English gentleman Rudolf Rassendyll (Ronald Colman) takes a fishing vacation in a small middle European country (unnamed in the film; Ruritania in the novel). While there, he is puzzled by the odd reactions of the natives to him. Rassendyll discovers why when he meets Colonel Zapt (C. Aubrey Smith) and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim (David Niven). Zapt introduces him to the soon-to-be-crowned king, Rudolf V (Colman again), who turns out to be not only his distant relative, but also in facial features close enough to be his double. Rudolf is astounded and takes a great liking to the Englishman.
In Los Angeles, Officer Nordberg attempts to bust a heroin drug operation at the docks organized by Vincent Ludwig, and is shot by Ludwig's henchmen. After being briefed on the case by his boss, Captain Ed Hocken, Police Squad Lieutenant Frank Drebin visits Nordberg in the hospital. Nordberg provides cryptic clues, including a picture of Ludwig's ship on which the deal had been organized. Frank meets with police scientist Ted Olsen, who has invented a cufflink that shoots a tranquilizer dart. Frank learns through Ted that Nordberg's jacket tested positive for heroin. Police Squad is in charge of security for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Los Angeles, and Ed tells Frank that he has 24 hours to clear Nordberg before word gets out about what happened and detracts from the queen's visit. Frank visits Ludwig in his office. Ludwig learns that Nordberg is still alive. Ludwig has his assistant, Jane Spencer, assist Frank in his investigation and the two fall in love. Jane is unaware of her employer's illegal activities.
The film begins with King Philip II of Spain (Montagu Love) declaring his intention to destroy England and after this "puny rockbound island as barren and treacherous as her Queen" is out of the way, he believes that world conquest will follow: he says his great wall map, one day, "will have ceased to be a map of the world; it will be Spain." He sends one of his courtiers, Don Alvarez (Claude Rains), as his ambassador to allay the suspicions of Queen Elizabeth I (Flora Robson) about the great armada he is building to invade England. In England, some of the Queen's ministers plead with her to build a fleet, which she hesitates to do in order to spare the purses of her subjects.
The film opens with Sir John Falstaff and Justice Shallow walking through the snow, then to a warm fire inside the Boar's Head Tavern as the two reminisce. After a main credit sequence, the narrator explains that King Henry IV of England has succeeded Richard II, whom he had killed. Richard II's true heir, Edmund Mortimer, is a prisoner in Wales, and Mortimer's cousins Northumberland, Worcester and Northumberland's son Hotspur demand that Henry rescue Mortimer. Henry refuses and Northumberland, Worcester and Hotspur begin to plot his overthrow.
Snow White is a lonely princess living with her stepmother, a vain and wicked Queen. The Queen fears that Snow White's beauty surpasses her own, so she forces Snow White to work as a scullery maid and asks her Magic Mirror daily "who is the fairest one of all". For several years the mirror always answered that the Queen was, pleasing her.
Les événements relatés dans les deux parties de La Révolution française sont nombreux. Les producteurs ont voulu relever le défi inédit de couvrir l’ensemble de la période révolutionnaire et donc tous ses principaux événements (ce qui en fait d'ailleurs un film pédagogique malgré son parti pris clairement dantoniste). L'œuvre passe cependant très vite sur la guerre de Vendée, qui n’est mentionnée que quatre fois, notamment par Robespierre et Desmoulins, qui dénonce le massacre d’ « un peuple entier ». Le film se termine sur l’exécution de Robespierre et Saint-Just en 1794 et omet d'évoquer la suite des événements. Toutefois, la Révolution française s'étend jusqu'en 1799, année du coup d'État de Napoléon Bonaparte.
Young Crown Prince Karl Heinrich (Philippe De Lacy), heir to the kingdom of Karlsburg, is brought to live with his stern uncle, King Karl VII (Gustav von Seyffertitz). The king immediately dismisses the boy's nanny (Edythe Chapman) without telling the youngster to avoid an emotional farewell. Fortunately, Dr. Friedrich Jüttner (Jean Hersholt), his new tutor, proves to be sympathetic, and they become lifelong friends. Nonetheless, despite the commoners' belief that it must be wonderful to be him, the boy grows up lonely, without playmates his own age.
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin is raised by his father and his grandfather because his mother dies when he's still very little. He works as a handyman, studies the law at a university and travels the country as an actor before he becomes the celebrated playwright Molière who impresses firstly the Duke of Orleans and then even King Louis XIV.
Jodhaa Akbar is a sixteenth-century love story about a political marriage of convenience between a Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodhaa.
Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain is shown writing a letter to her children in which she professes to tell them the truth. In flashback, Caroline talks of England, as she was about to leave to marry Christian VII of Denmark. She is passionate about the arts and education, but when she arrives in Denmark she is told that many of her books are banned by the state. Christian is mentally ill and Caroline is unhappy in the marriage. She is soon pregnant with a son (Frederick VI of Denmark), but the couple grow far apart and the king stops visiting her bedroom.
The film begins with Chorus, in this case a person in modern dress, introducing the subject of the play. He is walking through an empty film studio and ends his monologue by opening the doors to begin the main action. Chorus reappears several times during the film, his speeches helping to explain and progress the action.
Évocation de la vie de Louis II de Bavière, depuis son couronnement à l'âge de dix-huit ans et demi jusqu'à son internement et sa mort à quarante. On y découvre la complicité presque amoureuse qui le lie à sa cousine Sissi (la jeune impératrice d'Autriche-Hongrie) qui est à deux doigts de parvenir à lui faire épouser sa sœur Sophie malgré le peu d'attirance qu'il a pour celle-ci, son entichement déraisonnable pour la musique de Richard Wagner, dont il devient le très généreux mécène au point de lui faire construire un opéra, les circonstances qui l'amènent à céder aux penchants qui lui seront funestes : son goût du rêve, du post-romantisme, des garçons (son palefrenier devenant son chambellan et homme de confiance très intime), des châteaux de contes de fées, pour l'édification desquels il dépense des fortunes et dans lesquels il fuira les dures réalités de son temps (à savoir : l'irrésistible unification allemande autour de la Prusse de Bismarck qui vassalise tous les autres royaumes ou principautés germaniques, Bavière y compris) en s'imaginant, entouré d'une garde rapprochée de serviteurs, qu'il est encore vrai roi en son royaume. Jusqu'à ce que le gouvernement effectif de Munich l'extirpe de son rêve et l'interne au château de Berg… où il meurt dès le lendemain de son arrivée en tentant, dans des circonstances jamais vraiment élucidées, de s'évader.
The story of Saladin (Ahmed Mazhar) portrays the title character, ruler of the kingdoms surrounding Jerusalem, during the events of the Third Crusade. The film starts with Jerusalem, which is under the authority of the Christians of Europe, having its Muslim pilgrims slaughtered by the Christians in the holy lands. Saladin upon hearing this news seeks the reclamation of the holy lands in a short, almost impossible campaign. He succeeds in taking back Jerusalem, which leads the powers of Europe to organize the Third Crusade with the combined forces of the French king (Omar El-Hariri) and German emperor under the leadership of Richard the Lionheart of England. Saladin succeeds in preventing the recapture of Jerusalem, and in the end negotiations between himself and Richard (whom Saladin admires as the only honorable infidel leader) leave the Holy Land in Muslim hands.