Hacker Cinema
O. Henry's Full House
1952 · Film · 117 min
Directed by Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Henry King, Henry Koster, Jean Negulesco
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".
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The 1904 O. Henry short story "The Cop and the Anthem"[1][2] tells of a homeless New York City man who commits small crimes, preferring arest and jail to charity handouts.
"But to one of Soapy's proud spirit the gifts of charity are encumbered. If not in coin you must pay in humiliation of spirit for every benefit received at the hands of philanthropy. As Caesar had his Brutus, every bed of charity must have its toll of a bath, every loaf of bread its compensation of a private and personal inquisition. Wherefore it is better to be a guest of the law, which though conducted by rules, does not meddle unduly with a gentleman's private affairs."
Soapy's many attempts fail, but the story ends with a typical O. Henry twist. No spoiler here.
The story was filmed in 1952, one of five stories in "O. Henry's Full House." Charles Laughton played the vagrant. He briefly meets Marilyn Monroe. Watch this segment on YouTube[3] or enjoy the entire film.
[1] https://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/the-cop-and-the-anthem
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cop_and_the_Anthem
[3] https://youtu.be/temSJCZwUlU