In 1897, a blustery actor-manager, "The Great McGonigle" (W. C. Fields), and his traveling theater troupe is perpetually underfunded and always just a step ahead of the law and creditors. McGonigle's daughter Betty (Judith Allen) is loyal to her father, and she tries to discourage a suitor named Wally Livingston (Joe Morrison), telling him he should follow his own father's wishes and go to college instead of trying to become an actor. Along with the rest of the troupe is McGonigle's rather dim-witted assistant Marmaduke (Tammany Young).

Wally's wealthy father (Oscar Apfel) arrives in the town where the troupe is scheduled to perform a Victorian melodrama, William H. Smith's popular temperance play, The Drunkard. One of the players has resigned, and Wally wins the part, affording him a chance to act and also to perform a couple of songs in his strong tenor voice. His father is impressed by his son's talent, and his skepticism about Betty is eased when he learns that she has been trying to get Wally to return to college.

McGonigle has an eye on Cleopatra Pepperday (Jan Duggan), a wealthy and untalented widow, and her infant son (Baby LeRoy), and exploits her to stave off the local sheriff, who is Pepperday's boyfriend. To secure her support, McGonigle promises her a cameo role in The Drunkard, with one line: "Here comes the prince." The play has no reference to any prince of course, and act after act comes and goes with her rehearsing her line in fond hope, but her cue never comes. At the end of the play, distraught and crying, she goes off to get the sheriff. After the play concludes, McGonigle comes onstage and performs a juggling act.

McGonigle then learns that the troupe's sponsor is canceling the tour, due to poor advance reports. McGonigle tells Betty and Wally that he has decided to close the show and to seek his fortune in New York City. The bride and groom and his father ride the train back to the Livingston home, and Betty gets a telegram from her father stating that things are going well in the big city. In reality, McGonigle has become a snake-oil salesman.

Director
William Beaudine

Writers
Garnett WestonJack CunninghamW.C. Fields

Cast
W. C. Fields as The Great McGonigle / Squire Cribbs in 'The Drunkard'
Joe Morrison as Wally Livingston / William Dowton in 'The Drunkard'
Baby LeRoy as Albert Pepperday
Judith Allen as Betty McGonigle / Agnes Dowton in 'The Drunkard'
Jan Duggan as Cleopatra Pepperday
Tammany Young as Marmaduke Gump
Nora Cecil as Mrs. Wendelschaffer
Lew Kelly as Sheriff Walter Jones
Jack Mulhall as Dick Bronson, resigning actor
Oscar Apfel as Mr. Livingston
Samuel Ethridge as Bartley Neuville / Edward Middleton / The Drunkard in 'The Drunkard'
Ruth Marion as Agatha Sprague / Mary Wilson in 'The Drunkard'
Richard Carle as Sheriff of Barnesville
Larry Grenier as Drover Stevens in 'The Drunkard'
William Blatchford as Landlord in 'The Drunkard'
Jeffrey Williams as Mrs. Arden Renclelaw in 'The Drunkard'
Donald Brown as The Minister in 'The Drunkard'

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