La guerre civile espagnole a inspiré ce drame. Lors de l'avance franquiste vers la capitale, une foule de gens veulent fuir pour différents motifs. Ce sont les circonstances purement imaginaires, mais assez vraisemblables de cet embarquement et des démarches et marchandages qui le précédèrent qui sont relatées avec impartialité.
Les aventures de Michel Strogoff, depeche par le tsar pour porter un message ultra-confidentiel a Irkoutsk. En chemin, des embuches, et au final, des larmes salvatrices.
Clement (Gabin), a condemned murderer literally minutes away from the guillotine, is "liberated" when the Nazis bomb the French jail that holds him. During his escape he steals the uniform and identification papers of a dead French soldier. He then hides from the law by joining the Resistance movement. Clement's new identity and purpose in life reform him. In the end he sacrifices himself in service of his country.
Le sous-marin nucléaire soviétique "K219" patrouille dans les eaux internationales de l'océan Atlantique avec à bord seize missiles pointes vers les Etats-Unis. Un sous-marin américain le détecte et commence à le prendre en chasse. Le commandant russe fait effectuer une manoeuvre périlleuse a son équipage pour affoler les Américains. C'est la collision. Le feu se déclare a bord du sous-marin soviétique. Pour les équipages des deux navires, commence alors une bataille contre le désastre qui risque de s'abattre sur les plus grandes villes des Etats-Unis.
A ghostly British naval officer(Niven) persuades four members of the American navy to launch an attack on Japanese positions, hoping to redeem the family honor and his own tattered record from the First World War. He had been condemned to sail the seas forever after falling down drunk before his first battle in the Great War. With his typical luck he actually succeeds in sinking a Japanese naval vessel -- *after* it had officially surrendered to the US Navy. As a result, he is seen again consigned to sailing his ship forever, this time in a children's amusement park lake, to await another chance at redemption.
Le roman et le film s'inspirent des tentatives d'évasion au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale de la Belgique occupée vers les Pays-Bas neutres, notamment de l'épopée du remorqueur Atlas V en 1917.
The film opens with two men running across a beach at dawn, it also appears that their hands are tied behind their backs. After several shots of a helicopter frantically searching the landscape, it becomes apparent that the two men are escapees of some kind. It is later revealed that their names are MacConnachie and Ansell. The two continue running across barren land, trying to escape the sight of the helicopter. MacConnachie continuously berates Ansell as they run, showing that he is the leader, more or less.
During both World War I and World War II, the Women's Land Army was set up in the United Kingdom, to recruit women to work at farms where men had left to go to war. Women in the WLA were nicknamed "land girls".