The plot centres around knifethrower Gabor (Auteuil) and a girl called Adèle (Paradis), who intends to kill herself by jumping from a bridge. Gabor intervenes to prevent the suicide and persuades Adèle to become the target girl in his knifethrowing act. The film then follows their relationship as they travel around Europe with the act. Their companionship and teamwork mean great luck for both of them. Then they get separated and their lives once again become luckless. The film ends on a bridge in Istanbul, this time with her saving him from suicide.
Julius Caesar is celebrating his victory over all of Gaul, but Lucius Detritus has kept from him that one village has managed to resist them. Detritus travels to the garrison near the village where Caius Bonus (Crismus Bonus), the garrison's commanding Centurion, explains that the Gauls have a magic potion, which makes them invincible. Detritus decides to capture the potion for himself, and hearing that the clever Asterix and permanently invincible Obelix are the backbone of the Gaulish forces, attempts and fails to eliminate them.
A flock of storks deliver babies while circus animals are being transported by train from their winter quarters. Mrs. Jumbo, one of the elephants, receives her baby who is soon taunted by the other (female) elephants because of his large ears, and they nickname him "Dumbo".
In 1901, Matt Masters (John Wayne), a Wild West circus star in the mold of Buffalo Bill Cody, bought a bankrupt circus in 1885 and successfully rebuilt it into a combination three ring and Wild West extravaganza, mixing Wild West Show acts with conventional circus acts in a winning combination. He has successfully toured the United States for more than a decade. Now that the century is about to turn, he wants to take his show to Europe.
Helga Ohlin (Greta Garbo) is an illegitimate child raised in an abusive home. Her family arranges for her to marry a lout, Jeb Mondstrum (Alan Hale), but she runs away and meets Rodney Spencer (Clark Gable), an architect who is renting a cabin down the road from her family's farm. When Rodney leaves the cabin, her father and Jeb find her. She runs away again and joins a circus as a dancer; she now calls herself Susan Lenox. She meets Rodney, but they have a misunderstanding and he leaves. She runs away to New York and becomes the mistress of Mike Kelly (Hale Hamilton), a politician; she meets Rodney again, but they have another misunderstanding and split. Susan then searches and finds him in South America, and finally they end up together.
During World War II, aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) is accused of starting a fire at the Stewart Aircraft Works in Glendale, California, an act of sabotage that killed his friend Mason (Virgil Summers). Kane believes the real culprit is a man named Fry (Norman Lloyd) who, during their efforts to put out the fire, handed him a fire extinguisher filled with gasoline, that he passed on to Mason. When the investigators find no one named "Fry" on the list of plant workers, they assume Kane is guilty.
It is the dawn of the 20th century, and an elderly Chinese man rides a jackass into Abalone, Arizona, his only visible possession a fishbowl occupied by an innocuous-looking fish. This magical visitor, Dr. Lao (Tony Randall), visits Edward Cunningham's (John Ericson) newspaper and places a large ad for his traveling circus, which will play in Abalone for two nights only.
Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) works with her parents (Gina McKee and Rob Brydon) at their family circus, but desires to run away and join real life. At the next performance, after Helena and her mother have a heated argument, Helena's mother collapses and is taken to the hospital. Ten days later, while Helena is staying with her grandmother, she finds that the doctors determine that Helena's mother requires an operation, and Helena can only blame herself for the situation. That night, she wakes up in a dream-like state and leaves her building to find three performers outside. As they try to perform for Helena, a shadow encroaches on the area and two of the performers are consumed by it. The third performer, Valentine (Jason Barry), a juggler, helps to quickly direct Helena to safety through the use of magical flying books. She learns they are in the City of Light which is slowly being consumed by shadows, causing its widely-varied citizens to flee. Soon Helena is mistaken for the Princess. She and Valentine are taken to the Prime Minister (Brydon). He explains that the Princess from the Land of Shadow stole a charm from the City of Light, leaving their White Queen (McKee) in a state of unnatural sleep and the City vulnerable to the Shadows. Helena notes the resemblance of the Queen and Minister to her mother and father, and offers to help recover the charm along with Valentine. They are unaware their actions are being watched by the Queen of Shadows (also McKee) who has mistaken Helena as the Princess of the Land of Shadows.
Paul Beaumont (Lon Chaney) is a scientist who labored for years alone to prove his radical theories on the origin of mankind. Baron Regnard (Marc McDermott) becomes his patron, enabling him to do research while living in his mansion. One day, Beaumont announces to his beloved wife Marie and the Baron that he has proved all his theories and is ready to present them before the Academy of the Sciences. He leaves the arrangements to the Baron. However, after Beaumont goes to sleep, Marie steals his key, opens the safe containing his papers, and gives them to the baron. It is clear that Marie and the Baron are lovers.
When a traveling circus arrives in a small town, trapeze artist Polly Fisher (Marion Davies) is outraged to find that clothing has been added to posters of her to hide her moderately skimpy costume. She goes to see the man she mistakenly holds responsible, Reverend John Hartley (Clark Gable). He denies being the censor, but their relationship gets off to a rocky start.
In late 1800s Ohio, a young woman from the backwoods, Annie Oakley (Stanwyck) delivers six dozen quail she has shot to the owner of the general store. He sends them to the MacIvor hotel in Cincinnati, where the mayor is holding a large banquet in honor of Toby Walker (Foster), the "greatest shot in the whole world". Walker is particular about what he eats–the hotel owner (James MacIvor, played by Andy Clyde) bought Oakley's quail because she shoots the quail cleanly through the head, leaving no buckshot elsewhere.
Bianca, la star du trapèze du cirque Baretti, aime Tito, le clown, et subit les avances du prince héritier d'Illyria, qui se fait appeler le Comte Cassati. Le prince poursuit aussi de ses assiduités la femme d'un propriétaire terrien des environs, et tue son mari lorsque celui-ci les trouve ensemble. Rendu fou par les refus constants de Bianca, le prince la fait venir dans son hôtel particulier à l'aide d'une fausse lettre, mais elle s'en évade par la fenêtre grâce à ses talents de gymnaste. Tito vient à son aide et lors d'une lutte avec le prince le fait tomber à la mer à travers une fenêtre. D'une ressemblance étonnante avec le prince, Tito assume cette nouvelle identité pour éviter les poursuites. Comme elle croit que Tito a été tué par le prince, Bianca quitte le cirque pour assouvir sa vengeance. Lors du couronnement, elle est sur le point d'assassiner le "prince" lorsque celui-ci lui révèle sa véritable identité. Ensemble ils rejoignent alors le cirque.
By the year 2056, an epidemic of organ failures has devastated the planet. The megacorporation GeneCo provides organ transplants on a payment plan. Clients who default on payments are hunted down by Repo Men: skilled assassins contracted by GeneCo to repossess organs, usually killing the clients in the process. The CEO of GeneCo, Rottissimo "Rotti" Largo (a listed in a newspaper article about his kids), discovers he is terminally ill. Rotti's three children, Luigi Largo, Pavi Largo, and Amber Sweet, who changed her last name as a stage stunt to replace a popular singer she's jealous of, bicker over who will inherit GeneCo. Rotti believes none of his children are worthy heirs, as they consistently embarrass him with their robust attitudes, and instead plans to pass on his fortune to Shilo, the daughter of his ex-fiance Marni.
Après avoir involontairement provoqué l'accident de la funambule dans sa troupe de cirque ambulante, Mini fugue et se fait influencer par un gang de malfrats pour participer à un cambriolage de la ruche voisine.
As Francis (Friedrich Feher) sits on a bench with an older man who complains that spirits have driven him away from his family and home, a dazed woman named Jane (Lil Dagover) passes them. Francis explains she is his "fiancée" and that they have suffered a great ordeal. Most of the rest of the film is a flashback of Francis' story, which takes place in Holstenwall, a shadowy village of twisted buildings and spiraling streets. Francis and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), who are good-naturedly competing for Jane's affections, plan to visit the town fair. Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) seeks a permit from the rude town clerk to present a spectacle at the fair, which features a somnambulist named Cesare (Conrad Veidt). The clerk mocks and berates Dr. Caligari, but ultimately approves the permit. That night, the clerk is found stabbed to death in his bed.