O. Henry's Full House is an anthology film

Anthology film

An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...

 made by 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

, consisting of five separate stories by O. Henry

O. Henry

O. Henry was the pen name of the American writer William Sydney Porter . O. Henry's short stories are well known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings.-Early life:...

. The film was produced by André Hakim

André Hakim

André Hakim was a film producer.André and his brothers were in the film industry from the time they were teenagers...

 and directed by five separate directors from five separate screenplays. The music score was composed by Alfred Newman

Alfred Newman

Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...

. The film is narrated by author John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck

John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...

, who made a rare on-camera appearance to introduce each story.

The Cop and the Anthem

Directed by Henry Koster

Henry Koster

Henry Koster was born Hermann Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. He became a film director and later moved to Hollywood. Koster's father, a salesman, left home when Henry was a young man...

, from a screenplay by Lamar Trotti

Lamar Trotti

Lamar Jefferson Trotti was an American screenwriter, producer, and motion picture executive.- Early life and education :Trotti was born in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He became the first graduate of the Henry W...

, it stars Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton

Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...

, Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

 and David Wayne

David Wayne

David Wayne was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.-Early life and career:...

.

The Clarion Call

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring John Wayne.-Background:...

, from a screenplay by Richard L. Breen

Richard L. Breen

Richard L. Breen was a Hollywood screenwriter and director. He began as a freelance radio writer. After a stint in the US Navy during World War II, he began writing for films and worked alone and in collaboration with such distinguished writers as Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.He won an Oscar...

, it stars Dale Robertson

Dale Robertson

Dayle Lymoine "Dale" Robertson is an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the role of Jim Hardie in the TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo, and the owner of an incomplete railroad line in ABC's The Iron Horse, often appearing as the deceptively thoughtful but...

 and Richard Widmark

Richard Widmark

Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...

.

The Last Leaf

The Last Leaf

The Last Leaf is a 24-minute film produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is based on an O. Henry short story of the same name.-Plot:...

Directed by Jean Negulesco

Jean Negulesco

Jean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....

, from a screenplay by Ivan Goff

Ivan Goff

Ivan Goff was an Australian screenwriter, best known for his collaborations with Ben Roberts including White Heat , The Man of a Thousand Faces and the pilot for Charlie's Angels .-Biography:...

 and Ben Roberts

Ben Roberts

Benjamin Roberts is a British professional poker player based in London.-Poker career:Roberts began playing poker in the mid 1970s, and claims to have won every year....

, it stars Anne Baxter

Anne Baxter

Anne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as The Magnificent Ambersons , The Razor's Edge , All About Eve and The Ten Commandments .-Early life:...

, Jean Peters

Jean Peters

Jean Peters was an American actress, known as a star of 20th Century Fox in the late 1940s and early 1950s and as the second wife of Howard Hughes...

 and Gregory Ratoff

Gregory Ratoff

Gregory Ratoff was a Russian-born American film director, actor and producer. His most famous role as an actor was as producer Max Fabian who feuds with star Margo Channing in All About Eve ....

.

The Ransom of Red Chief

The Ransom of Red Chief

"The Ransom of Red Chief" is a 1910 short story by O. Henry. It follows two men who attempt to kidnap and ransom a wealthy Alabaman's son; eventually, the men are driven to distraction by the boy and end up having to pay the boy's father to take him back....

Directed by Howard Hawks

Howard Hawks

Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...

, from a screenplay by Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...

, Nunnally Johnson

Nunnally Johnson

Nunnally Hunter Johnson was an American filmmaker who wrote, produced, and directed motion pictures.Johnson was born in Columbus, Georgia. He began his career as a journalist, writing for the Columbus Enquirer Sun, the Savannah Press, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and the New York Herald Tribune...

 and Charles Lederer

Charles Lederer

Charles Lederer was a prolific and well-connected American film writer and director of the 30s to the 60s, from a prominent theatrical family with close ties to the Hearst dynasty.-Early life:...

, it stars Fred Allen

Fred Allen

Fred Allen was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio.His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it...

, Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant

Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...

 and Lee Aaker

Lee Aaker

Lee William Aaker is a former American child actor known for his appearance as Rusty "B-Company" in the television program The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin.- Biography :...

.

The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi

"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story written by O. Henry , about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money...

Directed by Henry King

Henry King (director)

Henry King was an American film director.Before coming to film, King worked as an actor in various repertoire theatres, and first started to take small film roles in 1912. He directed for the first time in 1915, and grew to become one of the most commercially successful Hollywood directors of the...

, from a screenplay by Walter Bullock, it stars Jeanne Crain

Jeanne Crain

Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress.-Early life:Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a school teacher, and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's...

 and Farley Granger

Farley Granger

Farley Earle Granger was an American actor. In a career spanning several decades, he was perhaps best known for his two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, Rope in 1948 and Strangers on a Train in 1951.-Early life:...

.

External links

• Review at TimeOut Film
• Review at Channel 4 Film
• Newspaper article by Chris Hicks from Deseret Morning News (deseretnews.com)