"When I refused to take directing credit for the film [Death of a Gunfighter], as did Bob Totten, the Directors' Guild made up a pseudonym for Totten and myself, 'Allen Smithee'. As the picture was well received, I told my young friends who wanted to be directors to change their name to Smithee and take credit for direction of the picture. I don't know if anyone did this. I still think under certain circumstances, they might have cracked the 'magic barrier' and become directors." -- Don Siegel _A Siegel Film_, London: Faber and Faber, 1993 (320,321).