The scenario of the film as originally written by Gance was published in 1927 by Librairie Plon. Much of the scenario describes scenes that were rejected during initial editing, and do not appear in any known version of the film. The following plot includes only those scenes that are known to have been included in some version of the film. Not every scene described below can be viewed today.
During a battle in the Aragonese town of Saragossa (Zaragoza) during the Napoleonic Wars, an officer retreats to the second floor of an inn. He finds a large book with drawings of two men hanging on a gallows and two women in a bed. An enemy officer tries to arrest him but ends up translating the book for him; the second officer recognizes its author as his own grandfather, who was a captain in the Walloon Guard.
On the last day of 1770, youngster Jonathan Blake (Freddie Bartholomew) overhears two sailors discussing something suspicious in his aunt's ale-house in a Norfolk fishing village. He persuades his more respectable best friend, Horatio Nelson (Douglas Scott), to sneak aboard the sailors' ship with him. They overhear a plot involving insurance fraud. When Jonathan decides to warn the insurers, Horatio cannot accompany him, because that same day he is invited to join the Royal Navy as a midshipman. Jonathan walks all the way to London to Lloyd's Coffee House, where the insurers conduct their business. Mr. Angerstein (Guy Standing), the head of one of the syndicates that make up Lloyd's of London, listens to him. Instead of a monetary reward, Jonathan asks to work at Lloyd's as a waiter. Angerstein teaches him that news, "honestly acquired and honestly shared," is the lifeblood of the insurance industry.
The story begins with an ageing, alcoholic woman (Vivien Leigh) being clapped into debtors' prison in the slums of Calais. In a husky, despairing, whiskey-soaked voice, the former Lady Hamilton narrates the story of her life to her skeptical fellow inmates. In one of the early scenes that launches the flashback, Emma, well past her prime, looks into a mirror and remembers "the face I knew before," the face of the young, lovely girl who captured the imagination of artists - most notably George Romney and Joshua Reynolds.
The year is 1800, and Britain and France have been at war since 1798, in what later was to be known as the War of the Second Coalition. Gilliatt, a fisherman-turned-smuggler on Guernsey, agrees to transport a beautiful woman, Drouchette, to the French coast. She tells him she hopes to rescue her brother from a French prison. Gilliatt finds himself falling in love and so feels betrayed when he later learns that Drouchette is a countess helping Napoleon plan an invasion of Britain. In reality, however, Drouchette is a British agent working to thwart this invasion. When Gilliatt learns this, he returns to France to rescue her, just as her true purpose has been discovered by the French.
The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and sites of Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Catherine est lingère durant la Révolution. Elle fournit un jeune lieutenant, désargenté, qui oublie de la payer. Elle est courtisée par un sous-officier, le sergent Lefebvre, mais elle est soucieuse de sa réputation... Le 10 août 1792, durant les émeutes parisiennes, c´est dans sa cour que le canon est tiré, vers les Tuileries. Puis, elle suivra son mari, le sergent Lefebvre, épousé entre deux campagnes napoléoniennes, dans ses pérégrinations militaires.
In the year 1797, the British naval vessel HMS Avenger (changed from the book; in early drafts it was Indomitable, later ones, Bellipotent) press gangs into service a crewman "according to the Rights of War" from the merchant ship The Rights of Man. The new crewman, Billy Budd (Terence Stamp), is considered naive by his shipmates, and they attempt to indoctrinate him in their cynicism. But Budd's steadfast optimism is impenetrable, as when he is asked to critique the horrible gruel the crew must eat, he offers "It's hot. And there's a lot of it. I like everything about it except the flavor." The crew discovers Budd stammers in his speech when under anxiety.
The humane Captain Crawford (Guinness) is in command of the warship HMS Defiant during the French Revolutionary Wars. He soon finds himself in a battle of wills with his first officer, the sadistic and supercilious first lieutenant, Mr. Scott-Padget (Bogarde). The Lieutenant believes that Crawford is too soft on his crew, and also disagrees with the captain's decision to proceed with orders to sail to Corsica despite word that Napoleon has overrun much of Italy. Scott-Padget has powerful family connections, which he has used in the past to "beach" two previous commanding officers with whom he disagreed. Knowing that Crawford is helpless to intervene, Scott-Padget subjects the former's son, Midshipman Harvey Crawford (David Robinson), to excessive daily punishments so as to gain leverage over the captain.
Andrei Bolkonsky
In St. Petersburg of 1805, Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a rich nobleman, is introduced to high society. His friend, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, joins the Imperial Russian Army as aide-de-camp of General Mikhail Kutuzov in the War of the Third Coalition against Napoleon. As Pierre's father recognizes him, he attracts the attention of Hélène Kuragin and marries her, only to discover she is unfaithful to him. Bolkonsky takes part in the failed campaign in Austria, where he witnesses the Battle of Schöngrabern and the Battle of Austerlitz. The prince is badly wounded and is mistaken for dead. His wife dies at childbirth. Bolkonsky returns to his home and meets Natasha Rostova, the young daughter of a count.
Les péripéties de deux capitaines de l'armée de Napoléon et d'une comtesse italienne, accompagnés de quelques soldats français, en pleine guerre avec les Autrichiens.
Chronique de la détention de Napoléon sur l'ile de Sainte-Hélène, ses relations avec son entourage et ses affrontements avec Hudson Lowe, le gouverneur britannique.
Après la défaite de Waterloo, les Anglais exilent Napoléon Bonaparte à Sainte-Hélène, île minuscule perdue au milieu de l'Océan Atlantique. C'est ainsi que l’Empereur déchu, qui a eu l'Europe à ses pieds, se retrouve étouffé dans un lieu au climat hostile, où il devra rester jusqu'à sa mort. C’est là qu’il dicte ses mémoires et se construit son mythe.