with Hughes. Sturges took over the remainder of allotted filming, and principal photography wrapped on 29 October, with the film over both its shooting schedule and its budget. Stuart Heisler At this point, Hughes was still unhappy with the footage produced, so Sturges either quit the film or was fired, and his partnership with Hughes was dissolved, with both of the company's films, Vendetta and The Sin of Harold Diddlebock, seriously overbudget. Hughes bought director Stuart Heisler out of his contract with Gary Cooper to be the new director for Vendetta, fired at least two members of the cast, and replaced the entire production staff. He cut out one of the major characters, the son of the aristocratic English lady, because he was dissatisfied with actor Gregory Marshall's performance, and because he wanted Domergue to get more screen exposure. Principal photography began again on 8 November with Heisler directing, and with George Dolenz and Donald Buka as the new co-stars, but paused again for about 10 days near the end of the month for the script to be re-written. Filming started up again, with some new cast members, on 2 December and proceeded until 15 March 1947. During this time, writers W. R. Burnett and Peter O'Crotty were engaged, in January, to do more re-writes, and director Heisler became ill for several days so that editor Paul Weatherwax had to substitute for him. By this time, the film had been shooting for 88 days. Mel Ferrer Hughes was dissatisfied with the result of Heisler's work and wanted a new ending for the film. He and Heisler were unable to agree, and Heisler departed in May 1947. Hughes then brought in actor/director Mel Ferrer, who he borrowed from David O. Selznick's production company in June, to finish the film, with the expectation that his assignment would last about 30 days and cost about $200,000. Hughes also hired Wells Root to do re-writes, and replaced the director of photography. Ferrer began shooting on 6 October 1947. Because Hughes kept expanding what was to be re-shot, this phase of the production ended up taking almost seven weeks and costing over $1 million. Shooting wrapped in late November, but by March 1948, Hughes wanted more changes, and Ferrer came back to do re-shoots beginning on 27 March, with Hughes himself directing some pick-up scenes. Corriganville During the course of the film's extensive shooting, much