O. Henry's Full House

Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".

Cast

Fred Allen

as Sam "Slick" Brown (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")

Anne Baxter

as Joanna Goodwin (segment "The Last Leaf")

Jeanne Crain

as Della (segment "The Gift of the Magi")

Farley Granger

as Jim (segment "The Gift of the Magi")

Charles Laughton

as Soapy (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")

Oscar Levant

as William Smith (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")

Marilyn Monroe

as Streetwalker (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")

Jean Peters

as Susan Goodwin (segment "The Last Leaf")

Gregory Ratoff

as Behrman (segment "The Last Leaf")

Dale Robertson

as Barney Woods (segment "The Clarion Call")

Reviews

CinemaSerf

A compendium of five stories from the acclaimed US writer that are all quite entertaining. It starts off with a story about "Soapy" - a wily vagrant who decides that with winter coming, it's time to get himself snuggly incarcerated for the harsh weather. Who else but Charles Laughton could get that ...

Similar Movies

Rebel Without a Cause

After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.

⭐ 7.5

I Am the Doorway

After Saturn XVI crashes back to Earth, ex-astronaut Arthur struggles with an infection. Richard and his friends are blind to it's origin but his victims won't be. The Doorway is open.

⭐ 4.5

Dead Man’s Hand

George Gregson's world is turned upside down when he meets a man in a 1940's gentleman's club who refuses to shake hands. Based on Stephen King's short story 'The Man who Would Not Shake Hands'.

⭐ 0.0

Broken Blossoms or The Yellow Man and the Girl

The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.

⭐ 6.9

The Man Who Would Be King

A robust adventure about two British adventurers who take over primitive Kafiristan as "godlike" rulers, meeting a tragic end through their desire for a native girl. Based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling.

⭐ 7.5

Every Young Man

Jurácek's feature debut is shot in two parts. In the first, a corporal accompanies a new recruit with a sore Achilles tendon for his physical, and all the girls or young women they see are played by the same actress (Ruzickova). In the longer second segment, shot with the help of the Czechoslovakia army, the soldiers pass the time during basic training and maneuvers by talking about girls.

⭐ 6.5

Black Crown

A woman suffers from amnesia after killing her husband, who was just about to demand a divorce for having found her engaging in an affair with a lover, who is only interested in her to find where some precious jewels are hidden.

⭐ 5.2

The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands

A man afflicted with a curse while visiting Bombay, India at the turn of the 20th Century struggles to live life without ever touching another human being. His tragic lack of success in remaining free of all human contact causes the death of casual acquaintances and close friends alike. Ultimately, his curse turns back upon him and his story ends as tragically as those he affected with his curse.

⭐ 0.0

Freaky Tales

In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town's underdogs in four interconnected tales: teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score.

⭐ 6.9

How Robinson Was Created

The film is based on the feuilleton of the same name by I. Ilf and E. Petrov. A writer named Moldovantsev delivers a thrilling Soviet‐style Robinson Crusoe adventure on deadline, only to have his editor insist on adding a local party chairman, freed ex‐members, an activist collector, a housing committee and even a meeting table, bell and ledger washed ashore. Reluctantly he complies, so far that he jettisons Robinson himself as an unjustified weakling, transforming his novel into an absurd manifesto of bureaucratic excess.

⭐ 8.0

In the Bedroom

Summertime on the coast of Maine, "In the Bedroom" centers on the inner dynamics of a family in transition. Matt Fowler is a doctor practicing in his native Maine and is married to New York born Ruth Fowler, a music teacher. His son is involved in a love affair with a local single mother. As the beauty of Maine's brief and fleeting summer comes to an end, these characters find themselves in the midst of unimaginable tragedy.

⭐ 6.9

New World

Coco, a Beijing modern girl wants to spend a romantic and fancy Christmas vacation in Osaka. However the place where she gets in is Shinsekai ( "New World" in English, is an old neighbourhood located next to south Osaka city's downtown "Minami " area, as known as one of the most poorest and dangerous area in Osaka.)When she arrives there, she starts feeling regret and frustrated by the encounters and the landscapes which are far beyond her expectation. Suddenly she is involved in an incident surrounds a Chinese family there, meanwhile she starts fascinated by Shinsekai through her wondering. In this short and unusual Christmas vacation, Coco discovers a "Japan " she never knows and a "China" that she is not familiar with.

⭐ 8.0

The Mysterious Mr. Hyde

The television adaptation of Stevenson's well-known short story enriched the story with a new motif, because the good and evil in a person change not only under the influence of drugs, but also under the influence of insatiable love. We meet Mr. Hyde, who is an assistant to the elderly Dr. Jekyll, on the street when he kills a neighbor's dog. Dr. Utterson and his friend witness this when they go to visit a friend of theirs, Jekyll, who they are worried about. They believe that he is under the influence of his assistant, they fear for his life. Jekyll is the family doctor of Lady Danvers, with whom he is secretly in love. He is a talented scientist and has invented a liquid, a substance whose effect is very strange - it rejuvenates, but at the same time changes the character. And that gradually becomes fatal for him...

⭐ 6.0

Divá Bára

This is a romantic story about a brave, self-made girl, despised daughter of a shepherd. She is not afraid of anything - neither night nor swimming. But the superstitious villagers are telling weird stories about her and about all sorts of strange things, even her conjunction with the powers of hell.

⭐ 6.6

Four Rooms

It's Ted the Bellhop's first night on the job...and the hotel's very unusual guests are about to place him in some outrageous predicaments. It seems that this evening's room service is serving up one unbelievable happening after another.

⭐ 5.9

Father Mother Sister Brother

Three separate stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Each of the three parts takes place in the present, and each in a different country. Father is set in the Northeast U.S., Mother in Dublin, Ireland, and Sister Brother in Paris, France. The film is a series of character studies, quiet, observational and non-judgmental. A comedy, but interwoven with threads of melancholy.

⭐ 0.0

The Bible: In the Beginning...

Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.

⭐ 7.3

Pineapple Tours

An anthology film consisting of three linked stories by different directors, all set on an Okinawan island. The first story, 'Aunt Reiko' concerns an opera singer who travels back to her home island to consult a spiritualist about the loss of her voice. The second story, 'Haruko & Hideyoshi' concerns an outsider to the island who is tricked into marrying an island girl after visiting the island god of fertility with her. The final story, 'Bomb Kids' concerns two kids in a punk band who set out to win (or steal) a large amount of money. Linking these stories is the ongoing search for an unexploded WWII bomb, a large model pineapple, and the possibility of a hotel development coming to the island...

⭐ 4.0