Robert Kendall

In 1865, the cadets of a Russian Naval Academy ship have shore leave in Morocco; among them is (fictionalized) future composer 'Nicky' Rimsky-Korsakov. In search of a piano, Nicky and singing ship's doctor Klin meet a family of once-wealthy Spanish colonists...and their daughter Cara who secretly dances in a cabaret. Romantic complications ensue, but Nicky seems less interested in Cara's favors than in inspirations for his future masterpieces.

Pepe Le Moko leads a gang of jewel thieves in the Casbah of Algiers, where he has exiled himself to escape imprisonment in his native France.

Ma Barker and her four sons terrorize the 1930s South and Midwest with a string of kidnappings, robberies and murders, and even get to work with such famous criminals as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson.