A scientist who have discovered how to turn salt water into petrol dies before he has revealed his formula. By mistake it's assumed that his assistant knows it although he does not.
Auguste, a somewhat simple-minded Provençal fisherman, loves and admires Mireille. This concerns only Maurice, son of an important wholesaler, whom scruples do not stifle.
Pursued by a rival gang after a violent robbery, Toni escapes with nearly thirty million francs. On the train to Paris, to avoid arousing suspicion, he has no choice but to threaten an honorable philosophy professor, Justin Mignonnet, with his gun, so that he will carry the loot for him.
Based on the popular stage play by Georges Courteline. The film is set in 1885. It focuses on a group of troops, a mix of regulars and reservists, and their different responses to the daily military routines.
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.
Following a broadcast on the radio, each of the listeners remembers these "little nothings" (the title is borrowed from a play by Mozart), which have often changed their lives.
Mike Douglas (Barry Sullivan), owner of a nitroglycerin concern hires his old friend "Buzz" Mitchell (Chester Morris), a race-driver of midget-auto cars who has been banned from racing, to go to work hauling nitro.
The "Eleven Brooklyn Bombshells," a band led by Mickey Monroe ('Dennis O'Keefe (I)' ), are stranded in Tahiti at the time of the fall of France to the Nazis.
Six young boarding girls return home unexpectedly after their college has been destroyed by fire. Their unexpected presence arouses melodramatic reactions.