It took nine tailors (1948)

124 IT TOOK NINE TAILORS Assistant Director Sutherland stared; Literary Adviser Bell turned pale. There was a moment of dead silence. "Well, how do you like it?" demanded Chaplin. They didn't know what to say. After all, it's hard to tell the boss, especially one like Chaplin, that he's wrong, because maybe he's right. "Never mind!" he snapped, then turned and walked out of the studio. For several days Chaplin stayed away from the studio. Then one morning he appeared and remarked, "So you don't like the leper colony?" "No!" chorused Monta and Eddie. That was the end of the leper colony. There is another story that Harry D'Arrast loves to tell as convincing proof that Charlie is an eccentric and unpredictable genius. Shooting had been suspended for a few minutes while the staff sat down to discuss a certain scene. During the discussion a fly kept buzzing around Charlie's head; he slapped at it several times, finally became annoyed, and called for a fly swatter. The swatter was obtained and Charlie took charge of it. As the discussion continued he watched the fly, waiting for an opportunity to swat it. But this was a very elusive fly. Three times Charlie swung at it and three times he missed. At last the fly settled on a table directly before him. He raised the swatter to deliver the death blow. Then he changed his mind and lowered his weapon, allowing the fly to escape. "Why didn't you swat it?" someone demanded. Charlie shrugged. "It wasn't the same fly." Sometimes Charlie would go into one of his unproductive moods and disappear from the studio for several days at a time. When this happened, the actors got together and talked it over. Had he lost interest in the picture? Had he decided to throw it in the ash can? It wouldn't be the first time he had abandoned a picture in the making. There were days when we were sure he