O. Henry's Full House

Each segment is well done, but most are quite predictable, even if expertly produced and performed. The Ransom of Red Chief is the exception. It still seems fresh and original. Both Allen and Levant are good, as is the kid. Hawks's direction is eminently assured. The general predictability of the stories as a whole, though, is probably unavoidable, as it emanates directly from the source, O. Henry's tales. O. Henry is strictly minor league stuff and has not worn well. But, still, they are professional executed and well-done for the most part. Only Red Chief seems inspired, however.

Watching a film may not be the same as reading the book, but this anthology of O. Henry stories does a good job of capturing the author's talent for crafting a story, thanks to good direction and wonderful casting. Here are a few highlights: In "The Cop and the Anthem", the versatile and talented Charles Laughton brings nobility to his portrayal of a bum. Marilyn Monroe adds a touch of class. In "The Clarion Call", Richard Widmark's portrayal of a cocky criminal jumps off the screen. The story centers around the concept of honor--even among the less than honorable. "The Last Leaf" deals with the humanity, sometimes hidden, that lies within all people. Surprisingly, the concept of artistic realism is elevated over expressionism, though a spiritual thread runs through the story. I read "The Ransom of Red Chief" as a boy and the memory of that story is still vivid for me. Here, O' Henry turns a dramatic story on its ear, producing comedic results. It's a fish out of water story about two Yankee conmen who think that uneducated Southerners are easy marks. Fred Allen and Oscar Levant are well matched in this classic. "The Gift of the Magi" is perhaps O. Henry's best known story. This tale has Dickensian roots and celebrates the true spirit of Christmas. Jeanne Crain brightens this story with her beauty and sensitivity. The film is narrated by John Steinbeck, who helps unify the five parts into a tribute to O. Henry.

This is perfect example of the Fox look in the beginning of the fifties, prior to the Scope. Here are the directors, actors and actress, cinematographers,musicians (Alfred Newmann), etc., under contract. Jean Peters, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Jeanne Crain, Marilyn in her beginnings, etc. What a pair of wonderful actresses in the moving "The last leaf", directed by Jean Negulesco with an almost expressionist style! Really, he was an very underrated director with good film as "Three came home", "The mask of Dimitrios", "Humoresque". In "The gift of the magi" Henry King puts grace and gusto in some sweet Christmas commonplaces. This is also a good episode, perhaps a little marred by the overacting of Jeanne Crain. Also very watchable "The clarion call", directed by Henry Hathaway in a dry and concise style. In "The cop and the anthem" we have a memorable line by the lovely Marilyn: "He called me madam!" The Hawks episode is the only drawback in the film, but one can forgive it in front of the other good four. And, above all, the sublime "The last leaf".

For me this hasn't weathered at all well. Maybe the fact that the first segment, The Cop And The Anthem, features Charles Laughton has something to do with it Laughton hails, appropriately, from Scarborough which is in Yorkshire and a bigger York ham I have yet to see. I am, on the other hand, a great admirer of Richard Widmark and it was disappointing to see this fine actor squandering his talent in a reprise of his Tommy Udo character in his breakthrough role, Kiss of Death. The Ransom of Red Chief is frankly embarrassing despite the presence of the great Fred Allen who made far too few movies, and it would have been kinder to have left it on the Cutting Room floor. The last two segments are pure sentiment in the shape of The Last Leaf in which Gregory Ratoff sacrifices his own life to save Ann Baxter's and finally the one everyone knows, The Gift Of The Magi. I have no problem with sentiment but sentiment PLUS Farley Granger and Jeanne Crain is a tad too much.

Perhaps I am getting too old, but this film grows in my eyes as the years pass. The old saying they don't make films like this anymore is set in granite here. The under 40 generations has perhaps heard of a few of the stars here, but each in his day and time has their moment in the sun. They made a moved called Ragtime a few years back, it never hit the spot, marked the era as well as this film did. 1890-1910, the United State from the small towns to big New York City. The more you know about history the more I think you can feel the verse and sense the style of this movie. Ragtime, 1900 in New York, the city of Teddy Roosevelt, The time of Ben Hecht and Ring Lardner.... The Clarion Call is to my mind, a classic that seems to ring out a sense of the era. The other critics think that Richard Widmarks over the top performance was a bit much. No way, he was playing a type, a person you might find in Guys and Dolls that at one time and day did exist. The feel of the day, the period of Yellow Journalism, the sense of honor and betrayal. all speak to me. I give the Clarion Call a big thumbs up. The Last Leaf and The Gift Of The Magi will leave romantics smiling or crying. Short films are not made like this anymore. Each of these stories is put to film by a master filmmaker and most people just need to sit back and move back to those days of yesteryear's. For a story to read, O'Henry will knock the sock off your average reader as he lived much of what was in each story. The Ransome of Red Chief and The Cop And The Anthem....Are each good casting and funny and ironic. Marilyn Monroe fans will want to watch this movie to see her at her most lovely. If you missed Oscar Levant or don't know about Fred Allen, here a time to pause and reflect. The time is 1900,Scott Joplins music is playing, Tin Pan Alley really exists...The coin of the realm is an Indian Head Penny and O'Henrys characters come alive in this classic movie. Too bad you don't get to see Alias Jimmy Valentine, or the Cisco Kid and his tales of Old California. but for the price of admission you can be taken back to yesteryear when the 20th century was new. American society is so different now, but ... if you turn off the lights... put this movie on, you too can start to better understand America. Marilyn, its time for your close up.........

Given the amount of talent the results are disappointing. Actually, the amount may be the problem since no one need feel responsible for the overall result. The episodes themselves remind me of tepid half-hours of early TV. Like any anthology, some are better than others, but none are memorable, though each has a mildly O Henry twist ending. Trouble is each is overridden by a prevailing sentimentality, with the possible exception of Clarion Call. But even that cop-gangster episode is compromised by Widmark's delirious parody of Kiss of Death('s) psychotic Tommy Udo. I do confess a soft spot for The Last Leaf, maybe because the usually over-emoting Ann Baxter gives an affecting performance. Red Chief, however, may be one of the worst acted narratives I've seen. Hard to believe Howard Hawks had something to do with it. In fact, the episode bears none of his trademark stamps, which suggests the entire 120-minute production was under the careful control of studio higher-ups. That wouldn't be surprising since the anthology format was new and therefore a financial risk. Note, for example, how the flat visual style doesn't vary from one entry to the next, which suggests the directors were limited in their individual approaches. I hope they were paid well for lending their names if not their well-known artistry. Anyway, I'm not surprised the format failed to catch on. Then too, TV was beginning to offer for free what this movie did not. Still, it is a chance to see and hear one of our great novelists of then and now, John Steinbeck.

O. Henry's Full House is an interesting experiment. Introduced by John Steinbeck, it features adaptations of five of O. Henry's literally dozens of stories. Two of them have a genuine feel for the early twentieth century New York the author knew so well: The Cop and the Anthem and The Clarion Call. The former features Charles Laughton as a tramp with big ideas, and offers Marilyn Monroe in a bizarre cameo; while the latter is a tough little crime story about two boyhood friends from Erie, Pennsylvania whose lives could scarcely have turned out more differently. Jean Negulesco sensitively directed the sentimental The Last Leaf, the most accomplished of the group. On the downside, The Gift Of the Magi is ruined by unsympathetic lead players; and the Howard Hawkes-directed Ransom Of Red Chief is a near-total disaster. A mixed bag, to say the least, the film was doubtless inspired by the success of the British series of movies adapted from Somerset Maugham's stories. This one isn't nearly as good, but is a good try. Had the producers stuck to dealing with O. Henry's more rugged, ironic New York tales the film might have worked out better, but it opted for heavy doses of sentiment and broad comedy instead. This is a pity, as O. Henry's influence on American literature and popular culture was enormous, and can be seen in many television anthology series, such as The Twilight Zone, and in dramatic shows such as The Naked City. In the first two stories in the film one can see much of the irony and love of simple humanity that must have inspired such later authors as Rod Serling.

One cannot really make a pastiche movie like this hang together as a coherent whole, but this oddity is interesting for the contributions of the high-powered cast: standing out are Charles Laughton, a disturbingly nasty Richard Widmark, Anne Baxter, and the drily comic Fred Allen, of whom we don't have enough of a film record. However, Oscar Levant's acting skills are really nonexistent; he should have stuck to his career as a musician and professional neurotic. Look for Marilyn Monroe in a cameo in "The Cop & the Anthem".

I noticed that one reviewer said this film is not on DVD. Perhaps that was true back in 2002, but it is available now and that's how I saw it. The film is an anthology piece of short stories written by O. Henry (the pen name for William Sidney Porter) and it seems like an American answer to the popular British films based on Somerset Maugham stories--such as "Quartet" (1948). Interestingly, the film is introduced by John Steinbeck! They consist of the following stories--each directed by a famous director: THE COP AND THE ANTHEM--Charles Laughton plays a man without money--though he's dressed and behaves like a very successful man. Again and again, however, he tries to get himself arrested because he is without means--and again and again, things happen and the cops don't arrest him. It is a bit funny seeing just how hard it is to get pinched! I don't want to say what's coming next--but it's the sort of irony for which O. Henry was famous for in his stories. Marilyn Monroe appears for about one minute and utters a line or two--so naturally, 20th Century-Fox marketed it as a Monroe film! Despite this dishonestly, it's clever and worth seeing. I'd give this one a 7. THE CLARION CALL--Dale Robertson and Richard Widmark star in this one. Robertson is a cop and Widmark is an old associate--a VERY obnoxious and nasty one. They meet in a bar after many years and soon Robertson realizes the man wanted for a murder is his old 'friend'. He's about to arrest him and bring him in, but there is a twist. As far as Widmark goes, his character is a lot like the one that made him famous in "Kiss of Death"--all laughs and a heart as black as coal. Why he kept calling people 'Clam Head' was beyond me! Not a great segment, but the ending was satisfying. I'd give this one a 6. THE LAST LEAF--Anne Baxter and Jean Peters star in this one. Baxter has a broken heart and pneumonia. Despite her sister's best efforts, she keeps slipping away. She also has this weird obsession with a vine growing outside the window--counting all the leaves as they fall and she believes she'll die when the last leaf hits the ground. How does a failed artist save the day? Tune in. I'd give this one a 5. It's pretty predictable. THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF--This is one of O. Henry's most famous stories and one that the filmmakers removed from the original release--as they saw it as pretty weak. It has a great cast--with two amazingly funny 1950s raconteurs in the leads--Oscar Levant and Fred Allen. While pretty much forgotten today, these men were both brilliant conversationalists--guys who had a gift with the English language. These two knuckleheads are ex-cons who need money, so they kidnap a completely obnoxious monster of a child. The boy is like an evil version of Dennis the Menace and after a while you feel sorry for the two guys--he's THAT bad! And, although the two men are technically the stars, young Lee Aaker steals the show as the little maniac! All in all, enjoyable--mostly because even though this is a somewhat pedestrian version, it's still a great story. This one gets an 8. THE GIFT OF THE MAGI--Like RED CHIEF, among O. Henry's most famous stories and one frequently read around Christmas each year. This one stars Farley Granger and Jeanne Crain as a very, very poor young couple. They are desperately in love but have no money for Christmas presents. Where this all goes next you probably know, but in case you don't I will end it here. Unlike the others, which are mostly comedies, this one is an ironic and touching love story. Sweet and probably the best of the lot--even if the tale is familiar today. This one gets a 10--and they saved the best for last. Overall, while not all the segments are great, the overall film is quite enjoyable and worth seeing. Very good acting, production values and stories make this one worth seeing.

When I first saw this film some 45 years ago, I recognized Francis Ford in the last episode, "The Gift of the Magi," as the street corner Santa whom Jeanne Crain addresses as Mr. Schultz and inquires about his lumbago. He appears in three scenes, and despite the fact that his face is partially hidden by his beard, his bloated eyes and deep bronchial voice with that trademark Maine accent seem unmistakeably Fordian. Ford, older brother of legendary director John Ford, appeared periodically for Fox during this time, and I chalked this up as another one of his uncredited roles. Recently watching the film on DVD, I checked out IMDb's cast and saw perennial movie policeman Fred Kelsey credited as Santa. Kelsey, who made a career of playing cops, doesn't seem to be in the film in his traditional role in a movie that has numerous police parts. If that isn't Kelsey as Santa, then why is he billed in the film's credits? I suspect he's not in the film at all. The film underwent severe cutting after previews and elements of the prologue and the entire "Ransom of Red Chief" episode were eliminated, not to be reinstated until the film's TV premiere in the early 60's. I think there are problems with the film's opening credits. The first billed supporting player after the twelve stars is supposedly Joyce MacKenzie in the role of Hazel. Neither MacKenzie nor a character named Hazel appears in the current DVD version film either. One last point: Kelsey spent the 1940's and early 50's in Columbia shorts and is visible in uncredited bits in Warner films, not at Fox. Please check out the three Santa Claus scenes and come to your own conclusions as to who's playing Santa.