Acting
Two friends, Tricoche and Cacolet, are partners in a detective agency. Chance has it that Cacolet is hired by Van der Pouf, a rich banker who wants him to watch over his wife Bernardine while the latter, on her part, seeks the services of Thicoche.
A colonel decided to be represented at the regiment festival of a tragedy in verse by the poem written by his sister.
Elsa Lundenstein is accused of having murdered her lover. The jury discusses the case vividly. All members are somehow prejudiced because of personal life experience and subsequently each member reads something different into the presented facts.
Beautiful and adored by the public, the great actress Florence once faulted with Remi, a disreputable individual. A little girl was born who lives in the countryside. Dorcier, the director, would like to marry Florence and wonders about her private life and her past existence. A jealous rival unleashes slander.
A famous convict Jacques Collin, alias Trompe la mort, or abbot Carlos Herrera, also called Vautrin, escapes from prison. Chance makes him meet Lucien de Rubempré, an impetuous and eternal lover who, when he is dismissed, collapses. Moved by this fragility, he takes him under his wing, and will do everything possible to ensure that his creature reaches happiness, even if it means imagining the worst shenanigans and other scams, with the help of a band of clever villains.
On the meandering Canal St. Martin, at the Parisian HĂ´tel du Nord, a nearly fatal gunshot separates a dejected young couple. But, amid a sad but beautiful panorama of lively characters, love has the final say. Can life be a fairy tale?
Nicolas, the owner of a small café, has had enough of his current life. Business-wise, customers are more and more scarce. As for the love side, the situation is not any better as Jacqueline, his charming wife, not content to be spendthrift, might well be cheating on him.. To escape this harrowing reality Nicolas decides to simulate his suicide and disappears. Lucky or unlucky draw? Both in fact as, on the one hand, Nicolas finds serenity but, on the other he wins a huge sum of money in a lottery. How will he manage to get the money now?
A wealthy industrialist, Roger de Vetheuil, married, feels assured of aging in peace. Then appears a blackmailer who accuses him of being a usurper, actually called Jean Pelletier, a mobster well known to police. Vetheuil, judging himself slandered, refuses to listen to his tormentor and goes to the police. The man speaks. The scandal is public soon ...
In a lost village in Lapland, Gérard comes to the aid of his friend Anders, in conflict with his father, a rich owner of gold mines.
A woman in Paris hires a taxi driver to locate her ex-lover, father to her newborn child, who left her without leaving an address.
Paris, France. Commissaire Wens is put in charge of the investigation into the murder of one of six friends who, in the past, made a very profitable promise.
After serving in the trenches of World War I, Jean Diaz recoils with such horror that he renounces love and personal pleasure to immerse himself in scientific research, seeking a machine to prevent war. He thinks he has succeeded, but the government subverts his discovery, and Europe slides with seeming inevitability toward World War II. In desperation, Diaz summons the ghosts of the war dead from the graves and fields of France to give silent, accusing protest.
Barnes, the mate of the 'Portland', is the object of the hate of the whole ship's crew. His mistress is murdered shortly before the departure and suspicion naturally falls on him. Some time later, Jeff Cooper, the skipper, falls to his death in the middle of the night. Once again Barnes is suspected and the mate has to resort to force to maintain his authority on board. During the stopover, Barnes is interrogated and finally cleared. He is even appointed captain of the 'Portland' in replacement of Jeff and can marry his best friend's daughter.
A little town erupts in turmoil about the construction of a public urinal. The army is sent in to restore order, but the military add to the confusion by getting involved with the local women.
Having lost his memory due to serving in World War I, Gaston has spent the past 15 years in a psychiatric hospital. Due to his large disability pension fund, several families claim him as their missing son. Gaston is introduced to the Renaud family by the Duchess Dupont-Dufort and her lawyer. The Renaud family attempt to revive Gaston's memory with stories of his past, but he is apalled by some of the things he hears and dislikes the man he is supposed to be.
In the Cévennes, Tabusse is a figure of the village. Angry and but also in love, he goes through many adventures.
After committing a murder, a man locks himself in his apartment and recollects the events that led him to the killing.
Captain Benoît manages to take possession of the plans of a new German airplane. The German counter-espionage assigns one of their agents, beautiful Erna Fiedler, to seduce Benoît and to eliminate him. But the two spies fall in love.
A tramp has taken up residence in the belly of a museum whale.
Ruined by his competitor, the banker Saccard decides to set up a new business.