- Merton Gill dreams of being a star of western films in Hollywood. When the filmmakers there see his acting style, they get their own idea of how to use his talent.
- Merton Gill, clerk in Gashwiler's General Store, dreams of the day when he will become a celebrated movie star. His Simsbury career is brought to an abrupt halt on the Sunday morning he is thrown in all his gay Sears-Roebuck cowboy regalia, from the back of Gashwiler's delivery nag in front of the village church just as the congregation is leaving. He kicks the dust of the sleepy little town from his heels and makes tracks for Hollywood and fame and fortune. After doing the rounds of the casting offices, he turns to the Holden Studios where his idol, Harold Parmalee, holds sway. He strikes up a chance acquaintance with Sally ('Flips') Montague, a pretty little comedy actress. By putting the girl's make-up box to good use, Merton manages to slip past the studio gateman and, following 'Flips' hunch, takes his place with a bunch of extras on the Parmalee set. As luck would have it, he is given an opportunity to do a 'bit' but bungles it miserably and is fired. Penniless, Merton hangs around the lot, fearing to leave lest he might not get back again, until he is weak from hunger. Flips is looking out for him, unbeknown to Merton. Flips induces her comedy director to make Merton the unsuspecting star in a burlesque of a Parmalee picture. Gill goes into the thing with all the fervor of a real artist, firmly believing all the time that it is tense drama he is portraying, and not until he sees a preview of the picture does he realize that he has been made the goat. But the production is a knockout with the audience, and Merton is acclaimed a truly great comedian. The next day he goes to the studio and spurns two contracts for $300 a week. But he begins to think. In Flips' dressing room he tries to bluff it that all the time he knew it was a comedy he was making. She is deceived until she sees he is on the verge of tears. Suddenly he falls on his knees before her and breaks down. Baird, the director, finds them there and signs Merton to a long-term contract. The picture closes with Merton standing in the dressing room with his arm around Flips, telling a magazine interviewer what he had read and heard Parmalee say so often, "I really owe all my success to this little woman, who is going to be not only my wife but my pal. And, I may add, my severest critic!"
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