| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Fred Allen | ... |
Sam 'Slick' Brown (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")
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| Anne Baxter | ... |
Joanna Goodwin (segment "The Last Leaf")
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| Jeanne Crain | ... |
Della (segment "The Gift of the Magi")
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| Farley Granger | ... |
Jim (segment "The Gift of the Magi")
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| Charles Laughton | ... |
Soapy (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
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| Oscar Levant | ... |
Bill Peoria (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")
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| Marilyn Monroe | ... |
Streetwalker (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
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| Jean Peters | ... |
Susan Goodwin (segment "The Last Leaf")
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Gregory Ratoff | ... |
Behrman (segment "The Last Leaf")
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| Dale Robertson | ... |
Barney Woods (segment "The Clarion Call")
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| David Wayne | ... |
Horace (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
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| Richard Widmark | ... |
Johnny Kernan (segment "The Clarion Call")
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Joyce Mackenzie | ... |
Hazel Woods (segment "The Clarion Call")
(scenes deleted) (as Joyce MacKenzie)
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| Lee Aaker | ... |
J.B. Dorset aka Red Chief (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")
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Richard Rober | ... |
Chief of Detectives (segment "The Clarion Call")
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Five O' Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critic's 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". Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Saw this with a childhood friend of mine in the 50's on TV when we were 'sneaking' staying up very late. When it was done, we looked at each other, both having been touched deeply, though we couldn't have described how. Ever after, it has been one of our 'special' memories -- one of us says "remember that movie?" and the other understands perfectly! That's what movies should do! Did anyone else have that experience on first watching it? I remember being very affected by Hitchcock's Saboteur, also, after watching it late one night as a kid. It stirred the same response that later made me a 'movie fan' -- that magical sense of someone (the director) saying something to you in a way that seemed to make life 'bigger' than it had been before.