Bright Lights (1916)

• 68%
• 1916
• Comedy
• Roscoe Arbuckle
• Roscoe Arbuckle
• Mabel Normand
• William Jefferson

The manager of a small town hotel installs a cabaret in an attempt to achieve the standard set by restaurants in the large cities. His effort is ludicrous because of the fact that his talent is all recruited from the help in the hotel. Roscoe, the cook, is forced to appear in a dress suit and when Al St. John appears from the bar there is a lively rivalry between the two for the applause of the crowd. Mabel, the waitress, vies with a professional dancer from the city. Into this setting comes William Jefferson, a polished sharper, who takes the innocent Mabel by storm. She listens with open mouth to his stories of life in the metropolis and willingly leaves the village with him. Roscoe, who has been mildly in love with the waitress, realizes what her fate is likely to be and starts in pursuit. His search takes him to the Bowery just as an old sailor is being thrown out of a dive. From the sailor Roscoe learns that Mabel is inside, practically a prisoner and forced to associate with thugs and the women of the resort. He plans a heroic rescue, but when his purpose becomes known he is promptly bounced. Meanwhile the sailor has returned with reinforcements. Led by the persistent Roscoe they storm the resort. There is a free-for-all fight, in the course of which Roscoe throws a member of the gang through a solid brick wall. This loosens the foundations and a shoe shop and Chinese laundry above drop into the dive. Mabel is found in an inner room, which she is only too glad to leave to return to the country with "Fatty.