Three episodes based on O. Henry's texts. "The Last Leaf" deals with the friendship between a painter and two young women. In "One Thousand Dollars", a young man receives an insignificant amount of his uncle, as an inheritance. "Gift Of The Magi" concerns two people who make it all possible when they give themselves love as Christmas presents.
Roy Poole
/ Tolman (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Sydney Walsh
/ Diana (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Frances Fisher
/ Waitress (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Roger Neil
/ Street Musician (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Greg Beebe
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Deborah Quayle
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Dana Lewis
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Robby Benson
/ Jim (segment "The Gift of the Magi") Karla DeVito
/ Della (segment "The Gift of the Magi") Martin Balsam
/ Wash (segment "The Gift of the Magi") Tracey Ellis
/ Susie (segment "The Gift of the Magi") Peter Knowlton
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Benjamin Siegel
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Al Conti
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars") Bob Peckman
/ Unknown (segment "One Thousand Dollars")
The young, naive Smitty is sent to prison for six months; Cathy, his girlfriend, watches as he disappears behind the bars and barbed wire. He's assigned a cell with Queenie, a balls-out drag queen, Rocky, a quiet but cocky con, and Mona, a young gay man who ministers to Rocky. Smitty watches in horror as gangs of inmates brutalize prisoners who lack protection. Those who complain risk beatings or murder at the hands of unsympathetic guards: all cries are bootless. Mona offers poetry - Shakespeare's sonnet XXIX; Queenie and Rocky offer Smitty advice, and Rocky offers protection for a price. Smitty's choices and their consequences are the film's main subjects.
