.It’s 1928, and the director Mack Sennett, king of the silent comic film, has come back to his old studio. But it’s all changed; now they’re shooting a talkie. And talkies, according to Sennett, are nothing but “some joker with a Victrola back of the screen” – just tricks and not worth “one eighth of a quarter of an inch of my Mabel”. Mabel Normand, silent film actress, is the woman Sennett loved – indeed, still loves.

On those memories, we go back to the better days of 1911, when it all began. Sennett is shooting a two-reeler melodrama with Lotte Ames, when six henchmen from the creditors burst in and start closing down the set. Right into the middle of this mayhem walks Mabel, the kid from the deli, with lunch orders – and she’s not leaving without her 15 cents. Chaos turns into comic madness, all of it caught on film. Everyone breaks up laughing, debts are forgotten – a star is born.

Sixty two-reelers later, and Sennett and company have outgrown their little Brooklyn studio. They need “more space, sunshine, room to spread out!” Which means only one thing – California!

At last they’re in Hollywood. Bauman and Kessler, Sennett’s backers, want him to make big epics; but Mack has his own style. And he’s right. Things are going great: he and his star are a team and have never been happier. Until, that is, Mabel, prodded by the writer Frank, decides that her “integrity as an artist” is being compromised.

At a Hollywood party in her honour, Mabel meets the famous director William Desmond Taylor, who wants to make a film with her. Mack feels threatened, but instead of telling Mabel the truth – that he’s jealous – he attacks her until she has no choice but to walk out. It hurts, but he lets her go. Then master moviemaker that he is, he throws himself into a new idea: Sennett’s Bathing Beauties.

Act Two opens on the years Mabel is away. We watch her on screen in one bad movie after another. Finally Mack can stand it no longer. He badly wants her back, but it’s tough for him to ask. She makes it easy, however, and in the quiet of one early morning comes back to Mack’s studio. One by one the crew greets her and soon everyone, including Mack, is joyously joining in.

But Mack is Mack, and when he starts shooting Mabel’s new movie, he gets sidetracked by his newest discovery – the Keystone Kops.Meanwhile, Mabel is waiting patiently in her dressing room. Finally, after weeks of waiting, she just gets up and leaves. By the time Mack realises he has lost her again, the despairing Mabel has gone back to Taylor and is about to sail for Europe. This time Mack is not going to let her get away. But he can’t stop her, as he’s still not ready to make that commitment and she knows it. She’s talking about life but he’s talking about movies. Heartbroken, she is left alone on the deck as the boat pulls out.

Years pass. Years without Mabel: years that see the silent movie days draw to a close. Mack’s people are all leaving him. Lottie, the last to go, dances her way into the Vitagraph Varieties. Suddenly, as she taps, gunshots ring out behind her and the stage fills with flashing headlines, news bulletins, shouts from newsboys: “William Desmond Taylor murdered! Mabel Normand’s lover shot dead!”

Mabel’s career is over and it looks like no one can save Mabel. Frank, who was there from the beginning, tells Mack how the booze and the drugs started trying to keep up with a Mack Sennett schedule.

Now we are back in the present, 1928, and in the old studio. Mack stands there alone, understanding at last that the time has come to stop running. He must turn around and fight for Mabel. He’s determined to make another movie and Mabel Normand is going to be his star. She breaks down in tears declaring that she can’t do it. As long as you’re working for Mack Sennett, you’ll do as you’re told. One, you turn! Two, you wipe your eyes! Three, you smile!” And smile she does, as he takes her in his arms declaring, I need you.
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