Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios' best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas.
Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.
A flying saucer hidden in a Red Chinese peasant village is sought by teams from the United States and U.S.S.R. On finding it, they band together to explore the saucer and take a trip into space.
An old Chinese man rides into the town of Abalone, Arizona and changes it forever, as the citizens see themselves reflected in the mirror of Lao's mysterious circus of mythical beasts.
One-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy steps off a train at the sleepy little town of Black Rock. Once there, he begins to unravel a web of lies, secrecy, and murder.
An authoritarian rancher rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new Marshall arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunman enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.
Semiramis, a powerful and beautiful Assyrian queen, oversees the construction of the luxurious city of Babylon. She falls in love with Kir, a fallen prince turned into a slave who corresponds to her love. But a palace conspiracy will make the two lovers separate and confront each other.
A Chicago man and his family move to an Idaho pig farm, where he's crippled by an angry sow.
The story of a bunch of hard-drinking steeplejacks.
A prince has a romance with a barmaid before he must give up personal happiness for duty.
In Colombia, mining engineer Rian Mitchell discovers Carrero, the lost emerald mine of the Conquistadors, but has to contend with notorious local bandit El Moro's gang and with coffee planter Catherine Knowland's love.
When a philandering husband accidentally finds himself lost during a rainstorm, he’s taken in by an elderly mortician and is forced to learn the ghastly origins of four freshly arrived corpses.
A rich, young beauty, Louise Durant, follows the man she loves and hopes to marry to Zurich where he studies violin at the conservatory. A piano student at the conservatory falls madly in love with Louise. The violinist loves his music first and Louise second. The pianist loves Louise first and his music second. Louise must ultimately choose which man she wants.
After a professor is crippled in a car accident, he blames his wife for the ordeal and attempts to have her killed using the same means. Now hospitalized with amnesia, she appears to be protected by a tiny voodoo trinket that she still clutches in her hand, which possesses her car and other objects, causing mayhem throughout the city.
"Under Ten Flags" is a WWII movie loosely based on the true story of the German navy commerce raider Atlantis, a converted Auxilliary Cruiser, and her Captain Bernhard Rogge. Atlantis, camouflaged as a merchant ship, cruised the South Seas ( Atlantic, Indian & Pacific) and sank or captured 22 merchant ships from May 1940 through November 22, 1941 when she was sunk by the British Cruiser HMS Devonshire. Rogge was one of the few German officers of flag rank who were not arrested by the Allies after the war ended. This was due to the very proper and ethical way he exercised his command of Atlantis. After the war he advanced to Rear Admiral in the West German Navy and became a high-ranking NATO commander.
Shanda is charged with the murder of the banker, Burton and to save her from being lynched, the sheriff sends her off to Phoenix. During the trip the two deputies to whom she's been entrusted rape and leave her in the desert, certain that she's dead. The girl is found by Black Talisman, an outlaw, who takes her to his hideout, nurses her back to health and after hearing her story, determines to avenge her and clear her name.
During the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa is wounded and left his large treasure in gold back in the city of Colón. He is forced to establish an alliance with General Urbina, leader, and he asks seven of his faithful guerrillas to take back the gold that he has hidden in a farm, near the New Mexico border, and which will allow him to pay for a new army and guns.
An Italian war bride has problems dealing with her husband's possessive mother.
To redeem his father's wrongdoings, Ericson joins the law to fight outlaws.
Foreign agents are after a substance called "laser rubies" that can power a killer laser beam. Government agents are dispatched to protect the rubies and eliminate the foreign agents.
Samuel Fuller discusses his career as a filmmaker, illustrated by plenty of clips.
A scientist is murdered and his new invention is stolen and held for ransom.
When his family are murdered Vietnam War veteran, Vince Deacon, tracks down the man responsible for the murders and to get his revenge.
A cavalry lieutenant becomes a hated enemy of a Shoshone chief, Black Eagle, when he rescues an Indian maid from a ceremonial camp in this action-packed Western.
World War II: Allied Command learns that in 60 days three Japanese generals and an admiral party at a bordello on a tiny Philippine island. It's fortified and hard to attack, so a creative, cynical major gets the assignment to figure something else. With the help of Paco, a Filipino guerrilla leader, the major devises a plan to put four women assassins among the prostitutes. He must recruit and train them, convince his general that an unarmed woman can best a man, and get them on the island. The rest is up to them. An imprisoned killer, a nurse with a fatal disease, a chippie on the lamb from the mob, and a Filipina whom the Japanese assaulted are his team. Can they do it?
Ghosts and a young cadet try to save a military academy from being closed.
When four geologists who form a combine of five industrial companies turn up dead, the race is on to determine whether the culprit is a group of high-powered industrial interests or the government. A trouble-shooter is hired to find a net of deadly intrigue and treachery. The prize: a field to be leased to private industry by the state.
An American agent discovers that the Red Chinese have built a secret atomic city from which they will attempt to invade America.
Judge Jim Scott must contend with the vicious relatives of a murderer he's about to sentence...and his unfaithful fiancee.
Kinkaid is a rugged, hard-driving bounty hunter, determined to find outlaw Billy Riddle. He tracks Billy, takes him captive, and starts the long trek to justice. However, this journey may lead him to dire consequences... a gang of cut-throats headed by Angus Keough is pursuing them, after the bounty for themselves.
Trying to shake his troubled past and start a new honest life, Floyd loses his job because of that past. With nowhere to go but back home in Oklahoma he gets news that his father's been murdered and the local sheriff lets the killer off with a self-defense plea. Bent on revenge, Floyd does what he must which leads him down a dark road littered with robbing banks and loose women. Floyd's final days are anything BUT pretty!
A team of Vietnam vets, who now work as mercenaries, faces off against their former wartime comrade turned warlord, who's kidnapped the wife of a US diplomat and is holding her in his base of operations somewhere in the jungles of Laos.
A brunette Lana Turner stars in this live song and dance performance of "A Great Lady Has An Interview" to celebrate MGM's 30th anniversary on "The Ed Sullivan Show". The song was previously performed by Judy Garland in the 1945 musical film "Ziegfeld Follies".
Industrialist Eddie Hanneman learns that his sons do not wish to take over the business that he has built. Son Johnny aspires to be a jet pilot. However, his sales manager, Paul Fletcher, does wish to take over the business.