A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.

The buoyant Molly Brown has survived the first crisis of her life—a flood. Sixteen years later she sets out to make her way in the world. She assures the Leadville saloon keeper that she can sing and play the piano, and learns quickly. Soon she marries Johnny Brown, who in a few years will be able to replace the original cigar wrapper wedding ring with a replica in gold and gemstones. The Browns head for Europe and bring a few crowned heads back to Denver for a party that turns into a ballroom brawl. Molly goes to Europe alone, returning on the Titanic. She didn't survive a flood as a baby for the story to end here.

Young Benny Goodman is taught clarinet by a music professor. He is advised to play whichever kind of music he likes best, but to make a living, Benny begins by joining the Ben Pollack traveling band.

Ex-WAVE encounters four fun-loving, work-hating men, all of whom want to marry her.

When half a million dollars disappears from a doctor office's safe, the cops assigned to the burglary case, Joe and Pete, decide to find the money and keep it for themselves.

An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.

After his kid brother is killed in a street race, a champion drag-racer quits racing. However, a new kid comes to town determined to force him back into racing so he can take his title--and he's already taken his girlfriend.When his younger brother, Steve, is killed racing a hot-rod, Jeff Northup blames himself for the accident since he had built the car for his brother and had encouraged him to race it, with other boys on a special course provided by police detective Ben Merrill, who is working to reduce the city's hot-rod fatalities by providing supervision for the dangerous hobby. Jeff withdraws from participating in races on Merrill's course and, without his leadership, reverts to racing on the streets. "Bronc" Talbott, a newcomer, makes a play for Jeff's girlfriend, Lisa Vernon. Eventually, the taunting-Talbott forces Jeff into a race which results in the death of a bicycling child, and evidence seems to indicate Jeff was at fault.

Mountain climbers in the Swiss Alps mull over past problems while trying to conquer a perilous peak.

A Nazi spy sneaks into the U.S., hoping to release hundreds of German prisoners. He fails, but not until plenty of bullets have been spent.

This semi-film within a film opens in the office of producer George Jessel, who never saw a camera he couldn't get in front of, who is holding a story conference to determine the screen treatment for the life of Eva Tanguay, and Jessel is unhappy with what the writers present him.He tells them to look up Eddie McCoy, Eva's one-time partner, for the real inside story on the lusty and vital Eva. Eddie's version is that he discovered her working as a waitress in an Indianapolis restaurant in 1912, wherein singer Larry Woods and his partner Charles Bennett get into a fight over her and both land in the hospital, and McCoy convinces the manager to put Eva on as a single to fill their spot. She flopped, but McCoy arranges for Bennett to be her accompanist, and she went out of his life. The writers look up Bennett, now head of a music publishing company, who says McCoy's story is phony, and it was Flo Zigfeld who discovered Eva for his Follies.