Art film producer Jeremy Prokosch, unhappy with the work of his director, hires Fritz Lang (as himself) to direct an adaptation of The Odyssey, but when it seems that the legendary filmmaker is making a picture destined to bomb, he brings in a screenwriter to energise the script. The professional intersects with the personal when a rift develops between the writer and his wife.

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.

A crusading psychiatrist battles a sadistic female warden to improve conditions at a women's prison.

In the U. S. Army intelligence office, bumbling lieutenant Peter Stirling receives a coded message from his friend, Francis, a talking mule. The note urges Pete to hurry to the Coronado, California naval base, where Francis is about to be sold as surplus. Pete rushes to the train station, but before he can board, nurse Betsy Donevan mistakes him for her shell-shocked brother, Navy boatswain Slicker Donevan. She tries to forcibly remove his uniform so he will not get into trouble for impersonating an Army officer. Finally she realizes that Pete is not Slicker but merely his mirror image.

Policeman Edgar Kennedy is told by his chief he better stop a string of burglaries that have been happening on his watch or else he will get the sack. He persuades vagrants Stan and Ollie to rob the chief's house so he can regain his reputation by catching them. The policeman promises to later get the boys off. Things do not go as planned.

During World War II, a junior American Army officer, Lt. Peter Stirling, gets sent to the psychiatric ward whenever he insists that an Army mule named Francis speaks to him.

Young girl gets a job at the White House as a switchboard operator and gets mixed up in politics.

After a drunken night out, a longshoreman thinks he may have killed a man.

Bold performer Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent financial need, she agrees to a risky new number: she'll put her head into the lion's mouth! With this attraction, the circus makes it to New York and Tira can pursue her dearest occupation — flirting with rich men and accepting expensive presents.

On her way by stagecoach to visit relatives out west, Flower Belle Lee is held up by a masked bandit who also takes the coach's shipment of gold. When he abducts Flower Belle and they arrive in town, Flower Belle is suspected of being in collusion with the bandit.

Beverly Calhoun impersonates the Prince of Graustark to claim his birthright while he recovers from a skiing injury. In the meantime, she falls for her bodyguard Dantan.