O. Henry's Full House

Five stories, five directors. A tramp tries to get himself arrested so he can spend the winter in jail, and every attempt fails. Two kidnappers take a boy and the boy tortures them. A woman counts the ivy leaves visible from her sick friend's window. A couple buy each other Christmas presents and each sells the most valuable thing they own. The subject is not poverty but the reversal at the end that recurs in all of O. Henry's stories. All five parts carry the same structure: a situation is built, an expectation forms, and the last sentence turns it over. The film does not hide the repetition. The form is an anthology and the parts are not of equal strength. The tramp and the presents are the most cited; the kidnapping is pure comedy and its tone stands apart. John Steinbeck provides the frame, appearing on camera between sections to introduce O. Henry. The parts were directed by Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Henry King, Henry Koster and Jean Negulesco. The cast includes Charles Laughton, Anne Baxter, Jeanne Crain, Richard Widmark and Fred Allen. Marilyn Monroe appears in a small role in the tramp section. Who it is for: viewers who like classical-era anthologies and short story adaptations. Who it is not for: anyone expecting even quality; the difference between the sections is large.