Baronlando said:
What he shot is pretty far from a disaster, that's just one of those dramatic "facts" that gets passed around a lot and becomes true. The greatest editor in the world will be the first to say you can't actually make a shitty movie great after the fact. George was sharp as a tack when it came to shooting what was necessary and possible and the actors are allowed to be loose and likeable. Thats pure good directing.
"You don't know the power of the Darkside editing"
Checkout Orson Welles's 1973 documentary/essay/forgery 'F For Fake' to see what an editor can create (Also it's hands down one of the greatest films ever created). Every shot of Orson's miraculous film is a lie created in his editing room to fool and amuse us the viewers. It's 100% a Welles film but only about 10% of the footage was shot for the film by Welles. The rest is footage by other people edited by Orson into a narrative created by his skillful editing.
You can get it from Criterion in the US and Eureka! in Europe, via Amazon.
Highly reccomended.
Also the clip below shows the kind of stuff George shot before Muren, Burtt, Williams and Co sorted it out...