A Nazi spy ring is after a chemical formula that increases the power of ordinary gasoline for U.S. Army aviation use. Two U.S. chemical companies are developing the formula, with each working on half for security purposes. The spies get half the formula and know that either of two chemists, Robert Norton or Tom Fielding, knows the rest. They capture Fielding, through a ruse by gang member Linda Pavlo, and threaten the life of his sister Nancy and his mother if he does not give them the formula. To protect his friend Fielding, who does know the formula and is engaged to Nancy, Tom pretends to know the secret and boards the Dawn Express plane with the spy leader and his gang.

Georget is a happy-go-luck seafarer who'd rather sing than work -- or be faithful to his wife. Together with his sailor pal Marius, they decide to cheat on their spouses by frequenting the dives and joints in every town where their ship drops anchor. The boys are certain, however, that their wives would never behave in a similar fashion. Upon returning home, of course, they discover that their better halves are just as sexually irresponsible as their hubbies.

A seemingly charitable soup kitchen operator (who moonlights as a criminology professor) uses his Bowery mission as a front for his criminal gang. Police attempt to close in on the gang as they commit a series of robberies, murders and bizarre experiments on corpses.

Police detective Lanny resents the ongoing interference of the local FBI branch. Hoping to show up the feds, Lanny tackles a baffling espionage case. Things heat up when reporter sweetheart Ollie is framed for murder.

Gene goes after the badguys after they kidnap the baby he should have been babysitting.

In a cantina across the border, Bob Hamlin shoots a man that threatens his friend. He and his pals escape but return that night for the dance as Bob is attracted to Conchita. Running once more from the Rurales, Bob takes Conchita. They escape again only to find themselves pinned down when Buck and his gang of horse thieves attack.

On the eve of his execution, a vice-rackets bigshot recalls his various exploits in crimes such as abortion and white slavery, in which he frequently operated under an alias.

In early spring of 1833, the smoldering resentment of American settlers in Texas against their oppression by Mexico dictator General Santa Anna/Ana coming to a head. When a decree is issued that no more Americans may enter Texas, William H. Wharton, fiery head of a faction determined on independence or nothing, warns Stephen F. Austin that the time for half-measures is past. Austin, responsible for bringing the Americans to Texas as colonists, reminds Wharton that a settler's revolt against Mexico would dishonor his name and the arrangements he had with the Mexican government. He gets the "Whartonites" to agree to a general convention of all colonists. Almerian Dickinson, biggest land owner in the settlement of Gonzales, deeply in love with his wife Anne, warns Wharton that a bloody revolt would endanger every wife and mother in the colony. He proposes they send Austin to Mexico City to ask Santa Anna to grant Texans a voice in their own government.

A young, newly-appointed rookie state trooper, John Shields, is celebrating with his sister Jane, his younger brother Freddie and Tom Marlin, Jane's fiancé and also a trooper, when they hear over the radio that two bandits have just killed a lawyer and his watchman. John and Tom set out in their patrol cars in hopes of capturing the killers, followed by Freddie who hopes some day to qualify as a trooper. Freddie encounters the two two bandits, Spike Doland and Butch and manages to get away with the bag of gold they had stolen. While chasing Freddie they are recognized by John who they kill when he tries to arrest them. Freddie then takes matters into his own hands in seeking to capture the killers of his brother.

A young man, Danny, decides to get a job in order to support his mother. He's hired to work in a garage, but soon finds himself being implicated in a stolen-car racket.