Marius, a fishmonger in Marseille, is torn between his love for Fanny and his desire to go to sea. His indecision and the conflicts it creates among his group of friends lead to a series of humorous and heartwarming situations.
Honorin is the simple and naive stage manager of a traveling theatre troupe, whose one ambition is to once play the role of the cavalier in the opera "Francis I, or the Loves of the Beautiful Ferroniere". A hypnotist puts him to sleep and in his dreams he is transplanted to the days of the Renaissance. There, among other items, he is made a Duke by Henri VIII, fights a duel and survives a series of medieval tortures, while also bestowing some 20th century blessings on the court of Francis I.
The film shows the seizure of power by the Nazis and Hitler wants a trial, at a time when France has just declared war on Germany (Sept. 3, 1939). Hybrid composition, it alternates originals and reconstructions performed by actors (docudrama). A not-so-subtle condemnation of Hitler, Nazism and Germany by the movie's French film makers, which conveniently makes no mention of how the policies of Great Britain and France created Hitler and allowed him to go as far as he did prior to the beginning of the Second World War.
Victor Berthier, a good man but also a very jealous one, killed his wife in a fit of jealousy. After serving a few years in a chain gang, he is released for good behavior. He feels very happy to be able to return to Paris and to meet Lise, his daughter, again. But, to his dismay, he finds that Lise, through the fault of André, her lover and pimp, has unwillingly committed a murder.
Brothers Moïse and Salomon run a modest bazaar near the Butte Montmartre, under the sign of "everything for nothing". There are office items, perfumes and leather goods. Their niece, the beautiful Lia, twenty years old, a graduate in synthetic chemistry, lives under their roof. She is less close to her pennies than the old grigous, and willingly visits the store "Aux femmes françaises", administered by the very Christian Valois family, where she hopes to place products. of its creation; perfumes, make-up and ointments of all kinds.
During the war from '14-'18, two women travel by foot in the North of France and Belgium to aid an organization to provide information to the English
Freshly married, Yvonne and Jacques discover on their return from their honeymoon that they are poor and that their respective parents have lied to them. They are going to have to work hard; but everything will work out eventually.
Some, like Ravier de l'Orne are born... masters, but ,like him, do not live up to their rank. Others, like Gustave Morillon, are... born masters, even if, like him, they are valets. Morillon will indeed prove better at bridge than his master and will eventually win the affection of Antonia, a lively foreigner Ravier also coveted.
In the Sahara, Algeria, the leader of the Tuaregs, Aftan, saves a girl from the hands of a caravan of pillars. Madeleine falls in love with her savior and their marriage is decided. But Aftan understands that he will never be assimilated with Europeans, and he goes back to find the beautiful poet Dassine whom he had loved before.
In Macao, where places of pleasure and arms trafficking are concentrated, a tragedy opposes an adventurer and his daughter whom he has brought up in ignorance of his profession. She is torn from her environment and saved from tragedy by a young journalist who loves her.
On his wedding night with Hilda Bergmann, the daughter of a swedish chemist, the young and rich american Willy Keanton is stabbed by an unidentified masked man. He kidnaps the young woman, who is found later on by the count Robert d'Arbel. The detective Jacques Miral, nicknamed « the pointed tower's ferret » is put in charge of the case. Soon, he discovers that an international bandit, Méphisto, seeks to seize the formula of a process against asphyxiating gas, invented by professor Bergmann. The struggle is tough between Miral and the uncatchable Méphisto. Monique Aubray, Keanton's secretary and engaged to the detective, the Nostradamus stallholders and the « mastiff of Bordeaux », and the famous novelist Fortuné Bidon are also involved in the case...
A film based upon the life of Vidocq, the famous adventurer, who, after numerous prison escapes ceased being a crook, a thief and a counterfeiter, and was employed by Pasquier’s government’istry as director of the crime-fighting Sûreté Nationale.
In the French Basque Country, Ramon, the son of a farmer and fruit and vegetable merchant with a beautiful voice, has the good life. He is engaged to his charming cousin Maria. But his daily life is called into question when, during a fight, he believes he has killed a bad boy. He flees to Algeria where, with a friend, he joins the Saharan Pioneers.
The Mironton Brothers are part of a fairground attraction. One of them comes into a large inheritance, but the Friends of the Antenna association try to keep him from accessing the money. This formidable brotherhood, whose headquarters are in the Eiffel Tower, send the Mironton Brothers on impossible adventures and countless traps.
A young man arrives on an African island where he falls in love with the queen of a tribe, a beautiful singer. He takes her to Paris, but on the night of her stage debut, she faints, frightened. He returns with her to her island and settles there permanently.
Saint-Aignan needs a family. He hires people to act as his people to achieve his goal: to succeed in the business world.
Paris, 30's declared professional rivalry between two stars of the musical, Yvonne and Gaby leads to dire consequences. Yvonne's body is found in the theater. Gaby's future is threatened against the judgment to which it is subjected, with a probable prison sentence.
Lieutenant Varnière, responsible for discovering the cause of the death of two officers in Algeria, unmasks the assassin in the person of a Russian who lives with three women. He falls in love with one of them and runs away with her while the Russian is killed by a devoted servant.