An average kind of guy who has a slight problem with gambling goes to the track, and mystically, it seems as though he can't lose, no matter how he bets; and he has an incredible day.
After his rich father refuses to pay his debt, compulsive gambler Lawrence Bourne III joins the Peace Corps to evade angry creditors. In Thailand, he is assigned to build a bridge for the local villagers with the help of American-As-Apple-Pie WSU Grad Tom Tuttle and the beautiful and down-to earth Beth Wexler. What they don't realize is that the bridge is coveted by the U.S. Army, a local Communist force, and a powerful drug lord. Together with the help of At Toon, the only English speaking native, they must fight off the three opposing forces and find out what is right for the villagers, as well as themselves.
Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.
It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform.
Chili Palmer is a Miami mobster who gets sent by his boss, the psychopathic "Bones" Barboni, to collect a bad debt from Harry Zimm, a Hollywood producer who specializes in cheesy horror films. When Chili meets Harry's leading lady, the romantic sparks fly. After pitching his own life story as a movie idea, Chili learns that being a mobster and being a Hollywood producer really aren't all that different.
The US army is known for churning out lean mean fighting machines intent on protecting our great nation. Sergeant Ernie Bilko is the leader of a ragtag group of the sorriest soldiers ever to enlist in the armed forces.
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is his girlfriend and they will soon marry.
A car salesman journeys to France and encounters an apparently lonely woman. He immediately begins to successfully woo her only to learn that she is actually a baron's wife. Fortunately, the baron believes in open marriages and winds up hiring the Englishman to teach his son (from an earlier marriage) everything about automobiles. Meanwhile the car salesman finds himself falling seriously in love with the wife. The baron really doesn't mind as he himself is involved with another.
In this pre-WWII German mystery-comedy, a lovely kleptomaniac with a taste for fine jewelry is unable to resist temptation. Strangely, every time she steals something, a mysterious man pays for it. A clumsy detective begins investigating and finds a crucial clue: a strongly scented woman's glove. The perfume is an expensive scent and the detective's pal realizes that it belongs to a popular nightclub singer. The friend quickly becomes enamored of the girl, but then so does her mystery man, a notorious international criminal. Eventually he gets arrested, leaving the detective's pal to move in on the singer.
A television producer with a penchant for drinking and gambling is sent to Las Vegas to convince his troubled niece to enter rehab.
A retired pool hustler is forced to pick up the stick again when his brother starts a game he can't finish.
Three friends who just got out of prison promise each other that they will no longer commit crimes. However, all three plot the same robbery, unaware of each other.
An enigmatic tale of four people whose lives are intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of fate. They discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact.
Four college friends become small-time bookies, only to find their world spinning dangerously out of control when their greed attracts the attention of organized crime.
The Griswold family hits the road again for a typically ill-fated vacation, this time to the glitzy mecca of slots and showgirls—Las Vegas.
Ko Chun, the God of Gamblers, vows to keep his identity hidden while looking for the gangsters who murdered his pregnant wife.
Sian is a conman who makes and sells fake Buddhist amulets. His nephew Riang is a chip off the old block, with many generations of gamblers' blood running through his veins. When they loose big time to an underworld kingpin, they come up with a plan to cheat the kingpin and win back all their money by recruiting Todd, a social-climbing card-sharp magician. But, even with Todd's ability to change cards with a wave of his hand, they still need Sri, a curvy female accomplice to distract their mark.
Writer Alex Sheldon must finish his novel within a month. If he doesn't, he won't get paid. And, if that happens, angry Mafia types to whom he owes money will come looking for him. In order to expedite things, Alex hires typist Emma Dinsmore and begins dictating his novel. The book is about a doomed love affair between a character similar to Alex and a character named Polina Delacroix. But, as Alex falls for Emma, his work takes a different turn.
A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.
A romantic comedy set in the world of gambling, debt collecting and professional boxing. Laura is an unlucky gambler with a huge debt, she crosses paths with Claus, a former boxer who now makes a living as a debt collector. Laura is cheating, scamming, and lying and eventually life catches up with her. Claus is trying to regain his self respect and start anew. Together, they make an awkward but very charming couple on the verge of love. It is a story about trust, friendship, new beginnings, getting a second chance and doing the right thing.