The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., the son of the famous Hollywood mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, in 1979.
In 1957, seventeen-year-old Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) enters a church, where she confesses her sins to the priest (Jay Smith), claiming to have disobeyed her parents, used the Lord's name in vain and had sinful relations with various boys. The pastor tells her that "these are great sins and she should prepare herself for the consequences." Before leaving, Mary Lou tells the priest that she loved every minute of it and leaves her phone number in the confession booth along with a written message: "For a good time call Mary Lou."
Bobby Taylor (Robert Townsend) is a middle class black male aspiring to become an actor. He practices his lines in the bathroom, with his younger brother Stevie (Craigus R. Johnson) watching as he plays a stereotypical “jive” character for the audition for "Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge", a movie about street gangs. Bobby's grandmother (Helen Martin) overhears the “jive talk” and shows her disapproval. His mother (Starletta DuPois), is more supportive, telling Bobby that he is going to be late for the audition. Bobby assures his mother that if he lands the part, everything will change. As Bobby is about to leave the house, he finds his grandmother on the couch.
The film begins with a small IRA team, including Martin Fallon (Mickey Rourke) and Liam Docherty (Liam Neeson), watching as two British Army Land Rovers approach the roadside bomb they have set for them. At the last minute, a school bus overtakes the army vehicles and detonates the bomb as it passes, killing the children. After most of the team escape the scene pursued by the soldiers, Fallon travels to London in a bid to escape the past. In London, he is approached by a contact who asks him to take on one last job on behalf of local gangster Jack Meehan (Alan Bates) and his brother Billy Meehan (Christopher Fulford). They offer Fallon money, a passport and passage to the US if he kills a rival gangster. Initially reluctant, he nonetheless takes on the job. However, as he is carrying out the hit in a graveyard, he is seen and confronted by the local Catholic priest, Father Michael Da Costa (Bob Hoskins). The confrontation is watched from a distance by Billy Meehan, who tells his brother there is a witness to the killing.
The film opens in 12 October 1978, with several police officers dragging Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) out of the Hotel Chelsea following the death of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). Vicious is soon driven to a police station and upon arrival is asked to describe what happened.
A soldier-of-fortune, Tag Taggert, played by Edward Albert, steals some Russian nerve gas from Afghanistan, and brings it to the U.S. to be analyzed. A greedy millionaire rancher, played by Joe Don Baker, finds out about it, steals it and uses it in an extortion scheme. Audrey Landers plays the lead FBI agent-in-charge tasked with thwarting the extortion scheme.
Set in 1959, Vivian Bell (Shaver), a 35-year-old English professor at Columbia University in New York City, travels to the Reno, Nevada area to establish residency in Nevada (a process that takes six weeks), in order to obtain a quickie divorce (which Nevada was especially well known for in the 1950s/60s/70s). She stays at a guest house ranch for women who are waiting for their divorces to be finalized. The guest ranch is owned by Frances Parker (Lindley).
Being 400 years old, the Countess has collected a stable of young men and women who accompany her on her centuries-old journey through eternal night-and youth. While she is immortal, she is required to drink the blood of a young male virgin three times by Halloween each year to keep her immortality and youthful appearance - a task she finds increasingly and extremely hard, since attractive young male virgins are almost impossible to find in the 1980s, particularly in hedonistic cities, in this case, Los Angeles.
Mr. and Mrs. Cherrywood are a middle-aged couple who run an orphanage. Mr. Cherrywood tells the orphans a story about the Care Bears and Care-a-Lot, their home in the clouds. In the story, Friend Bear and Secret Bear travel looking for people to cheer up. They meet Kim and Jason, two lonely orphaned children. Friend Bear and Secret Bear introduce themselves and remind the children of their ambitions. Neither of them takes interest.
Londres, été 1953. La très belle Ruth Ellis, hôtesse dans un night-club fréquenté par la haute société londonnienne, rencontre David Blakely, séduisant pilote de course et fils de bonne famille. Entre eux va naître un amour ardent et violent qui les entrainera vers la mort.
Two lonely Londoners - Neaera Duncan, a children's author (Glenda Jackson), and William Snow, a bookstore assistant (Ben Kingsley) - find common ground when visiting the sea turtles at London Zoo; independently of each other, both perceive that the turtles are unnaturally confined, and they hatch a plan with the assistance of zookeeper George Fairbairn (Michael Gambon) to smuggle them out and release them into the sea, which they ultimately succeed in accomplishing. Their release of the turtles represents metaphorically their release of themselves from their own inhibitions.
The film is a three-act story about self-identified "hipster" Willie (John Lurie), who lives in New York City, and his interactions with the two other main characters, Eva (Eszter Balint) and Eddie (Richard Edson).
Lois Thornedyke, the daughter of a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, writes a scandal column for a New York city tabloid. She gets a chance to upgrade her career when she uncovers a conspiracy reaching into city government at the same time she is being romanced by the city's Mayor. Lois and her quirky sidekicks pit naivete against evil and go undercover. Unfortunately, what they discover is not for publication...
Captured by a trio of thieves, Gwendoline is sold to a local casino owner, but, rescued by Willard, a mercenary adventurer, she is reunited with her maid, Beth, after the latter's abduction by the same thieves who had earlier kidnapped Gwendoline.
En Australie, Christine, mannequin trentenaire, se morfond auprès de son mari Peter, sexagénaire et richissime homme d'affaires. Tout change pour elle avec l'irruption dans sa vie d'un mystérieux et sensuel jeune homme qui, un jour, l'aborde au volant de la Rolls qu'il vient de voler : Christine tombe dans les bras du bel inconnu. Avant de s'enfuir ensemble, ils mettent à sac la maison de Christine. Puis, déguisés en clowns, ils dévalisent un bureau de poste. Mais Peter n'est peut-être pas étranger à cette échappée de sa femme à la Bonnie and Clyde…