Alan Smithee | Episode 6

AlanSmithee

Charlotte: There have been many iconic filmmakers in Hollywood's hundred year history 

Charlotte: directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Cecille be dil Robert Altman and David lean continue to inspire countless filmmakers to this day. Today, we're gonna focus on one of the most prolific directors in cinematic history, director Alan Smithy? 

Charlotte: Smithy has a credit sheet that runs a mile long, having directed well over 130 movies and television shows during his 50 year career.

Charlotte: He's worked with the likes of Jody foster, Dennis Hopper, Vincent Price, Lynn red Lynn Redgrave mm-hmm Lynn Redgrave, Gary Busey, Christopher plum, Robert Deval, Charlton Heston, Richard Woodmark and Carol O'Connor to name a. 

Charlotte: little is known about his origins before his feature film debut in the late 1960s, but he has said to have learned his craft by working uncredited as an editor for some of Hollywood's biggest directors of the day in 1969, that all changed when he directed his first feature film, death of a gun fighter, which was released to rave reviews.

Charlotte: Roger. Ebert praised the film, awarding it three and a half stars saying 

Adam: director Ellen Smith. A name I'm not familiar with allows his story to unfold. Naturally. He never preaches. He never lingers on the obvious the characters do what they have to do. 

Charlotte: New York times reviewer Howard Thompson even said 

Adam: sharply directed by Allen Smithy, who has an aro facility for scanning faces and extracting background detail.

Adam: Sadly, 

Charlotte: this debut was a career high for Alan Smithy and the output that followed had a steadily downhill trajectory. This included films like blood sucking pharaohs in Pittsburgh, the birds too lands in solar crisis and shrimp on the Barbie. Despite all these critical failures, Alan Smithy was not deterred and worked steadily until 2000 when he was forced into retirement.

Charlotte: That's right. He wasn't actually ready to retire from directing, but the DGA that's, the director's Guild of America forced him into retirement. This is the first and only time the DGA has exercised their right to force the director into retirement. But here's the thing, director, Alan Smithy. Isn't a real person.

Charlotte: . He doesn't actually exist

Charlotte: Since the late 1960s, the moniker Alan Smithy has been awarded to films that the DGA deemed artistically compromised from the director's original vision by way of intervening producers or studios directors seek to have their name removed from a project that had directors seeking to have their names removed from a project, had to appeal to the DGA for the right to use the name.

Charlotte: Alan Smith. If the appeal was approved, the studio had to attribute the film to director Allen Smithy and the real director agreed to keep mom about the project. 

Adam: So it all started in 1968 when a dispute arose on the set of the film death of a gun fighter. Richard Widmark. The star of the film was unhappy with the director, Robert Taton and had him replaced by his good friend, Don Siegel. When the film was finished, both Siegel who had only been on the set the last 10 days of filming and Taten who saw that roughly 50% of the finished film was Siegel's footage.

Adam: Refused to take credit. The DGA could not allow the credit to stay vacant. And they realized that the film did not represent either man's creative vision. So the name Alan Smithy was manufactured as a placeholder. They initially proposed the name Al Smith, but the name was already in use. So that turned into Smith, that Smith with an E, but that wasn't distinctive enough.

Adam: So. The name Smithy with two E was born. Interestingly, on that day, the female form Alana Smithy was also born. So they were forward thinking

Adam: So let's talk 

Charlotte: about Alan Smithy. He directed a lot of films. I bet you've seen many of them. 

Adam: I have. And a lot of them sort of trashy. I don't think that the name ---- Smithy necessarily constitutes that it's going to be a bad movie.

Adam: No, 

Charlotte: no, not at. 

Adam: A lot of the cases that in the research that turned up was that the producers had gone in and recut something or gone in and shot additional scenes.

Adam: And so the. Result is much different than the director intended. 

Charlotte: In that case, why wouldn't the producers or whoever made the edits, why wouldn't they get the credit? Why does it have to be a fake 

Adam: moniker? Well, it has to be a director and they're not in the director's Guild. They're in the producer's Guild completely different 

Charlotte: thing.

Charlotte: So you think it's a, it's a union or Guild thing? It's a guilt. It's absolutely guilt. That makes sense. Yeah, because with the WGA, with writing. Arbitration on those, it's usually one or the other cuz different people worked on a script and whoever worked on it more gets the credits.

Adam: That's a whole thing.

Adam: Then those credits are what they base box office bonuses on. I mean, as things become more and more streaming, that will be less and less important. Right. But right now it's so hard to make a movie. First of all, that credits are so few and far between if you wrote on that film, you want to get credit for it, right?

Adam: Because it builds your resume. And once you have a film made. then you're a working screenwriter or director in Hollywood. And 

Charlotte: didn't you say once that the Anns and the Amper sands in the credits for a film, that those actually mean different things, 

Adam: yeah. The ampersand means they work together and the ends mean that they worked on the same project at different. gotcha. That 

Charlotte: makes sense. 

Adam: Yeah. A little code. It is a little bit of a code. 

Charlotte: So the DGA though, I like that they created this as a way to protect people within their guilt vision. Well, 

Adam: I think ultimately too, they're trying to protect their right to that. Because it would be very easy to start releasing movies with no director attached with no credit at all, given, oh, well we had a dispute on set, so we took their credit off.

Adam: Ah, I like that. And so then producers become the directors completely, even though, you know, they didn't actually do the work. 

Charlotte: Right. So if they have their name taken. How does that work with box office bonuses then? Do they still get that's they still it's 

Adam: all written into con yes. Yeah. It's all written.

Adam: That's why they can't talk about it afterwards. Like for years and years, most people did not know that Al Smithy was like a no a plume. Right. They thought it was an actual person and that's why they wanted it to sound like an actual person. But behind the scenes yes. That director, 

Adam: would be getting boxed off his bonuses and those checks would be going to 

Charlotte: him. So in that case, do you know if they both sort of got split credit behind the scenes? 

Adam: I don't think directors do split credit unless you're a directing team. Right. You have to initially go in as a directing team.

Adam: If you're replaced, whoever gets final credit is the director and that other person got paid off, in their contract. And 

Charlotte: that's it. and that's why sometimes on IMDB, on older films, you see a director uncredited on there. And I think that's why they're on there, right? Because they worked on it for a bit and were either removed or left on their own.

Charlotte: That 

Adam: happens today too. I think initially on the release of the raid team TMO, Toronto didn't get credit but was later given by the direct. Co-edit for directing. He's the guy that did all of the the fight choreography on the film. The director said, he's as responsible for 

Charlotte: this film as I am.

Charlotte: So a lot of times though, if that happens, don't the directors then gets a producer credit. Sometimes 

Adam: that's sort of, that's another, that's a 

Charlotte: workaround. , 

Adam: I think that also happened on the first John wick movie too. It was such a surprise hit there was only one director and then the other guy was the fight choreographer on that movie . And I think he was eventually given co-edit as a director 

Charlotte: on it. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of directors and producers that work really closely together. I mean, there always have been like with the Fleisher studios, Dave Fleischer has credit for directing everything.

Charlotte: Whereas max Fleischer has producing credit. Right. Even though they kind of equally 

Adam: shared. And if you're a team and you work it out that way, like I think that the Cohen brothers for their first few movies Joel was the director, I think you're right. And Ethan was a producer and writer. I think they took cowriting credit and then the Ethan took producer credit on it.

Adam: Mm-hmm so they were a team and they already worked all this stuff out ahead at the time. And Joel always took director credit, but then eventually they became the coan brothers. And so everything just said the coan brothers on it, so right.

Adam: - Wow. This kind of went down a fun little rabbit hole. Yeah. 

Charlotte: Back to Alan Smithy. I've seen that used on a lot of. Television or airline edits for films back in the eighties, nineties studios were reediting films for television or for airlines, and they weren't passing those by the director before they released it.

Charlotte: And you know, you could be pulling in. Lines that weren't used from the film and re-editing it that way completely removing scenes. There's all kinds of things. I saw that a lot of directors put the name, Alan Smithy on these. Airline or television versions of film, which nowadays you actually have to get their approval.

Charlotte: That's actually in the contract that any new edits have to be approved by the director if they're living or the director's 

Adam: proxy. Right. I know that that happened with David Lynch in the television version of Doon a do, right? Yeah, because they cut a, like a four hour version for TV, right. It was three and a half or something like that.

Adam: Right. But they had this big, long preamble that was animated and then they included a lot of that weird. dialogue that's going on in people's heads. Every time someone would talk, they'd have a line and then they'd have this big, long and monologue in their head. Yeah. And he was not super happy about that.

Adam: Yeah. 

Charlotte: A lot of directors now are. Thinking about that. So they actually record alternate lines or record the scene a little bit differently. Differently. Yeah. So they already know how it's gonna be used and that sort of thing. That's something that happens behind the scenes. I 

Adam: always finally remember the TV edit for the breakfast club.

Adam: Did you ever see the TV edit? No, I don't think so. It takes all, they, they changed all the cussing in it to like innocuous words. so like the word Dick got turned into duck. so. Like there's a scene where the principal is confronting John Bender in a closet and he said, I will knock your Dick in the dirt.

Adam: And it's like, I will knock your duck in the dirt. And I always died laughing every time that would come on. I actually sought that out. Anytime I was on television. I'd watch it just cuz it's such so much. 

Charlotte: The weirdest television edit that I ever saw, and it wasn't technically an edit, but it was a pan and scan version of 2001, a space Odyssey.

Charlotte: Wow. It was four by three. And I kid you not there's that scene sort of towards the beginning where they're sitting. Like Kubrick, does he frames people on the edges of a very, very wide lens. So the camera. Panning over to this character, when that person spoke and then panning over to the next character, it just kept going left.

Charlotte: And it was like a tennis match. And I thought, oh my God, if Stanley Cooper could see this is the anti everything that he's about. There was so much motion in it and I wish that I would've recorded it because I never saw it. And this was back when TiVos were big.

Charlotte: And I, I could have done that, but it was in the middle of the night. I swear. I didn't dream it. It's out there somewhere, probably in Warner brothers library, or maybe vault now, maybe a burn who knows someone should burn it. He would've not wanted his name on 

Adam: that. At least it wasn't one of those really lazy edits they used to do back where they just center frame everything for four by three yeah.

Adam: Center cup. So you would have like, and you couldn't you'd have those conversations where you were, it was just literal playing, seeing like, right. Between the two people that are talking to each other and you might see an arm every once in a while move through frame or their nose is funnily in frame Uhhuh.

Adam: yeah. I always like those ones too. 

Charlotte: Oh, pain and scan. I'm 

Adam: glad that's gone. Yeah, me too. 

Charlotte: So Alan Smithy sorta isn't really used anymore. 

Adam: It was officially retired by the DGA in 2000.

Adam: Right. And that was kind of preempted by the release of that movie. Alan Smithy burn Hollywood burn in 1998 mm-hmm . And they did a lot of advertising for that movie, and then it didn't get a wide release, but everybody had been on. All the news programs talking about it and what Alan Smithy was, they told the same story over and over again.

Adam: And so it was now then part of the zeitgeist, everybody knew what a Smithy meant. Well, the 

Charlotte: practice is still done, but sometimes it's done without the Allen Smithy. I know one instance for Walter Hill for the film supernova, he had his name taken off and it's credited to Thomas Lee.

Adam: Yeah. That was in 2000 right after they had already mm-hmm yep. Retired the name 

Charlotte: Alan Smith. He had finished that film and, well, it wasn't finished and had unfinished effects and they wouldn't give him any more money to finish it. So MGM, brought in Francis Ford Coppola to oversee the new to edit, 

Adam: edit, but Jack's shoulder came on to direct.

Adam: So he actually left the, the production in the last couple weeks or last four weeks or something. 

Charlotte: Then there's that really famous story about American history X?

Charlotte: Yes. 

Adam: Tony K. Wanted his name taken off of the film because Edward Norton 

Charlotte: did a whole Reed 

Adam: reedit. Yeah. Him and the producers went in and recut the film. And Tony Kay was so incensed that he went to every media outlet and trashed the film saying that it wasn't his creative vision, so it was bad. And then when it came out, it was a huge success, giant success nominated for academy awards 

Charlotte: and ed Norton is great in it. Yeah, he's fantastic.

Charlotte: This happened sort of more recently too, on the film accidental love with Jessica bee, David O' Russell was involved in that. 

Adam: They had financial trouble on that movie 

Charlotte: so this is the film that got shut down over and over again because the crew and the actors weren't being.

Charlotte: By the time this film had started shooting and the time that it was released, David O' Russell had worked on the fighter, silver lining's playbook, American hustle. So by the time this movie came out and it was nothing like what he worked on, he had his name taken off, which, Hey, I can understand that.

Charlotte: Cause remember Eddie Murphy, 

Charlotte: he won the golden globe for dream girls. And I think he was nominated for an Oscar for it. And I think the week around or before, sometime right around there, when there was all this buzz about how great he was on this film, Norbit got released oh, Dreamworks, thank 

Adam: you.

Charlotte: And the tagline, have you ever made a really big mistake? 

Charlotte: And I don't know if that cost him the Oscar, but who's 

Adam: to say it didn't and he was very upset that he didn't win.

Adam: Yeah. You should have seen his face. He did not hide that. He was upset about it. . Well, he was incredible in that movie. Yeah. He should have won 

Charlotte: it. He should have won. Yeah. But Norbit came out who knows. Maybe people saw that and they thought, you know what? I'm not gonna vote for this Norbit guy, even though he was great in this movie.

Adam: 

Adam: We can't give it to the guy 

Adam: Questionable choice. Yeah. That's rough. Yeah.

Adam: Anyway, so Alan Smith, should we go back to 

Charlotte: Allen Smith? So back to Allen. 

Adam: Smithy. I think we should talk about a couple of his movies. Yeah. Since we're talking about 

Charlotte: Alan Smithy, you recently watched birds two lands end 

Adam: lands in 

Adam: Universal was pairing up with Showtime and they were using some of their older. And they were doing sequels. 

Charlotte: Yeah. And since they got away with psycho and psycho had sequels and people were accepting of them, they thought, well, what else?

Charlotte: So they did the birds 

Adam: Apparently they'd been trying to make a sequel to birds for a really, really long time. So why is it called 

Charlotte: lands in, because I think of that clothing company that the, the mail order one, remember. Yeah. 

Adam: So it's set on an island, just off the shore and lands in means that the house that's being attacked is at the end of the island. And so it's the land's end. So it's not bodega bay. It's not bodega. But they do reference bodega bay and

Adam: Tippi Hedron is in this, but she's not playing the same character. No, she's playing a different character. They wanted her in it. But they didn't want to have. Pay her to star? Well, she was definitely not starring in this film. I think the only reason she did it was for a paycheck though. 

Charlotte: Well, she was in the original and you kind of want that handover some 

Adam: sort of continuity, right? Yeah, she plays a very small role. She owns a small store on the island. A pet shop. It is not a pet.

Adam: It is a general store. Is it, is it 

Charlotte: called the general store? It is. I feel like you're effing 

Adam: with me. I'm not effing with you. it is. It's the general store. okay. I said aloud to my mom who I was watching it with. I said, oh, it's a general store. Charlotte would love this scene. Yeah. 

Charlotte: , I do love general stores. So here's the thing. 

Adam: So birds, two birds, two is not a bad film. it's not for what it 

Charlotte: is. 

Adam: Rick Rosenthal did a pretty solid job directing it. It's not mind blowing, but it's a very solid little thriller. I watched some of the special features. And they said that the reason that Rick took his name off of it is because the producers went and shot additional footage after he was done and off the project.

Adam: Mm-hmm and they inserted it into his cut to make it gorier he wanted to do a Hitchcock and thriller, which this was. By any stretch of the imagination. 

Charlotte: Anytime someone says hitch cocky and thriller. 

Adam: That's the death now?

Adam: It is usually not. Well, that's the one thing, if you say it's Hitchcock and that means that you don't know, what Hitchcockian is, this isn't a bad film. If it weren't called birds too, if it was called, seagulls the attack 

Adam: it would've been considered a pretty solid little programmer, , it's not gonna blow anybody away ever. I expected it to be really bad. I honestly, I don't think that putting the gore, your scenes in there really helped.

Adam: I don't think it hurt it. Oh 

Adam: I think he was battling with him kind of the whole time. Yeah. That was sort of the 

Charlotte: final 

Adam: straw. Yeah. I think there was just never enough money on the film to do it. So Rick Rosenthal directed Halloween too, which, which 

Charlotte: is, what's funny about him not wanting the gore in 

Adam: there.

Adam: Well, also this happened to him on Halloween two, John Carpenter came into Halloween two in the edit, took it away from. Then he went back and shot extra scenes for the film that he directed and inserted them into Halloween too. But Rick Rosenthal, didn't take his name off of that one. 

Adam: It has some really good, special effects as far as the robotic birds, like the bird attacks and things like that. Robotic birds. Yeah. They designed all these animatronic birds. There's this Hawk scene where the family's caught outside as the birds are congregating outside their house.

Adam: Kinda like in the first one, right? This time it's their dog who is out in the yard and the little girl runs out. So you've got child peril, you've got animal parallel animal. And the mom and dad have to run out and grab them both and bring them into the house of safety and a big giant Hawk \ comes down.

Adam: On the dad as he's shoeing the girl and, and it's , attacking him and he's got it pinned down with an arm and it's flailing around. And it looks very real. I was like, wow, this is shockingly good, very well pulled off there. Rick RO Rosenthal. 

Charlotte: Is there any explanation as to why the birds are going crazy?

Adam: There's some sort of oil spill at the beginning. This guy's fishing birds out that have been exposed to some sort of chemical in the water and that it's all slimy on them. And then he ends up getting killed. That's one of the scenes that the producers actually went and. because they show them pecking his eyes out.

Adam: And that was not in the original cut of the film. His body kind of just washes up on the shore in the Rick Rosenthal version. And they said, oh, this guy's been missing for a few days. It's kind of like jaws at that, you know, instead mm-hmm , 

Charlotte: so this film has a 3.0 rating on IMDB, but it sounds like you are recommending 

Adam: the film. I would, I mean, I gave it three stars. I thought it was pretty solid. Three outta five, three outta five. Oh, you know, what I didn't read was the synopsis and all that.

Adam: All right. So here is the official tagline for birds, two lands end 1994, directed by Alan Smithy, AKA Rick Rosenthal, T R T 87 minutes. History has a nasty way of repeating itself. And the synopsis is still haunted by the memory of the sun. They lost to an accident years ago, Ted and Mary Hawkin take up residents with their two young daughters on the remote wind swept reaches of a tiny east coast island.

Adam: The Hawkins are determined to forget they're painful past and spend a quiet uneventful summer. But as immense flocks of birds begin massing around the island, it becomes clear that something is very wrong in the isolated deceptively calm Oasis. Before long, the sky is darkened by a hideous onslaught of the screeching wing creatures.

Adam: It's an assault unlike anything in the history of Manor beast, or is it for one old timer recalls a similar horrific outbreak that gripped the west coast decades.

Adam: That's it. Wow. Wow. They're tipping their hand. Yeah, they are. They're tiping their hand. 

Charlotte: Oh, no, no, no. I have a random Allen Smithy question. Do you know why they changed the spelling of the name? Because in death of a gun fighter, it's a L L E N. And then later on would be more commonly a L 

Adam: a N.

Adam: Yeah. Do you know. Yes. They initially wanted they didn't want it to be like any other names. So they intentionally spelled it the less common way. 

Adam: Common way. Yeah. So back to birds, two, the one thing I would say is that the ending of the film is very anti-climatic. I would say that the Hitchcock version really nails the ending, this one, not so much. I would say spoiler alert. I didn't say what it was.

Adam: I'm just saying that Hey, you're going along. You're going, Hey, this movie isn't bad. And then it just ends.

Charlotte: Look, I don't think anybody's rushing out to watch birds too, after 

Adam: they listen to this, probably not. 

Charlotte: 

Charlotte: So let's talk about the demise of the Allen Smithy moniker. 

Adam: Well, everybody acknowledges the reason for the retirement of Alan Smithy was the film, a Smithy burn Hollywood burn that was released in 1998.

Adam: It's a Hollywood insider type of film, very 

Charlotte: inside baseball, 

Adam: inside baseball. Exactly. It was written and produced by Joe Esther house who at that point was a very, very powerful screenwriter. I was gonna say Showgirls first, which probably wouldn't have been the best way to go. Hey, but he was a million dollar script guy.

Adam: He most famously sold the 12 page outline for the movie Jade for a million dollars. Oh, wow. Yep. To paramount back in the day. You know, there's three cuts of that film is there? I did not know three D I know there's an unrated cut that was over and a Euro cut really? 

Charlotte: Huh. And a us 

Adam: theatrical cut.

Adam: Very interesting. Not really, but I, I threw that in there. Yeah. He became a very sought after screenwriter after basic instinct. That was the movie that really put him on the map, 

Adam: was this his 

Charlotte: directorial debut or 

Adam: no, he didn't direct this. Oh, he wrote this. He wrote and produced it 

Adam: so what's actually funny about this film is that Arthur Hiller, who was the head of the DGA. Prior to directing this film was brought on to direct this film and then ultimately ended up taking his name off of it and becoming an Allen Smith film. And I'm sure some of it was a publicity stunt but it wasn't completely that it was because he did a cut of the film and Joe Esther house, unbeknownst to him also did a cut of the film.

Adam: Then they presented them both to the studio and the studio preferred the Joe Esther house. Cut. I 

Charlotte: wonder if the work print for the other one still exists. I wonder, I mean, a work print, if you don't know is sort of a first cut of the film and it's what they would show either a test audience or the studio, and then they would cut from there. And a lot of times the work print that you're gonna end up with is gonna match the theatrical cut.

Charlotte: But sometimes in an archive you find a different work cut or you find a TV work. That has some differences or maybe some scenes that weren't included. Bed knobs and broomsticks, which I talked about last week, some of the Portobello road stuff they actually found in one of the work prints.

Charlotte: Oh, that's see. That's cool. Yeah. So anyways, 

Adam: work print, you were also talking about TV edits and things like that. So sometimes they'll extract entire scenes mm-hmm and replace. With other scenes that were shot that were deleted from the original theatrical cut. 

Charlotte: Yep. Or they just add scenes that were maybe taken out, like for star Trek, the motion picture the TV.

Charlotte: Edit for that was, I think about 12 minutes longer. Don't quote me on that, 

Adam: that was the longer, 

Adam: the one that was on VHS that was called the special, longer version. Special version. Yes. mm-hmm . What's interesting is that this movie was released by Hollywood pictures, which was part of Walt Disney at the time. And it's an R rated as RA gets this film. There's so many F bombs in it. I think that the current state of Disney would be just appalled at the fact that this ever got made 

Charlotte: on.

Charlotte: Well, there's a lot of cameos in this film too. You've got Weinstein. Oh yeah. That's shocking now. Yeah. To see him to see him, Robert Evans is in it. Yeah. 

Adam: Robert Evans. Cool to see him has a pretty major part. Shane black Shane black Sylvester Stallone 

Charlotte: Stallone. Stallone's probably the best part I have to say.

Charlotte: I didn't care for this 

Adam: movie. Well, I think a lot of people don't, but a lot of the references are pretty fun if you're in Hollywood. I don't think that they would be interesting to most people. 

Charlotte: I'm in Hollywood and I just didn't think it was that interesting. Yeah. 

Adam: I thought it was a little better than you did.

Adam: I didn't hate it. 

Charlotte: Well, I'd really be curious to see Arthur Hiller's version because he's a great director. He did love story, which I bet is why Robert Evans ended up being in the movie.

Charlotte: I bet. You're right. Yeah, because of that connection, 

Adam: Robert Evers owed him a solid cuz he saved his butt. 

Charlotte: Yeah. And in the film. Robert Evans is watching that pitch thing that he made for the studio that was talking about how love story was gonna save the studio in the seventies.

Charlotte: Yeah. Mm-hmm in 1970. Yeah. They're actually showing a clip of that. Robert Evans is watching that on his couch. That's what that clip is from which he's talking about. Love story, which 

Adam: Arthur Hiller directed. That's why Ryan O'Neil was probably in this too. 

Charlotte: Oh, that's right. He was one of the better characters. Yeah. 

Adam: A lot of rappers in this too. Yeah. Julio's in it. And Chuck D and MC light. Oh, and this is really strange.

Adam: So when they're done with the film and they were putting music on it, they didn't have enough money for all the songs that Esther house wanted to put in it. So he put out an open. And had like 7,800 submissions from mostly unsigned talent send in their music to him. And he listened to thousands of songs and combed through them and picked, 12 or 14 to put in the movie.

Adam: And he put all these unsigned people in the movie. Hmm. Which is kind of cool. Yeah. I 

Charlotte: wonder if any of them went on to be signed? 

Adam: I don't know. Yeah, that's a, that's a good question. Not one. 

Charlotte: I'm gonna research, 

Adam: but Hey. Also at the very end, during the credits.

Adam: There's this very telling scene where Joe Esther house is sitting next to Arthur Hiller and he's telling him that this movie is going to help directors because it's, telling everybody about this whole Alan Smithy thing.

Adam: And Arthur Hiller looks directly at Joe Esther house. And he said, one thing that DGA doesn't need is you protecting them. and I was like, whoa, obviously these guys weren't getting along already at that point. Oh, do we want the here I'll do the little synopsis of that too, alan Smithy, film burn Hollywood burn 1998. Directed by Alan Smithy. AKA Arthur Hiller. This does not have a tagline on it. Strangely doesn't need one. TT is 86 minutes. Filmmaker, a Smithy finds himself the unwilling puppet of a potentially bad, big budget action film, which he proceeds to steal the reels and leave the casting crew in a frenzy.

Adam: Anyway. So that's what it's Alan Smith gets hired. Onto this film to direct because the producer and the studio thinks that they're gonna be able to push him around, cuz he wants to move up to be a director. And the stars of his movie are whoopy Goldberg Sylvester, Stallone, and Jackie Chan.

Adam: And they're all together for the first time on. They spend $200 million making this action film. Then he freaks out and steals it. Fun fact, 

Charlotte: the made up history of Alan Smithy at the beginning of our podcast here about him being an editor was completely stolen from this film where he is an editor.

Charlotte: trying to make his way as a 

Adam: director. Oh, not stolen we're paying homage to this film. 

Charlotte: Oh yeah. We're Quentin taring. It . even though I'm gonna take it word for word. Let me go back and actually take it word for word. Yeah, there you go. And then just put some kind of fun music behind it that no one's ever heard

Charlotte: that wasn't sarcastic 

Adam: at all. No. Well, all right. Well, 

Charlotte: Fun talking about Alan Smithy 

Adam: it's a fun unexplored area. Yeah. 

Charlotte: And sometimes you'll see it pop up here and there. And if you're watching something and you see it now, you know, Alan Smithy, now you're in the know, in the know we love to point out all those random things.

Adam: So, Hey, reach out to us. Tell us what your favorite Alan Smith film is. 

Charlotte: So let me get this. Alan Smithy directed over a, okay. I can't do it. I can't do it. this is a, actually there is a, let me get this straight in burn Hollywood burn. 

Adam: Yes. Ryan O'Neil says it. 

Charlotte: Yes, he does. I remember it was the most exciting part of the movie, except for when it was over.

Charlotte: Thanks for joining us here on this little edition of perf damage, talking about Alan Smithy. You wanna get ahold of us and call Adam at five fifty five whatever happened at 5 55? I don't know. They gave up a, yeah, they don't use it anymore. And is it even a, that's a future 

Adam: podcast 

Charlotte: right there.

Charlotte: You know what? I just thought of another one 

Adam: too. History of 5 

Charlotte: 55. Gonna be an exciting one folks. if you wanna send us an email, we are we are perf damage podcast, gmail.com. Or you can send us a night on Twitter at perf damage. Thanks skin for joining us here, here on, 

Adam: on perf damage. .

Charlotte: Surprisingly though, this illustrious director is still relatively unknown. Little is known about his oranges, oranges, his oranges.

Charlotte: They're very tasty. I hear. Yeah, he was a he was an orange farmer for a while. Yeah, 

Adam: I'm busy. Yeah. I'm podcast. Let me outline on podcast.