Coal miner Hagon Derk (Charles Bickford) is sentenced to hang for murder. His only concern is for his young sister Katie (Muriel McCormac), who will be left all alone. Frivolous socialite Cynthia Crothers (Kay Johnson) has her own troubles. By the terms of her grandfather's will, if she is not married by her twenty-third birthday (only a month away), she will not inherit his millions and will be left penniless. She is "engaged" to Roger Towne (Conrad Nagel), but he is married to Marcia (Julia Faye). Marcia has her own lover, Marco (Joel McCrea), and is willing to grant Roger a divorce ... for the right price. The two women haggle behind Roger's back and settle on $100,000.
Sydney Carton, a drunken English lawyer, discovers that Charles Darnay, a man he once defended, is a French aristocrat trying to escape the French Revolution. While he envies the man over the love of a woman, Lucie Manette, his conscience is pricked and he resolves to help him escape the guillotine.
Abe Reles (Peter Falk) and Bug Workman (Warren Finnerty), two killers from Brooklyn's Brownsville district, meet in the Garment District to meet with Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, kingpin of an organized crime mob, who hires them as the syndicate's hit men.
Au XVIII siècle, peu avant la Révolution française, l’orpheline Henriette Gérard accompagne Louise, sa sœur adoptive aveugle, à Paris. Les deux jeunes filles espèrent bien trouver un médecin qui guérira Louise de sa cécité. Hélas, Henriette est enlevée par le marquis de Presles, un roué qui a décidé d'en faire son jouet. Louise n'a pas plus de chance que sa sœur : livrée à elle-même, elle tombe dans les mains de la Frochard, une mégère alcoolique qui ne cessera de l'humilier et de la tourmenter pour la forcer à mendier. Tout paraît s'arranger avec l'intervention du chevalier de Vaudrey et de la comtesse de Linières…
Ted Barnett escapes from prison and returns to his home town to prove that he did not commit murder and also find the man who murdered his father. To do this he must disclose the respected landowner Cobb as a smuggler.
A southern town is rocked by scandal when teenager Mary Clay is murdered on Confederate Memorial Day. A district attorney with political ambitions, Andrew Griffin, sees the crime as way to the Senate if he can find the right scapegoat to be tried for the crime. He seeks out Robert Hale, Mary's teacher at the business school where she was killed. Even though all evidence against Hale is circumstantial, Hale happens to be from New York (Leo Frank was a Southerner from Texas, but he was Jewish and had been raised in New York), and Griffin works with reporter William Brock to create a media frenzy of prejudice and hatred against the teacher. The issue moves from innocence or guilt to the continuing bigotry and suspicion between South and North, especially given the significance of the day of the murder.
The plot centers on misfit Jerry Plunkett (James Cagney), who displays a mixture of bravado and cowardice, disappointing Lt. Ames (Dennis Morgan). The chaplain, Father Francis P. Duffy (Pat O'Brien) attempts to reform Plunkett. Sgt. "Big Mike" Wynn (Alan Hale, Sr.) loses both his brothers in action due to Plunkett's blunders. Major Donovan ultimately orders Plunkett to be court-martialed. Plunkett is nonetheless returned to duty, as the battalion again goes into the line. Shamed and inspired by Donovan's forbearance, Plunkett redeems himself by fighting bravely. Finally he sacrifices his life to protect his comrades by covering a grenade with his body.
En 1887, subsiste une île au milieu de l'océan, coupée du monde après un séisme dévastateur. Les gouverneurs qui la dirigent veillent à ce que rien ne bouge. Mais Glossia, l'épouse du gouverneur Goto III, aime Gono, un officier jeune et beau. Ensemble ils préparent leur évasion. Mais Grozo, un condamné gracié désormais au service de Goto, est aussi amoureux de Glossia.
Day of Wrath is set in a Danish village in 1623 where an old woman known as Herlof's Marte (Anna Svierkier) is accused of witchcraft. Anne (Lisbeth Movin), a young woman, is married to the aged local pastor, Absalon Pedersson (Thorkild Roose), who is involved with the trials of witches, and they live in a house shared with his strict, domineering mother Meret (Sigrid Neiiendam). Meret does not approve of Anne, who is much younger than her husband, being about the same age as the son from his first marriage. Anne gives Herlof's Marte refuge, but Marte is soon discovered in the house, though she is presumed to have hidden herself there without assistance. Herlof's Marte knows that Anne's mother, already dead at the time of the events depicted, had been accused of witchcraft as well, and had been spared thanks to Absalon's intervention, who aimed at marrying young Anne. Anne is thus informed by Herlof's Marte of her mother's power over people's life and death and becomes intrigued in the matter.
In April 1942, after a raid on Japan, eight American aircrew made up of the crews from two North American B-25 Mitchell bombers, are captured. Capt. Harvey Ross (Dana Andrews), becomes the leader of the captives. Initially, the men are picked up by a local government official who is a Chinese collaborator in a Wang Jingwei controlled section of China. The Chinese official delivers the Americans to the Imperial Japanese Army to be put on trial at the Shanghai Police Headquarters. Although international observers and correspondents are allowed to witness the trial, the commanding officer, General Mitsubi (Richard Loo) refuses to allow Karl Kappel (Torben Meyer), the Swiss Consul to contact Washington.
During World War II, Jean Picard (Errol Flynn) is a convicted killer being led to the guillotine. He escapes during an air raid but is captured by French Sûreté Inspector Marcel Bonet (Paul Lukas). They learn that a bridge has been blown up by three saboteurs, and that the Germans have taken 100 hostages who will be killed unless the saboteurs are apprehended by the Vichy police. To buy time in order to escape again, Picard persuades Bonet to let him pose as one of the saboteurs to save the hostages. In the course of enacting a story that will convince the Vichy that Picard is one of the escaped saboteurs, he and Bonet encounter the real saboteur, captured by the Vichy, and aid him in escaping.
Rome, 1825. Cornacchia, a shoemaker, finds out that prince Filippo Spada, a Carbonari associate, is going to reveal the organization's plans for an uprising to the Pontifical Guard's commander, Colonel Nardoni. He then goes off to warn his friend Leonida Montanari, a doctor and head of the conspirators, who decides to take out the informer. He and Angelo Targhini, a newcomer from the Duchy of Modena, attempt to murder Spada but ultimately fail to deliver the final blow. Spada manages to survive the attack and report his assailants to the police, having them both arrested and subsequently, after a summary judgement, sentenced to death by Cardinal Rivarola.
Un hold-up sanglant est commis le 15 avril 1920, dans le Massachusetts. Deux anarchistes d'origine italienne, Nicola Sacco et Bartolomeo Vanzetti sont arrêtés. Malgré le manque de preuves formelles, ils sont condamnés à mort et envoyés à la chaise électrique.