O. Henry's Full House (1952)

• 67%
• 1952
• Comedy
• Drama
• Henry Hathaway
• Howard Hawks
• Henry King
• Henry Koster
• Jean Negulesco
• Charles Laughton
• Marilyn Monroe
• David Wayne

"O. Henry's Full House" is a film divided into five segments telling five tales at the beginning of the twentieth century. 1) "The Cop and the Anthem": The winter is coming and the homeless drifter Soapy wants to go to jail for three months to get shelter and food. His partner Horace suggests they look for shelter with the Salvation Army, but Soapy refuses. He forces many situations to be arrested, but he is always forgiven. When he goes to the church, there is a miracle and Soapy decides to seek a job position. Will he succeed? 2) "The Clarion Call": When a thief kills a man, the police investigators do not have any lead to follow. Police Sergeant Barney Woods sees a pen that was found in the crime scene and he seeks out a man called Johnny Kernan. He finds Johnny, who invites Barney to drink with him, and they go to his hotel room. Johnny recalls their youth, when they were friends, but Barney tells him that he must arrest him since he recognized the pen that belonged to Johnny. However, the criminal recalls that Barney owes him $ 1,000 that Barney lost in a card game. Barney unsuccessfully tries to raise the money to quit the debt. He decides to tell the chief of police, but out of the blue he sees the spotlight on "The Clarion Call" and runs to the newspaper. What did he see? 3) "The Last Leaf": When the lover of 21-year-old Joanna Goodwin breaks up with her, she wanders on the snow and gets pneumonia. Her older sister, Susan Goodwin, finds that Joanna does not want to live anymore and is following the leaves that keep falling from a tree. Their upstairs neighbor, the painter Behrman, tries to help the girls the best he can. Will he be able to save Joanna? 4) "The Ransom of Red Chief": The con men Sam 'Slick' Brown and Bill Peoria flee to the countryside in their car and plot to kidnap the boy J.B. Dorset to ask for ransom from his parents. But soon they find that the boy is a little devil. 5) "The Gift of the Magi": On Christmas Eve, Della and her beloved husband Jim are penniless and in love with each other. Jim dreams of giving a tiara to Della since she has wonderful hair, and Della wants to give Jim a chain for his pocket watch. On Christmas night, they each find a way to buy the gifts.