The making of a serious, Canadian art house film descends into Hollywood farce when its producer is forced to compromise his vision to accommodate his drug-addled star, his leading lady and his venal backers.
When his best friend is kidnapped and held for ransom by a drug kingpin, an American hustler embarks on a suicide mission to smuggle four million dollars worth of hashish out of Morocco.
After a woman is found butchered in her New York apartment, suspicion falls on her estranged husband, an ad executive who has suddenly left town on a cross-country road trip. He takes along a beautiful girl he met in a bar and a drifter he picked up along the way. A cop sets out after the husband, but he's more interested in shaking him down than bringing him back.
Old West highwayman Bill Miner, known to Pinkertons as "The Gentleman Bandit," is released in 1901 after 33 years in prison, a genial and charming old man. Entering a world unfamiliar to him, he returns to the only thing that gives him purpose — robbery.
Major Charles Carrington (David Niven), is arrested for taking £125 from the base safe, he also face two other charges that could finish his distinguished service career. He decides to act on his own defence at his court martial hearing, his argument being that he is owed a lot of money from the army for his various postings that have cost him out of his own pocket. To further complicate the proceedings, Carrington alleges he told his superior, the very disliked Colonel Henniker, that he was taking the money from the safe. A mans career, his marriage, and quite a few reputations, all hang in the balance.