery.
• The Parchene Conspiracy (2009): Space alien birds.

Danny Trejo by Super Festivals under CC BY 2.0.

On this day, 15 May, in 1905, the actor Joseph Cotten was born.

People tend to associate him with art films. And he has starred in some great ones. There are the obvious ones: the Orson Welles’ classics Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons.

Joseph Cotten Psychotronics

But I associate him more with psychotronic films. He played a truly menacing psychopath in one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best films, Shadow of a Doubt. He was also in noir films like Journey into Fear, The Third Man, and Niagara. And he had a notable part in the dystopian classic Soylent Green.

Cotten also starred in a number of horror films. Most notable is Mario Bava’s Baron Blood. But he was in a couple of TV movies, The Screaming Woman and The Devil’s Daughter.

For me, 1971 was Joselph Cotten’s best year. He starred in two important films that year. The first was as Dr Frankenstein in the exceptional Lady Frankenstein.

The second was in The Abominable Dr Phibes. He is notable in being the only person in either it or the sequel who I feel sorry for. That’s not to say that everyone else gets what they deserve, only that the murders are so delightful that it’s hard to care about fictional characters dying.

Sadly, Joseph Cotten had a stroke in 1981, which ended his career. He didn’t perform in anything for the last 13 years of his life. But I do appreciate that his career declined from the 1950s onward so that he left us some great supporting roles in lower-budget films.

Let’s celebrate Joseph Cotten’s birthday by watching Shadow of a Doubt.

Other 15 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• L Frank Baum (1856-1919): Writer known for the Wizard of Oz books.
• James Mason (1909-1984): Actor I most like for two two-part TV miniseries: Frankenstein: The True Story and Salem’s Lot.
• Andre de Toth (1913-2002): Director of House of Wax and many crime and western films.
• Joseph Wiseman (1918-2009): The original Dr No.
• Brenda Bakke (1963-): Actor known for Death Spa and Trucks.
• Ashlynn Yennie (1985-): Actor known for The Human Centipede films.

Films:

• The Mad Monster (1942): A mad scientist creates a werewolf.
• Red Planet Mars (1952): Weird and peachy Christian Cold War science fiction film.
• Phantom From Space (1953): Invisible space alien crashes on Earth.
• Invisible Invaders (1959): John Agar saves the world from invisible space aliens who take over dead bodies. The zombies in suits are very cool.
• The Black Zoo (1963): Zoo owner uses animals to kill people he doesn’t like.
• Paranoiac (1963): Dead man returns for inheritance.
• Battle Beneath the Earth (1968): China attacks the US via a tunnel under the Pacific Ocean.
• The Fan (1981): A dissed fan turns.
• Happy Birthday To Me (1981): Children go missing at a boarding school.
• The Gate (1987): Teens release demons from a hole in their yard.
• Ishtar (1987): Two singer-songwriters get involved in a revolution in Africa.
• Lethal Weapon 3 (1992): The third film — with even more comedy.
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003): Overlong half-sequel to the original.
• Curse of the Zodiac (2007): Horror based on the serial killer.
• Gothic Vampires From Hell (2007): A band learns that record execs are vampires.
• Hunger (2009): Five people are locked in a dungeon.
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): Furiosa helps five wives of a water despot to escape.

Joseph Cotten via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

On this day, 14 May 1971, United Artists released Support Your Local Gunfighter (strangely, in the UK).

I had remembered the film from seeing it in the theater as a kid. I would have been 7 years old. But all I remembered was the ending where the bad guy (Chuck Connors) freaked out about not wanting to die with his boots on — a reversal on the standard idiom.

Sheriff vs Gunfighter

As with most things when I was a child, it made no sense to me. Nor did I remember the name of the film or even that it was a comedy. As an adult, I was surprised to learn that it was more or less the sequel to Support Your Local Sheriff.

What’s interesting here is that while Sheriff is a pleasant and easily loved comedy, little me can be forgiven for not thinking Gunfighter was a comedy. And I say that as someone who thinks that it is a far better film.

I think there’s an analogy to computer science here. There is a tendency when creating a second version of a piece of software to fix all the things you thought weren’t quite right in the first version. But normally, this just annoys the users.

But if you get some distance, you can see that the second version really is better. I think all the easy charm of Sheriff is present in Gunfighter. But it was no longer new and so not enough to appeal to viewers. It probably also didn’t help that there is a lot more comedy and that it is more sophisticated.

If you’ve written it off, I encourage you to watch it again. It is funny. It’s just that it’s a lot richer and you have to give it more time.

Other 14 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Kenji Sahara (1932-): Actor known for various kaiju films.
• George Lucas (1944-): The Star Wars guy.
• Yutte Stensgaard (1946-): Actor who worked for a short period most notably in Lust for a Vampire.
• Joseph Zito (1946-): Director of films such as Bloodrage and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.
• Robert Zemeckis (1951-): Director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Death Becomes Her.
• Rob Tapert (1955-): Producer of The Evil Dead and Darkman along with co-creating Xena: Warrior Princess.
• Brett Leonard (1959-): Director of films such as The Lawnmower Man and Man-Thing.
• Tim Roth (1961-): Actor known for The Hit, Pulp Fiction, and much more.
• Danny Houston (1962-): Character actor in a lot of genre films including the remake of Clash of the Titans.

Films:

• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938): The Errol Flynn film we all love.
• King of the Zombies (1941): Mad scientist controls zombies.
• The Awful Dr Orlof (1962): A mad scientist abducts women and takes their skin to heal his daughter.
• Nightmare in Wax (1969): Another wronged man coats people in wax. A good one!
• Blood and Lace (1971): Truly sick “evil orphanage” film.
• Conan The Barbarian (1982): A big-muscled man seeks vengeance.
• The House Where Evil Dwells (1982): Ghosts from an ancient lovers triangle and murder-suicide haunt a modern lovers triangle, and…

Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Universal Pictures released Werewolf of London on 13 May 1935. This was just a week after they released Bride of Frankenstein nationally. And you can see the difference! Carl Laemmle Jr produced the latter. But he really was not at all involved with Werewolf. Instead, Carl Laemmle Sr’s son-in-law, Stanley Bergerman, produced the film. That’s not a knock on him. He did a good job producing it. But it lacks the style that came with having twice the budget.

Werewolf of London was the first werewolf film of the sound era. I know of only two other werewolf films before it. First was The Werewolf — a 1913 20-minute silent film that has been lost since 1924. It was based on Native American legends and was about a witch transforming into a wolf to get revenge against White invaders. It sounds really interesting. But it isn’t what we normally think of as a werewolf film.

Wolf Blood was a silent feature film released in 1925. In it, a man is badly beaten in a fight. The doctor gives him wolf blood because no one else will provide him with human blood. This leads to his having dreams about wolves and people thinking he’s a werewolf. It turns out he isn’t. The film is primarily a romance.

I find it curious that these two films are so different from the standard werewolf film. Because the biggest problem with werewolf films is that they all tend to tell the same story. And it isn’t a great or malleable story!

Werewolf of London itself is a bit more interesting than later films. It features two werewolves throughout. And they are competing for a limited supply of a “moon flower” that stops lycanthropy. This is first introduced in a great scene where we only see the lead character’s hand get hairy and then recover.

Overall, the film works pretty well. It has enough comedy and romance for those not interested in horror. And the make-up from Jack Pierce is as good as ever.

Other 13 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Zohra Lampert (1937-): Actor who played the title role in Let’s Scare Jessica to Death.
• Harvey Keitel (1939-): Actor in Mean Streets, Pulp Fiction, and more.
• Joe Johnston (1950-): Director of Jumanji, The Wolfman, and more.
• Robert Pattinson (1986-): Actor known for Cosmopolis and the Twilight films.

Films:

• Eaten Alive (1976): People at a remote hotel are killed by the owner, who feeds them to his crocodile.
• The Car (1977): Demonic car terrorizes a small community.
• Day of the Animals (1977): Environmental destruction makes animals attack.
• Maniac Cop (1988): A serial killer dressed as a cop harasses New York.
• The Crow (1994): Murder victim rises from the grave to avenge.
• Scream Bloody Murder (2003): Slasher-comedy where teen girls get stuck at a junkyard.
• The Last Horror Movie (2005): Serial killer uses horror video rentals to find victims.
• Mindhunters (2005): FBI trainees are stalked by a serial killer.
• The Dead Undead (2010): Vampires battle zombies (who are also vampires).
• Attack the Block (2011): Teens defend their block from space aliens.
• Priest (2011): Priest vs vampires.
• The Darkness (2016): Pilfered Native American stones bring evil into a family.
• Firestarter (2022): Girl starts fires with her mind.

Werewolf of London (1935) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

On this day, 12 May, in 1965, Cineriz released A Pistol for Ringo.

I know what you’re thinking, “Another Spaghetti Western?!” Well, yes. There are a lot of great Spaghetti Westerns, and this one is among the best. It was made shortly after A Fistful of Dollars by Duccio Tessari, who had worked on that script.

It doesn’t have quite the same feel as the earlier film. But then, neither did Sergio Leone’s later films. A Pistol for Ringo comes off more like For a Few Dollars More — but as a comedy.

Duccio Tessari

I don’t think there is any doubt that Leone was the greater director. But equally, Tessari was the better writer and storyteller. I often feel that Leone gets lost in his own obsessions. Like the long rape scene at the beginning of A Fistful of Dynamite I’m not sure what the point is even supposed to be much less what it is.

What’s more, Leone’s sense of humor rarely elicits a laugh whereas Tessari effortlessly produces belly-laughs. At the same time, his films are every bit as gritty.

In A Pistol for Ringo, the title character is extremely charming. He is also a complete psychopath who loves putting people in situations where he can kill them “in self-defense.” In one scene at the beginning, he’s playing hopscotch with some kids right before gunning four men down.

And there’s no “out-drawing” others. He just kills them before they even go for their guns. And thank God! Only an idiot would try to “out-draw” someone.

There’s one other way that Duccio Tessari is better than Sergio Leone: he directed a lot more films! He made films of various genres — including one blaxploitation film (Three Tough Guys). And he still managed to make more westerns!

I admire Leone’s work. But they are often ponderous. Tessari made entertaining films and managed to be quite innovative, even if relatively few outside Italy know it. Here is an English-language version of A Pistol for Ringo. It is dubbed, no matter what language you choose. But it is easier to find good Italian-language prints.

Other 12 Map Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Edward Halperin (1898-1981): Producer of White Zombie and Supernatural.
• Wilfrid Hyde-White (1903-1991): Actor in Chamber of Horrors and on the second season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
• Jesús Franco (1930-2013): Writer-director of films like Count Dracula and Oasis of the Zombies.
• Gabriel Byrne (1950-): Actor in so much, including the very funny End of Days.
• Ving Rhames (1959-): Actor known for The People Under the Stairs, Pulp Fiction, and more.
• Emilio Estevez (1962-): Actor and director known for Maximum Overdrive and Rated X.
• Deborah Kara Unger (1966-): Actor known for Crash and Silent Hill.
• Malin Akerman (1978-): Actor in The Final Girls and Watchmen.

Films:

• Cobra Woman (1944): A woman is kidnapped by her grandmother to resolve a royal dispute on Cobra Island.
• Jail Bait (1954): Ed Wood’s most straightforward film; it’s quite watchable with a clever ending.
• Day of the Triffids (1963): Meteor shower turns plants violent.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Astronauts go to Jupiter to look for ancient aliens.
• Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1973): One of the two Hammer Frankenstein films not worth watching.
• Earth Girls Are Easy (1988): Two young women save three male space aliens.
• Hell High (1989): High school-based slasher.
• Night Visitor (1989): Satanists are killing prostitutes.
• The Return of the Swamp Thing (1989): Jim Wynorski’s excellent sequel to the Wes Craven original.
• Battlefield Earth (2000): Humans enslaved by space aliens fight back.
• The Grudge 3 (2009): The evil comes to Chicago.
• S Darko (2009): More time travel adventures.

A Pistol for Ringo (1965) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use

On this day, 11 May, in 1927, Welsh actor Bernard Fox was born. Clearly, I’m struggling today if I’m highlighting him. Just the same, I loved him. He was a brilliant comedic actor.

I know him primarily from two television series where he had recurring roles: Hogan’s Heroes and Bewitched.

Hogan’s Heroes

On Hogan’s Heroes, he played Colonel Crittendon, the wonderfully useless British officer with far more ethics than any reasonable person would have. That show is such a great encapsulation of American arrogance.

World War II was really just the America show with some help from the British and French. And the Russians? They were somewhere around but never clearly an ally (in the form of the other great recurring character, Nita Talbot’s Marya). And another part of that was a sneering disrespect for British officers — an opinion a lot of British people probably shared.

As far as I can tell, Crittendon was the creation of the great comedy writer Richard Powell. He also seems to have created Marya. He was the only one on the show who wrote character-based stories. Sadly, both characters got only about one episode per season.

Bewitched

On Bewitched, Fox played Dr Bombay, a literal witch doctor. He had the same haughty personality of Crittendon but he was no buffoon. He was more a lady’s man, living the life and generally not pleased to be called in for emergencies.

To a large extent, Bernard Fox was typecast. That’s to be expected when you work in America and you have that kind of accent. But he was in a variety of movies through his career.

Some things I remember him for are the “House — With a Ghost” episode of Night Gallery, the third story in The House Of The Dead about insufferable detective characters, and The Mummy, one of Fox’s last roles.

He died at the age of 89 in Los Angeles.

Other 11 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Doug McClure (1935-1995): Actor in The Land That Time Forgot, Humanoids from the Deep, and more.
• Melissa Bacelar (1979-): Actor known for Pink Eye and as the host of The Scream.
• Jonathan Jackson (1982-): Actor known for Venom and Kalamity.

Films:

• M (1931): Peter Lorre plays a pedophile murderer
• Dracula’s Daughter (1936): Van Helsing fights the title character.
• Bride of the Monster (1955): Bela Lugosi is a mad scientist in this Ed Wood classic.
• The Lift (1983): An elevator computer system becomes sentient and deadly.
• Class of 1999 (1990): Robot teachers turn violent.
• Def by Temptation (1990): A succubus targets horny Black men.
• A Knight’s Tale (2001): A squire pretends to be his dead knight.
• 28 Weeks Later (2007): Sequel to 28 Days Later.
• Dark Shadows (2012): Comedic take on the gothic soap opera.

Bernard Fox via Wikimedia. It is in the public domain.

Meg Foster was born on 10 May 1948.

I think it is fair to call Foster a psychotronic actor. She has been in so many films that qualify. I suppose her appearance is a big part of it. She’s very attractive. But there is something about those blue eyes! They don’t look quite right.

She first appeared on the psychotronic radar in the film Welcome to Arrow Beach, where she played a homeless woman who is taken in by a brother and sister who turn out to be cannibals. It seems that 1974 was a good year for screen cannibals.

But I never saw that. I first noticed her in the four-part TV mini-series, The Scarlet Letter. She’s a great actor but she is especially good in parts where she doesn’t talk a lot. She has the kind of face that can say a lot without words.

As an adult, I know her from many psychotronic classics. She played Rutger Hauer’s wife in The Osterman Weekend. She was a witch in Masters of the Universe. And, of course, she plays the duplicitous Holly in They Live.

But I most like her as the cyborg Stell Barr in Oblivion and Oblivion 2: Backlash.

Other 10 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Gina Philips (1970-): Actor known for Jeepers Creepers, The Sickhouse, and more.
• Corri English (1978-): Actor known for Unrest and House of Fears.
• Odette Annable (1985-): Actor known for Cloverfield.

Films:

• The Phantom Speaks (1945): An executed murderer takes over a doctor.
• Bedlam (1946): The cruel warden (Boris Karloff) of an 18th-century insane asylum loses control and gets what he deserves.
• The Invisible Monster (1950): Evil genius uses invisible army to conquer the world.
• Thunder Road (1958): Robert Mitchum fights to keep his moonshine business.
• It Lives Again (1978): Sequel to the Larry Cohen classic It’s Alive.
• Terminal Choice (1985): Hospital staff are betting on patient recovery but that’s the least of it.
• F/X 2 (1991): Sequel to the popular “wrong man” thriller.
• Dead Man (1996): An accountant (Johnny Depp) comes to the Old West for a job and everything goes wrong.
• Dog Soldiers (2002): Military mission interrupted by a werewolf.

Meg Foster via TV Tropes under Fair Use.

Paramount Pictures released Paper Moon on 9 May 1973.

It’s one of those films where it’s hard to tell whether it is a psychotronic or art film. And indeed, it is both. Well, art? I’m a lot more clear what a psychotronic film is than what an art film is. But it was made in black and white when it didn’t need to be. That’s a sure sign of an art film.

But it’s about a con man. Not just a con man but one who preys on grieving family members who just lost a loved-one. He does it by selling them Bibles. And it’s the Great Depression. And he uses a little girl to help him.

That’s pretty damned psychotronic! And it’s a very fun film!

I sure wouldn’t be highlighting The Last Picture Show if it had been released today. Regardless of how much I admire that film I don’t find it fun — except when Cloris Leachman yells at Timothy Bottoms.

Consider 13 Frightened Girls! And in that context, Paper Moon is notable for another reason: it features a precocious little girl who doesn’t make me want to scream.

That might be due to her not being very nice. She’s unpleasant exactly the way that precocious children usually are. There’s nothing like a good unpleasant truth!

Other 9 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Albert Finney (1936-2019): Iconic actor in Tom Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, and Miller’s Crossing.
• Kevin Peter Hall (1955-1991): Actor known for playing monsters in Predator and Harry and the Hendersons.
• Chuck Russell (1958-): Director known for The Blog remake and The Mask.
• Daniel Franzese (1978-): Actor known for Killer Pad and Kill Theory.
• Rosario Dawson (1979-): Actor known for Death Proof.

Films:

• The Spider Returns (1941): Superhero action film.
• Soylent Green (1973): A cop tries to get by in a dystopian future with inequality almost as bad as we have today.
• Friday the 13th (1980): The first of this iconic franchise is just fine.
• Ice Cream Man (1995): Slasher comedy starring Clint Howard.
• The Fifth Element (1997): A cabdriver in the future helps a runaway and maybe the entire world.
• The Eye (2002): A young woman gets an eye transplant and can now see ghosts.
• A Mighty Wind (2003): The best of the Christopher Guest improv films — this time focused on folk music.
• House of Usher (2008): Creepy house film featuring David DeCoteau’s stable of beautiful young men.
• Clown in a Cornfield (2025): Clown slasher from Eli Craig.

Paper Moon (1973) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.

Universal Pictures released the revisionist western Death of a Gunfighter on 8 May 1969. It’s a good film, but that’s not why we’re talking about it today. We are talking about it because it birthed Alan Smithee.

During the production, director Robert Totten and star Richard Widmark didn’t get along. With half the film in the can, Widmark demanded that producer Richard Lyons replace Totten.

I’ve never heard the specifics of the story. In fact, it isn’t even clear if Totten was replaced or resigned. And it isn’t clear what the problem was. But it isn’t hard to see how the conflict could arise.

Totten had been toiling most of his career as a television director, and Death of a Gunfighter was his first chance to direct a well-budgeted feature film. And there’s every indication that he was using his considerable talent to its fullest extent on the film.

Meanwhile, Widmark was a star on the downside of his career. I can well see why he found the young and ambitious director annoying. Not that it was reasonable.

Regardless of what happened, Totten was replaced by the great Don Siegel. It is probably due to this that the film is uneven. But at the end, Widmark wanted Siegel’s name on the film. Siegel felt it would be wrong to do so. (He might also have been unimpressed with the final film.) And Totten certainly didn’t want his name on the film.

Alan Smithee

So the Director’s Guild of America decided to overturn their long-running policy of not allowing pseudonyms for directors. They allowed the producers to credit the “director” Allen Smithee. But this spelling was soon changed and the official spelling is now “Alan Smithee.”

Most fans will be well-familiar with this name, or as it is more usually spelled: Alan Smithee. This became the go-to name to use when a director wanted their name removed from a film.

There are other films produced earlier that IMDb lists as directed by Alan Smithee. But these were retroactively applied. For example, Fade In was produced in 1968 — before Death of a Gunfighter. But it was never released theatrically, appearing in 1973 on TV.

Other 8 May Anniversaries

Filmmakers:

• Bob Clampett (1913-1984): Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animator.
• Saul Bass (1920-1996): Iconic designer of movie posters like Vertigo and The Shining.
• Jack Laird (1923-1991): Producer best known for Night Gallery.
• Don Rickles (1926-2017): Comedian who had a pretty big career in film including Kelly’s Heroes and the voice of Mr Potato Head in the Toy Story films.
• Robert Dix (1935-2018): Character actor known for Blood of Dracula’s Castle, Five Bloody Graves, and more.
• David Keith (1954-): Actor known for Firestarter and Daredevil.
• Betsy Baker (1955-): Actor known for The Evil Dead.
• Jeff Wincott (1956-): Martial artist who appears in a lot of those kinds of films.

Films:

• The Corpse Vanishes (1942): Bela Lugosi “mad scientist with needy wife” film.
• The Evil of Frankenstein (1964): Third of the Hammer Frankenstein films and one you should definitely see.
• The Burning (1981): Camp slasher.
• Poison Ivy (1992): Teen worms her way into a rich family with bad intent.
• Deep Impact (1998): Comet hits Earth.
• The Lower Circle (2009): Old friends get together at a remote location, and things get complicated.
• America’s Most Haunted (2013): People who produce a ghost-hunting show encounter an actual ghost.

Death of a Gunfighter (1969) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.