Virginia, 1803. After the United States of America acquires the inmense Louisiana territory from France, a great expedition, led by William Lewis and Meriwether Clark, is sent to survey the new lands and go where no white man has gone before.
A sailor gets his boat stolen from him after he's set up for a crime.
A wise-cracking private detective's honeymoon is interrupted by a kidnapping case.
In New York City, a newly hired photographer becomes embroiled in a scandal when her photo is mistaken for evidence of a murder and she must try to prove her own innocence.
A crusading editor and his star reporter aid underprivileged youths and crack down on racketeers out to fix basketball.
In 1805, the United States battles the pirates of Tripoli as the Marines fight to raise the American flag.
A woman takes her four beautiful daughters to Alaska during the Gold Rush to find their fortune.
A spirited dressmaker's small store flourishes into a business empire in the midst of the Texas oil boom of the 1940s.
Lamas plays an indentured servant who rises to power in Georgia shortly after the Revolutionary War.
An oil well digger tries to win back his former girlfriend, now engaged to another man.
A nurse is taking an amnesia victim, who was imprisoned by the Japanese during WW II, to the United States in a plane piloted by Richard Denning. The passengers include a Japanese colonel on his way to Manila to face war-crime charges, and a couple who were married on the day they were liberated from a Japanese prison camp. During the flight, the colonel breaks away from his guards, causes the plane to go out of control, and it crashes into the sea. The survivors get into a rubber boat and go through a minor-league version of "Lifeboat, with no Alfred Hitchcock sightings, until Air-Sea Rescue pilot Jim Willis rides to the rescue.
Travelers find themselves marooned on an island with a maniacal self-made ruler.
Down-on-his-luck Mike Cormack is hired to fly to a Caribbean island to retrieve a missing ruby. On the island, possibly involved with the ruby's disappearance, is his ex-girlfriend.
At Rio Galdez's remote Brazilian trading post live assorted outcast Americans and Europeans, including Jerry Russell, ex-engineer who became obsessed with the Jivaro headhunters' treasure, quit his job, and took up with the bottle and local girl Maroa. But he still gets letters from his nominal fiancée in California, and unexpectedly the shapely, glamorous Alice Parker arrives, expecting to marry a rich planter. Disillusioned, Alice is almost ready to fall into Rio's arms when news comes that Jerry is missing in Jivaro country.
A meek reporter happens upon a murder, an escaped gangster and a stolen jade chess set.
A newspaper editor takes on the cause of oppressed migrant Mexican fruit pickers.
An insurance salesman, Albert Tuttle, is hired as a body guard for a millionaire.
Russ Evans, A WWII veteran army pilot, decides to check up on the widow of an old war buddy of his, Elaine Graham. The logging company she inherited is doing poorly, but Elaine gets an order in for a huge shipment of lumber. Russ and his friend Squirrel volunteer to help her cut the timber for the shipment, along with her friends Smacksie Golden and his girlfriend Lil Boggs, who are not used to doing physical labor. Russ pilots the plane to deliver the lumber before the company falls to a slimy businessman.
The title character, played by John Payne, is a ship's captain whose embittered behavior after losing his lady love seemingly leads to tragedy. Accused of deliberately scuttling his ship during a typhoon, Captain China hopes to clear himself by signing on as a common seaman on a vessel captain by his former first mate Brendensen. There's no love lost between the two men, and their mutual animosity is intensified when both fall in love with beautiful passenger.
Two reporters search for a missing body in a wax museum.
