Day of the Assassin was shot in Mexico and was an
international co-production between Mexico, Spain and the United States. According to Trenchard-Smith, the original director was to be
Leslie Martinson, who had just made
Missile X – Geheimauftrag Neutronenbombe for producer
Ika Panajotovic. However, Martinson left the project when his deposit did not arrive. Martinson and Trenchard-Smith shared the same agent; he persuaded the producers to hire Trenchard-Smith on the basis he had made "a
Bruce Lee film" (in actuality a documentary about Lee produced in the wake of his death,
The World of Kung Fu); the producers thought they were getting
Enter the Dragon director
Robert Clouse and were disappointed to discover it was Trenchard-Smith. The female lead was meant to be
Jill St. John, but she left the project when her deposit did not arrive. She was replaced by
Susana Dosamantes, who was dating
Carlos Vasallo, the film's Spanish producer. Trenchard-Smith says
Glenn Ford was to be paid $100,000 for two days' work and that his friend, Taylor Lacher, would be given a role. This part had been promised to the writer, Robert Avard Miller, who was subsequently given a smaller part. Trenchard-Smith was fired during the sixth and last week of filming after refusing to shoot a sequence in which
Chuck Connors' character shoots and kills several guards while committing a robbery, as he was concerned that such a scene would prevent audiences from rooting for his character. Vasallo took over for the final few days, and is credited as co-director on some prints of the film. ==Reception==