O. Henry's Full House

Ben Mankiewicz introduces O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

Henry Hathaway, among the five credited directors, directs this introduction, John Steinbeck hired to stand in for the deceased author, leading into the first story, featuring Charles Laughton as “Soapy,” in the popular 20th Century-Fox anthology O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

The first scene for the stars of the last story, Jeanne Crain and Farley Granger as impecunious New Yorkers Della and Jim Young, directed by Henry King in probably the author’s most famous work, The Gift Of The Magi, from O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

From the first story in the anthology, and encompassing the entire performance of Marilyn Monroe as the streetwalker, New Yorker Soapy (Charles Laughton) has had no luck getting himself arrested for the winter, and fails to recognize her profession, in director Henry Koster’s segment of O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

Droll Alabamians Kathleen Freeman and Irving Bacon are little moved when their son (Lee Aaker) is kidnapped by bumbling Yankee interlopers Sam Brown (Fred Allen) and William Smith (Oscar Levant), who hope to turn a quick profit, Howard Hawks directing, in the literary anthology O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

New York cop Barney (Dale Robertson), who realized that an unusual pencil found at a murder scene implicated his Pennsylvania childhood pal Johnny (Richard Widmark), confronts him, prompting a compromising backstory, in director Henry Hathaway’s contribution to the anthology O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

From one of the best-known stories in the anthology, Jean Negulesco directing, sisters Susan (Jean Peters) and ailing Joanna (Anne Baxter) struggling to cope, the former then visiting their benevolent painter neighbor Behrman (Gregory Ratoff), in 20th Century-Fox’s O. Henry’s Full House, 1952.

Five stories reveal O. Henry's gift for the surprise ending with the help of five directors and a host of stars in O. Henry's Full House (1952).