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".
Fred Allen
as Sam "Slick" Brown (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")
Anne Baxter
as Joanna Goodwin (segment "The Last Leaf")
Jeanne Crain
as Della (segment "The Gift of the Magi")
Farley Granger
as Jim (segment "The Gift of the Magi")
Charles Laughton
as Soapy (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
Oscar Levant
as William Smith (segment "The Ransom of Red Chief")
Marilyn Monroe
as Streetwalker (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
Jean Peters
as Susan Goodwin (segment "The Last Leaf")
Gregory Ratoff
as Behrman (segment "The Last Leaf")
Dale Robertson
as Barney Woods (segment "The Clarion Call")
David Wayne
as Horace (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
Richard Widmark
as Johnny Kernan (segment "The Clarion Call")
