Ras (Eli Wallach) is a ruler or dictator who covets another man's wife (Mariangela Melato) as his own. He gets what he wants, but Ras wants more: in this case, to humiliate Marcello (Nino Manfredi), a dedicated musician whose life he has already ruined by leaving his cat and taking his wife. He forces Marcello to seek an annulment to his marriage through the Vatican. Ras gets everything, but Marcello's wife, Giulia, and Marcello have other ideas.

A young writer is invited to stay in a religious hostel run by a sinister, manipulative nun who plays deadly psychological games with the inhabitants.

An airplane crashes in Spain. The Russian as well as the Chinese government take care of the events because on board there was a "black box" containing precious and dangerous devices for the whole world.

A dying German magnate invites his youngest son and daughter-in-law home to discuss the future of the family's shipbuilding empire. There, the daughter-in-law stumbles upon a secret of the family's Nazi past.

Academic researchers are chased by a nuclear-hot specimen of ancient Mayan blob.

Legendary hero Siegfried uses a magic sword to fight a huge, fire-breathing dragon.

The master Impallato takes care of the boys in a suburban after-school. Here he discovers a pupil with an extraordinary baritone voice.

Lina, a music hall singer, has fallen in love with Sergei, a Russian prince. Maestro Doria, who gives her voice lessons and who hopes to make her his mistress, takes her to Paris where she becomes the star of the "Folies-Plastiques".

A young woman, her sister-in-law and her ten year old daughter are violently traumatised by invading Austrian soldiers. Later, in Verona, both woman discover they are pregnant. After a suicide attempt, one has an abortion the other keeps her child - and both faces struggles with friends and family as they return to their homes.

"Elena" cannot marry the man she loves, so enters into a loveless marriage with the wealthy "Andrea". Gradually she falls in love with him, but he never reciprocates. Things become further complicated when a letter from her first love "Carlo" is discovered.

Sophia Loren plays a dual role, as both the sultry Queen of the Nile with a "man-a-night" appetite and a beautiful slave girl who takes her place and is wooed by a bodyguard who thinks she's the real monarch.

Over 10 years of Italian history, drawn together from newsreels.

Just before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, a party is held in the castle of the Stettin's Counts.