An Evening with O. Henry (2001)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

• Conversation with James W. Thomas, Ph. D.
  
• Biography
  
• Read the Stories
  
• Photo Gallery
  
• Discussion Topics
  

O. Henry's name has become synonymous with the surprise ending in American literature. His short stories were filled with last-minute twists that shocked his readers for years. The two stories presented here are two of his most famous: "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Last Leaf". The premise of "Magi" is that a young couple is strapped for cash during the Christmas holidays, but they each make deep personal sacrifices so that they might buy the other a Christmas present. "Leaf" is about a couple of single women living together in New York. One of them gets the dreaded Pneumonia and is very near death.

These adaptations of his stories leave quite a bit to be desired. The dialogue is so stiff, it almost leaves you looking for a pulse. The only thing they've got going for them is that they didn't try to drag the stories out to a feature length film; they remain (thankfully) short. The acting is so dreadful that I was pulled completely out of the stories altogether. They are both narrated, but the narration of "Magi" is a little more contrived. The story is narrated by a grandmother told to her granddaughter, and it just feels very forced. It the perfect combination of a bad adaptation and extremely weak acting. "Leaf" is narrated by an invisible narrator (thankfully), which makes it feel a little less contrived, but the acting in the actual scenes is so bad that there is really nothing capable of pulling me back into the story. The music in both only helps the adaptations seem even more forced. Musically speaking, I felt as though I was being manhandled into feeling some kind of emotion, but I was never clear which one I was supposed to have.

Never fear, though, you don't actually have to watch these adaptations on this DVD. You also have the option to read the original texts on your screen. This is a very nice option, although I do not think I would ever sit in front of my television to read these stories. Perhaps this would have been better as DVD-ROM feature?

The historical information on this DVD is what makes it such a gem. The other feature on this DVD is not one of O. Henry's stories, but a documentary on the life and times of the writer himself. It begins with his birth in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862 and continues through the end of his life. William Sydney Porter was a kind of Renaissance man of the late 19th Century; trying his hand at everything from pharmaceuticals to draftsman. This is very nicely done and filled with vintage photographs of Porter's family as well as his own drawings. Don't get me wrong, this is not of the high quality of A&E's Biographies, but it could also be a lot worse than it turned out. It is of interest, though that Porter was the first publisher of a magazine called The Rolling Stone (no, it's not the same rag that covers the music industry today). I do find it funny that the narrator who spends a great deal of time in front of the camera seems to get up and move to a different place around his desk without any apparent motivation for the move.

The highlight of the bonus material is the interview with Pepperdine University Professor of English, James W. Thomas, Ph. D. It just a shame that they didn't splice a little of it into the biography. It does focus on the "academics" of O. Henry's stories; discussing the use of allegory, metaphor and simile, and the response to his writings by the critics and the average reading public. It's a very interesting presentation and very much worth watching.

The rest of the DVD bonus material is pretty much just text-on-screen stuff. There is a text-based biography that is almost a Reader's Digest version of the biography documentary that you will have already watched. There is a collection of his cartoons that he drew for various newspapers, but they are not really put in any kind of context, and therefore don't really seem to mean much. The "discussion topics" section is nothing more than six quiz questions that cover the material on the DVD. One more click of your remote will provide you with the answers to all six (although, if you look closely enough, the questions and the answers are on the back of the DVD case insert, but don't tell the teacher I told you how to cheat on this one).

All in all, I would have to say that its nice to have this DVD that remembers the writings of O. Henry. They should have kept it to a straight documentary/history lesson, but I guess that doesn't take away from the fact that you should rent it if you see it. If you are a fan of good writing, you won't want to miss this.