The Director: Orson Welles

The Studio: Universal

The Fight: You might think that getting one of Hollywood's legendary talents, even one whose career had been off the boil for a while to shoot your film might be enough for any studio.

You would be wrong.

Welles sent in his rough cut of Touch Of Evil - which he took on to prove he could make a good movie from a bad script (originally called Badge Of Evil) - and figured it was the start of his road to redemption.

Instead, the studio decided that it didn't work, sent in its own editors and emerged with a version no-one really liked.

So Touch Of Evil was released as a B-movie, lingering on the bill with The Female Animal.

It didn't make much money at the box office, but it did get recognised as powerful and important by the likes of Francois Truffaut. A re-release in late 1957 still didn't work, despite Welles submitting a 58-page memo on what was wrong with Universal's new cut.

The Victor: No-one, until recently. 1998 saw Walter Murch tackle a new edit, which hews as closely as possible to Welles' memo instructions.

But even that had a battle of its own as Beatrice Welles (the director's daughter) fought to stop it being launched at Cannes, annoyed that she had not been consulted.

Next: Alien 3