"What's a confidence man without confidence?"

Short stories typically make good movies. At least that is the belief of many directors as, unlike a novel, short stories are meant to be read in one sitting much like a movie. The problem with short stories though, is that they tend to be too short for movies that run 90 minutes, unless the screenwriter decides to add something more to the story. In 1952 Fox decided to make a movie that is a combination of short stories. The movie, O. Henry’s Full House is much like watching a series of anthology television episodes. The only real difference is that there is someone, John Steinbeck, who introduces each of the O. Henry short stories before we see it onscreen.

Fox brought out all the star power it had for this collection of shorts from the master of the unexpected ending. John Steinbeck introduces each story, as mentioned above, by pulling out a book from a bookcase and reading the first few sentences in the O. Henry story before we fade in to the visual story.

The first of the five stories shown is called “The Cop and the Anthem.” It stars Charles Laughton as a bum who wants to get arrested so he can spend the winter months in a warm jail cell. He tries to do everything he can to get arrested. He breaks a window, he attempts to assault a police officer but ends up tripping himself, he even orders a huge breakfast and doesn’t pay for it. All these attempts end up not working. Marilyn Monroe makes a brief appearance as a streetwalker, who Laughton attempts to pick-up. This attempt also fails. Finally Laughton stumbles into a church where he is so moved that he decides he does not want to be arrested, but rather he wants to become a working member of society again. He exclaims that he has seen the light. As he does this, a cop walks by and arrests him for loitering.

Henry Hathaway directed the next installment, called “The Clarion Call.” Here a police officer discovers the suspect to a murder, but since the two were friends, and the murderer has some knowledge about the police officer’s past that isn’t too good, he is unable to make the arrest.

Finally the cop asks his former friend if he could pay him to turn himself in. The murderer says sure, knowing that the cop can never afford the price on his petty salary. The murderer plans on getting his former friend back into the other side of the law. But this plan fails when the friend brings the money to the murderer, who is arrested. The murderer wonders why this happened and the cop explains that a local newspaper was offering a reward for the exact amount agreed upon.

“The Last Leaf” is one of my favorite O. Henry stories. It is brought to life by director Jean Negulesco, Anne Baxter and Jean Peters. The story revolves around two sisters. One who it appears is on her death bed, the other, Anne Baxter, who will not allow her to die. Baxter enlists an upstairs neighbor, who is a wannabe painter, into her fight to make her sister believe that she isn’t dieing. The sister believes that when all the leaves outside of her window have fallen, she will die. Baxter and the doctors know this is not going to happen, but her sister still believes this. It takes some work, but after a rough and brutal night, the sister lives. Amazed at what has happened, the sister asks to see out the window. The window shade is opened and there is one leaf remaining on the branch. Or so it seems. The old painter happened to spend all night outside painting the leaf perfectly so that it would match. The joy of the sisters is interrupted with the news that the painter had caught pneumonia and died.

“The Ransom of Red Chief” is directed by Howard Hawks and written by Nunnally Johnson and Ben Hecht, so it is going to be funny. This humorous tale is about two city thugs who believe it is easier to commit crimes in small towns. They ask around a small town in Arkansas about who the richest man in town is. When they find out who it is, they decide to take his young son and hold him for ransom. This is a great idea until they meet the son, who is too much for the city thugs to handle. The parents are overjoyed that their son has been taken off their hands. They refuse to pay the ransom and demand that they are paid in order to take their son back. The city thugs agree to this, but the son, “Red Chief” as he likes to be called, has taken a liking to them and refuses to go. The thugs are finally able to leave the boy, but they head out of town a lot poorer than they were.

The final story is probably O. Henry’s most famous, “The Gift of the Magi.” It is Christmas time and a struggling young couple has to decide what to get the other for Christmas. The wife has great flowing hair, so the husband decides to get her some combs that she has always wanted. The husband has a great gold watch, so the wife decides to get him a gold chain to match the watch. In typical O. Henry style, the wife sells her hair to buy the chain, while the husband sells the watch to buy the combs. It is the spirit of Christmas at its best.

O. Henry the man was an interesting person. O. Henry the short story writer was one of the best America ever produced. This movie is a fitting tribute to such a great storyteller.