1h. 57min. // John Steinbeck introduces five of O. Henry’s most popular short stores in this anthology film. In “The Cop and the Anthem” a homeless alcoholic is increasingly frustrated in numerous attempts to get arrested and jailed for 90 days in a warm cell rather than face the rigors of a New York winter. In “The Clarion Call” a NYPD detective has a crisis of conscience when he is torn between his duty to arrest a childhood friend for a murder only he knows he committed and the debt of honor he still owes to him. In “The Last Leaf” a naive young girl is stricken with pneumonia after being seduced and jilted by venal actor. When she loses her will to live, her devoted sister and an eccentric Greenwich Village artist try to help her to survive. In “The Ransom of Red Chief” two bumbling con men kidnap the son of a rural sheriff for ransom but find they’ve taken on more than they can handle. Finally, in “The Gift of the Magi” an impoverished but devoted young couple struggle to pay for Christmas gifts worthy of their mutual love.
Directed by: Henry Hathaway (segment “The Clarion Call”), Howard Hawks (segment “The Ransom of Red Chief”), Henry King (segment “The Gift of the Magi”), Henry Koster (segment “The Cop and the Anthem”) and Jean Negulesco (segment “The Last Leaf”)
Writing Credits: Lamar Trotti (segment “The Cop and the Anthem”), Richard L. Breen (segment “The Clarion Call”), Ivan Goff (segment “The Last Leaf”), Ben Roberts (segment “The Last Leaf”) and Walter Bullock (segment “The Gift of the Magi”)
Starring: Fred Allen (as Sam ‘Slick’ Brown in segment “The Ransom of Red Chief”), Anne Baxter (as Joanna Goodwin in segment “The Last Leaf”), Jeanne Crain (as Della in segment “The Gift of the Magi”), Farley Granger (as Jim in segment “The Gift of the Magi”), Charles Laughton (as Soapy in segment “The Cop and the Anthem”), Oscar Levant (as Bill Peoria in segment “The Ransom of Red Chief”), Marilyn Monroe (as Streetwalker in segment “The Cop and the Anthem”), Jean Peters (as Susan Goodwin in segment “The Last Leaf”), Gregory Ratoff (as Behrman in segment “The Last Leaf”), Dale Robertson (as Barney Woods in segment “The Clarion Call”), David Wayne (as Horace in segment “The Cop and the Anthem”) and Richard Widmark (as Johnny Kernan in segment “The Clarion Call”).
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