It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

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

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

O. Henry was a late 19th and early 20th century short story writer. He was best admired for his twist endings. O. Henry's Full House selected five of his tales to dramatize.As a kid I watched the film on television, sitting on the couch with my beloved dachshund sleeping in my lap. "The Last Leaf" starring Anne Baxter was absorbing my attention. Tossed into a New York City blizzard by her rejecting lover, she despairingly makes her way to her sister's apartment building in front of which she passes out. How curious that in real life, Baxter would decades later collapse on a city sidewalk and die.Baxter is helped inside by her sister and a doctor makes a house call. Diagnosing her with pneumonia, he naively believes that due to her young age she will survive. However, the sister knows about the affair yet cannot convince Baxter to forget it. Lying in bed looking through the picture window, noting the leaves dropping from the vines, she declares that when the last leaf has fallen, she will die.That night the sister and we see two remaining leaves. One blows away and the other is beginning to break off. We all fear the leaf will fall by morning. When dawn comes, there is sunlight behind the curtains, and Baxter demands her sister pull them open. In horrific anticipation, I found myself squirming, startling my poor doggy. To avoid spoiling the scene, I won't reveal what next transpires, but take my word that O. Henry's twists could be quite complex - what you think you see, might not be what really is there.The last movie segment was based on his most popular "The Gift of the Magi", wherein newlyweds experience their first Christmas Eve together. Even in 1905 there was commercialism demanding that people spend rather than focus on their love for each other. We witness the wife in tears as she sells a precious possession to buy a gift for her beloved. When he comes home he is shocked at what she sold. Then she and we experience shock discovering what he in fact sold to afford his present. Fortunately the pair laugh at what they've done, celebrating the true meaning of the season.They've learned the priceless lesson that this feature reminds us of - count your blessings.

I was surprised when I saw this film was made in the 1950's. I would have guessed the 40's or sooner. It is a real treasure. These stories are, of course, the very epitome of irony. Every story has a "surprise" ending, although, with this writer, we are anticipating a surprise. Some are part of Americana and are ingrained in our memories. The two best, in my estimation, are "The Last Leaf," about a dying girl who is giving up hope. The other, perhaps his most famous story, is the Christmas story "The Gift of the Magi." A young woman and her husband are just beginning their lives and have no money for Christmas presents. They go to great sacrifices to do an act of kindness. The ending is so charming and loving, we should all see it. The quality of each episode is excellent.

What better way to introduce a film consisting of a number of stories than to have a story writer do it. John Steinbeck is the narrator for this picture, having a few words to say as he brings each of these anthology pieces forward for the viewer. I think it would have helped if he lightened up a bit, he looked like a total curmudgeon doing it.A handful of other reviewers here have described the individual segments so no need to rehash them here. I guess what I'd like to do is comment on my favorite episode, that being 'The Last Leaf'. I managed to figure out the ending of the story, but that didn't make it any less poignant or meaningful. The three dollar abstract painter Behrman (Gregory Ratoff) performed a hero's response to the disheartened Joanna Goodwin (Anne Baxter) after being dumped by her lover (I would have said boyfriend but the guy looked like a creep). Joanna's sister Susan (Jean Peters) said she would explain her comment about Behrman (in my summary above) at a later time when she would be better able to handle it. In a way, Susan's comment was the best statement coming out of all five stories that might have described O. Henry himself.Overall I enjoyed all of the stories to varying degrees. I thought Richard Widmark went out of his way to build on the Tommy Udo character from "Kiss of Death', to the point of annoyance. At one point, his character Johnny Kernan makes one of the most belittling racist statements I've ever heard in a movie when he says to a black porter on a train, "There you go tar bucket". So at least the clam head got what was coming to him in a neat twist to 'The Clarion Call' segment. Actually, that was writer O. Henry's forte, providing neat twists to his stories in a way that surprised and amazed.As far as surprises here goes, having Marilyn Monroe show up in the opening segment with Charles Laughton was a neat touch. She might have been wistfully commenting on her own status as a Fifties pin-up girl when she noted to Horace (David Wayne) that "He called me a lady". Shortly after this film her brief film career took off.With some melancholy touches and personal flourishes, each of the guest directors did a nice job with their particular stories. Howard Hawks didn't particularly like the way "The Ransom of Red Chief" came out, but I didn't think it was all that bad. An interesting side note to the picture that wound up entirely coincidental, three of the directors happened to be named Henry!

This is perfect example of the Fox look in the beginning of the fifties, prior to the Scope. Here are the directors, actors and actress, cinematographers,musicians (Alfred Newmann), etc., under contract. Jean Peters, Anne Baxter, Richard Widmark, Jeanne Crain, Marilyn in her beginnings, etc.What a pair of wonderful actresses in the moving "The last leaf", directed by Jean Negulesco with an almost expressionist style! Really, he was an very underrated director with good film as "Three came home", "The mask of Dimitrios", "Humoresque".In "The gift of the magi" Henry King puts grace and gusto in some sweet Christmas commonplaces. This is also a good episode, perhaps a little marred by the overacting of Jeanne Crain.Also very watchable "The clarion call", directed by Henry Hathaway in a dry and concise style.In "The cop and the anthem" we have a memorable line by the lovely Marilyn: "He called me madam!" The Hawks episode is the only drawback in the film, but one can forgive it in front of the other good four. And, above all, the sublime "The last leaf".