The City

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Though loved by many in her Norwegian village home, Thelma herself does not know love until she meets Sir Phillip Errington. They are married and go to London, where she is well received except by Phillip's jealous "friends." Lady Clara and Lennox plot to make Phillip appear to be unfaithful, and Thelma returns to Norway. Phillip, however, pursues her and proves his innocence.

A beautiful and ambitious young woman leaves her boyfriend for a famous sculptor, and later--after she models for his statue "Miss Ambition"--marries an old but wealthy art collector. However, things don't turn out quite the way she planned.

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

New England fisherman John Van Zandt sons Harold and Peter are in love with Eileen Arden, though she favors the younger brother Harold. The jealous Peter convinces Eileen that Harold is circulating false rumors about her, then convinces his younger brother to move to Boston. Six years later, John is unable to work so Harold returns to help support the family, finding employment as a lighthouse keeper. Peter jealousy is once again aroused and his drunken rage results in the death of his child, Anne. After realizing that Eileen knows of his deceit years earlier, Peter attempts to kill Harold in the lighthouse, but instead falls to his own death during the ensuing struggle.

The wide-ranging storyline of The Melting Pot takes its characters from the Jewish ghettoes of Russia to the Lower East Side of New York.

Kent Johns learns that he must be married within a certain timeframe to collect a significant fortune left by his late grandfather. Kent originally plans to marry his girlfriend, "Dovie" Jansen, but she calls off their wedding to marry a European count instead. Needing a wife quickly, Kent proposes a business-like marriage to Vivian "Vi" Matthews (Greta Nissen), his next-door neighbor who has long harbored feelings for him. The contract stipulates that after one year, they will divorce, and Vi will receive a $100,000 settlement. Encouraged by her friend Pat, Vi accepts the offer. During their honeymoon in New York City, Vi undergoes a physical transformation—aided by her personal maid, Celeste—evolving from a plain "homely matron" into a sophisticated and beautiful woman. While Kent remains preoccupied with business and often neglects his new wife, his artist friend Philip Marlowe (James Kirkwood) becomes deeply attracted to the "new" Vi, creating a romantic rivalry.

After the death of her sewing machine tycoon husband, a young woman is cold-shouldered by her grasping in-laws. She heads to New York City and meets a man, falls in love and gets married. Unknown to her, her new husband is after what he thinks to be her fortune, in revenge for the theft of his father's patents that made the sewing machine profits. Discovering that she is in fact penniless, they both reconcile.

Ben Trimble, a country boy visiting the city, becomes involved with a safecracker and finds himself sliding into a life of crime. But chance provides him with an opportunity to redeem himself.

A nervous and unsettling young boy takes a mysterious old suitcase across London... to a twisted and surreal conclusion.

Magazine writer J. Hamilton Vance travels to the mountains of Kentucky to get local color for his stories, and falls in love with Roxie Bradley, the daughter of a moonshiner. Regarded at first with suspicion by the mountaineers, Vance finally wins their confidence and is appointed teacher in the little log school house. The former teacher, resentful at the intrusion, attempts to shoot Vance through the schoolhouse window, but Roxie intercepts the bullet. Vance nurses her back to health, engendering the jealousy of Lily Bud Raines, who starts a rumor that Vance is a federal agent spying on the moonshiners.

The interconnected lives of the residents living in a bungalow court. As the neighbors interact, their personal dramas, secrets, and romantic entanglements heavily intertwine. The central conflict of the story revolves around the residents' collective struggle against the court's mean, nasty, and spiteful landlord, whose overbearing presence and malicious actions disrupt their lives and force them into unexpected alliances.

Billy Clifford, who has served a sentence in reform school for devoted friend Talbot, later in life becomes a successful gambler. He meets and falls in love with Helen Morely, daughter of the mayor. His partner, advised that the mayor intends to raid his establishment, kidnaps Helen and holds her prisoner as security against the raid.

While Jane and Jim Parker witness the divorce proceedings of Jane's parents, the George Reeds, they resolve that such a disaster will never occur in their happy lives. But when Jim achieves success in Reed's company, he becomes increasingly interested in his new fast friends, especially vamp Gloria Gayne; and he asks Jane for a divorce.

When housewife Trina wins the lottery, her comfortable life with her dentist husband John slowly deteriorates, in part by her own increasing paranoia and partly by the machinations of villainous acquaintance Marcus.

A $5,000 wager is made between two prominent jewelers, Mr. Thorpe and Mr. Chandler, as to whether their most valuable jewels can be stolen. Thorpe, seeking to stack the odds in his favor, asks Police Commissioner James Stone, a business crony, to enlist the help of Diamond Daisy, a jewel thief who is trying to go straight. Posing as a rich heiress, she asks Mr. Thorpe to accompany her to show her father an expensive item of jewelry. Instead, Mr. Thorpe is detained in an insane asylum by a doctor who has been led to believe that Thorpe is Daisy's insane husband. Daisy absconds with the jewels, but a vindictive detective, who has been following Daisy, thinks the heist is for real and tries to arrest her. Eventually the commissioner intervenes and all ends well.

Broadway star Mona Mainard retires from the stage for marriage to rising attorney John Norton and watches his career climb. Over time she becomes concerned with his at times unscrupulous ways of getting convictions. When her brother is accused of murder Norton refuses to give up the case despite being aware of his innocence because a victory could land him the governorship. Mona takes extreme steps to bring him to his senses and exonerate her brother.

Olympia Brewster marries John Brainerd to escape a life of drudgery and immediately realizes that he does not love her but only desires her physically. She leaves a suicide note and starts for her uncle's home, pausing only to see a woman shoot at her husband, apparently fatally.

Chester Waddington secretly marries society girl Patricia Flynn, a fact that is revealed at a party celebrating her engagement to another suitor. A brawl ensues.

Bear (10 minutes, 35 seconds) was Steve McQueen's first major film. Although not an overtly political work, for many viewers it raises sensitive issues about race, homoeroticism and violence. It depicts two naked men – one of whom is the artist – tussling and teasing one another in an encounter which shifts between tenderness and aggression. The film is silent but a series of stares, glances and winks between the protagonists creates an optical language of flirtation and threat.