Headstrong and talented, vaudeville clown Bright arrives on his first California film location insisting that he will perform his bit role only if he can wear the outrageous costume and makeup of the character he has been known for on the stage.

The director (Cornel Wilde) refuses and Bright begins to storm off, but when his car rolls off a cliff he is forced to accept the terms.

His combination of acquiescence and audacity pays off, and before long he has become a major film comedy star in the 1910s and '20s, the silent picture era of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.

He sobers up and attempts a comeback in Hollywood but — ever living in the past — will accept it on no other terms than those he had been accustomed to, adamantly refusing the studio's offer to star him in a talkie, and storming out on his agent (Carl Reiner).

The denouement of Bright's life, and the film, finds him in and out of the hospital and visited by his now-grown son Billy Jr. (also played by Van Dyke in a dual role), reduced to setting the alarm in his dingy two-room apartment, and catching airings of him and his former wife's old comedies at odd hours on TV — which he watches without a hint of a smile.

[1] Reiner loosely patterned the story of Bright's career downfall on the real-life travails of a number of early film actors, primarily Buster Keaton, who likewise saw his Hollywood success falter as filmgoers' tastes changed and he fell into alcoholism.

Some details parallel the experiences of silent comedians Harry Langdon and Harold Lloyd, as well as the film's co-star Mickey Rooney.