Prologue

A prologue presented by narrator John Steinbeck introduces biographic background on O. Henry and mentions several of his other stories not included, notably the story of reformed safecracker Jimmy Valentine in A Retrieved Reformation.

"The Cop and the Anthem"

Directed by Henry Koster, from a screenplay by Lamar Trotti, it stars Charles Laughton, Marilyn Monroe and David Wayne. As winter approaches, a vagrant decides it's time for his annual winter spell in prison. But no matter how hard he tries, he cannot get himself arrested.

"The Clarion Call"

Directed by Henry Hathaway, from a screenplay by Richard Breen, it stars Dale Robertson and Richard Widmark. A detective cannot arrest a murderer he knows from his past due to his honor involving an outstanding financial debt to the criminal. Once a newspaper offers a reward, after being mocked by the criminal, the detective arrests the criminal and collects the reward to repay the debt.

This vignette reunited Henry Hathaway and Richard Widmark who'd worked together on the noir classic Kiss of Death (1947). Widmark's character in The Clarion Call, "Johnny Kernan", is actually a reprise of his Oscar-nominated character "Tommy Udo" from Kiss of Death. Widmark's Udo/Kernan character was inspired by his love of Batman comics' "The Joker". The Tommy Udo performance in turn influenced Frank Gorshin in preparation for his "Riddler" character on the Batman TV series in the 1960s.^[3]

"The Last Leaf"

Directed by Jean Negulescu, from a screenplay by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, it stars Anne Baxter, Jean Peters, and Gregory Ratoff. The story is set in Greenwich Village during the depths of winter. A poor old painter saves the life of a young woman, dying of pneumonia, by giving her the will to live. From her bed the patient can see an ivy vine through the window gradually losing its leaves in the intense cold. She has taken it into her head that she will die when the vine loses its last leaf. Seemingly, the last leaf never falls, and the young woman survives. In reality, the vine lost all its leaves during the cold night. The leaf she thought she had seen was just the image of a leaf painted on the wall with perfect realism, by the old artist, who died of exposure in the cold shortly after finishing the painted leaf.

"The Ransom of Red Chief"

Directed by Howard Hawks, from a screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, rewritten by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer (none of whom were credited), it stars Fred Allen, Oscar Levant, Lee Aaker, Irving Bacon, and Kathleen Freeman. Two con men kidnap a child in order to collect a substantial ransom, but the child proves to be too much for them.

Nunnally Johnson wrote the original screenplay for Clifton Webb as "Slick" and William Demarest as "William", but when Fred Allen and Oscar Levant were cast, Hawks asked Hecht and Lederer to do a rewrite. Johnson was unhappy with the result and asked to have his name removed from the film.^[4]

"The Gift of the Magi"

Directed by Henry King, from a screenplay by Walter Bullock and Philip Dunne (who was uncredited), it stars Jeanne Crain and Farley Granger. On Christmas Eve, with little money, Della sells her hair to buy her husband Jim a watch fob. Jim has sold his watch to buy her a pair of ornamental combs. When they exchange these now useless gifts, they realize how deep is their love for one another.