For me this hasn't weathered at all well. Maybe the fact that the first segment, The Cop And The Anthem, features Charles Laughton has something to do with it Laughton hails, appropriately, from Scarborough which is in Yorkshire and a bigger York ham I have yet to see. I am, on the other hand, a great admirer of Richard Widmark and it was disappointing to see this fine actor squandering his talent in a reprise of his Tommy Udo character in his breakthrough role, Kiss of Death. The Ransom of Red Chief is frankly embarrassing despite the presence of the great Fred Allen who made far too few movies, and it would have been kinder to have left it on the Cutting Room floor. The last two segments are pure sentiment in the shape of The Last Leaf in which Gregory Ratoff sacrifices his own life to save Ann Baxter's and finally the one everyone knows, The Gift Of The Magi. I have no problem with sentiment but sentiment PLUS Farley Granger and Jeanne Crain is a tad too much.
Review of O. Henry's Full House
