O. Henry's Full House (1952)

As Good As It Gets

Blistering performances.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

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.

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.........

William Sydney Porter was a citizen of North Carolina who (following the period of Reconstruction) moved to Texas. He married and worked in a bank. His wife became very ill. Now he was charged with embezzlement (presumably for his wife's medical bills). He fled the U.S. to Latin America, and then returned when he heard his wife was dying. After her death he was arrested tried and convicted for embezzlement and got four years in prison. Prison destroys many inmates, but it has occasionally helped some writers. John Bunyan, author of THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, wrote part of it in prison. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was imprisoned for debt and began DON QUIXOTE. Porter wrote some of the prison newspaper, and the chief guard in the prison, Mr. Orrin Henry, persuaded Porter to try writing as a career. Porter did, when he left prison, and proceeded to become one of America's greatest short story writers. In honor to his friend the prison guard, Porter wrote under the still remembered pseudonym, "O. Henry".Porter / "O.Henry" died in 1910. Therefore he really missed the full effect of motion pictures. In his own lifetime only one of his stories, "A RETRIEVED REFORMATION", became dramatized as ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE. He did not do the dramatization. He was working on a play at the time he died. Also a novel. Given his sharp characterizations, and his fast moving plotting that leads to a surprise ending, we just don't know if he could have done either a play or novel as well as a short story. But we know he was never approached to do a movie script...the films didn't begin talking for seventeen more years until after his death.In the late 1940s another master of the short story, William Somerset Maugham made a three picture deal in which he narrated introductions to a total of ten of his short stories. The three films, QUARTET, TRIO, and ENCORE remain great examples of how real literature can be brought to the screen without loss, and certainly were a hard act to follow for other film makers. There were few contemporary takers (Hemingway and Faulkner just did not seem to be the type to introduce some of their shorter fiction). 20th Century Fox managed to get the only other master writer of the period, John Steinbeck, to do the equivalent introductions that Maugham did.The resulting film, O.HENRY'S FULL HOUSE, was a good one but not as good as the Maugham films. Don't forget, Maugham's introductions were to stories HE wrote, whereas (despite Steinbeck's respectful comments) Steinbeck's introductions were to stories written by someone else. So the impact is a little different. Pity it was not Hemingway (if they could have gotten him) introducing some of his short stories. The five choices are fine. The best ones (to me) are "THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF", "THE LAST LEAF", "THE COP AND THE ANTHEM" and "THE GIFT OF THE MAGI". Were they the best possible choices? Well, I have always liked "A MUNICIPAL REPORT", which is light-years ahead of it's "Jim Crow" era views on race relations (and by a Southerner, for that matter). It could not get into the film because of Southern distribution. The one failure as an episode is "THE CLARION CALL". One of the other reviewers faults Richard Widmark's giggling 19th Century "Tony Udo" as the cause, but the story is not very exciting to begin with, and for once the trick in the conclusion is rather routine. The two comic episodes are amusing as they prove Bobby Burns' "The best laid plans of mice and men..." (a comment that Steinbeck would be familiar with). In "THE COP AND THE ANTHEM" the hero Soapy is a hobo, determined to spend a month or so on a any charge so he can have a warm place to be (i.e. prison) while avoiding the winter. He keeps failing to get arrested (including one interesting episode with Marilyn Monroe - her only time with Charles Laughton). Then, at it's bleakest moment he hears an anthem coming out of a church, and starts recalling how he heard it as a boy. He softens and begins to consider reforming. Then comes the conclusion. "The Ransom of Red Chief" stars Fred Allen and Oscar Levant, who mistakenly think kidnapping a child is a piece of cake. They learn quickly the word "hellion". Howard Hawks directed that episode, and his touches for farce help it tremendously."THE LAST LEAF" is about two sisters, Anne Baxter and Jean Peters, in a rooming house, living beneath a grumpy artist named Behrman (Gregory Ratoff). Baxter is dying, and Ratoff takes an interest in her health and mental condition. It is late autumn, and the leaves on the trees are falling, and Ratoff hears that Baxter believes she will die when the last, topmost leaf falls off the tree. But the last leaf is still there after a storm rips all the foliage off the tree, and Peters is sure this will give Baxter her grip on living again. Then comes the final, sad surprise."THE GIFT OF THE MAGI" has been reprinted more frequently than most stories (and spoofed - Durwood Kirby and Carol Burnett spoofed it delightfully on the old Gary Moore show once). Farley Granger and Jeanne Crain are happily married, but in straightened circumstances, each with one prize possession. Christmas is coming, and both want to get fitting gifts for each other. They do at tremendous personal cost, but they realize how deep their love is at the conclusion of the story.Not as good as the Maugham films but worthy of being seen.

I think my mom & I stayed up late one night years ago & watched this; thanks to TCM, I've seen it again & recorded it for posterity."Full House" is film versions of five O. Henry short stories & stars the top box office draws of the day. My favorite remains "The Last Leaf," a heart tugger about a love-torn woman (Anne Baxter) & the grumpy abstract artist (Gregory Ratoff) who rescues her from her near-death funk. Marilyn Monroe has a brief appearance as a prostitute who seeks momentary solace in Chas. Laughton's plight in the old chestnut, "The Cop & the Anthem." All five are turn-of-the-20th-century period pieces & are introduced & narrated by writer John "Grapes of Wrath" Steinbeck. I don't know what kind of business this movie did in theaters back in '52, but it probably didn't help that "The Ransom of Red Chief" starred two top radio wonks of the day, Fred Allen & Oscar Levant: Oscar did fare better on screen & on TV than poor old Mr. Allen, although neither could carry 15 to 20 minutes of film.I've seen this available somewhere on VHS, but you might see it sooner on TCM or premium cable, so check your local listings.