Career

Back from action in World War II, Sam Lawson (Anthony Franciosa, who has second billing in the film despite being in every scene) leaves home and friends in Lancing, Michigan to fulfil his ambitions to make it as an actor in New York. After many auditions he joins the off-Broadway grassroots theatre group called the Actors' Rostrum, run by actor-director Maurice "Maury" Novak (Dean Martin) out of a seamen's mission in Greenwich Village. When the theatre group runs out of money, Novak leaves the theater eventually to become a well known Hollywood director.