Dictator Ruffled

Charlie Chaplin's "Production No. 6," known to everybody in Hollywood as The Dictator, will soon be ready for exhibitors. In spite of Chaplin secrecy, news has long since leaked out that The Dictator is a story of a mistaken identity, in which a battered little man in a concentration camp (Charlie Chaplin) and his Fuehrer (Charlie Chaplin) exchange places. But until last week no photograph of Chaplin as a burlesque Hitler had yet been released.

One day last fortnight in Manhattan, LIFE'S editors wrote Producer Chaplin a letter, told him they were publishing a picture of Actor Chaplin in uniform, wearing the insignia of his mythical totalitarian state -- a double cross. Last week, two days after LIFE'S letter reached the Chaplin studio, 48 hours before LIFE was due on newsstands, Chaplin lawyers turned up in a U. S. district court, slapped down a suit for $1,000,000 damages, got an injunction restraining LIFE from publishing Dictator Chaplin's picture. To news dealers and subscribers had already gone 1,802,325 copies, which were not included in the in junction. In the 1,112,625 copies still to be distributed, LIFE'S editors substituted a news shot of Henry Ford inspecting Army pursuit planes.

Said Charlie Chaplin's attorney in an affidavit to the court: "By the proposed and threatened publication . . . the reasonable expectation of over $5,000,000 in profits may be greatly jeopardized. . . ." Said LIFE: "The picture . . . was published because it was . . . of national interest at this time. . . . Although Mr. Chaplin's attorney admitted in court that LIFE'S letter had been received . . . at a time when the change could have been made without enormous trouble . . . it was not until this morning that LIFE was advised that a court action was to take place."

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