which directors were the biggest jerks and hardest to work with?

Chaplin was a notorious perfectionist and often berated his actors. For a scene in Limelight, he lashed out at Claire Bloom in order to get an effective crying performance out of her. On the set of his last film, A Countess From Hong Kong, he reportedly berated his son in front of the crew and the rest of the cast, and clashed often with star Marlon Brando,
as Chaplin was exasperated by his method acting and demanded that he just do as he was told. Conversely, he sneered at co-star Virginia Cherrill in City Lights for being "an amateur," even though he was well aware that she had no acting experience
when he hired her for the film. The movie took more than two years to make, with more than half a year just to shoot it. One scene in which Cherrill's flower seller character offers Chaplin's Tramp character a flower and says one line took over 300 takes to shoot, apparently as Chaplin kept finding fault with the way she held the flower, etc., etc. etc. It must have been upsetting for her and the crew as well. (The filming of this scene is included in the excellent documentary Forgotten Chaplin).