Merton of the Movies

Merton Gill spends his days measuring flour and enduring the contempt of his employer, Gashwiler, at a small-town emporium. But behind the counter, Merton's imagination runs wild. He escapes into cinematic fantasies, casting himself as Buck Benson, the daring hero of his favorite serial. When a film company arrives in town, Merton sees his chance. He auditions with the earnest conviction of a man who has never learned to doubt himself, and to his bewilderment, he gets the job. What follows is a gentle, hilarious collision between Merton's grand self-image and the realities of silent film production, where directors demand emotion he cannot summon and co-stars treat him as the fool he fears he is. This is early Hollywood comedy at its most endearing: a bittersweet portrait of dreamers who want badly enough to endure the humiliation of wanting. Wilson skewers both Merton's delusions and the absurd machinery that turns ordinary people into celluloid stars.