Introduction

I am working on making a short, new musical movie, O. Love. This movie will present two short love stories written by O. Henry. The two stories, O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf, will be unfolded in parallel. The movie will be shot in New York City, where these stories are set.

The movie will be presented as a song-through musical. Although the characters in the different stories do not encounter each other, they interact through songs, singing a common theme of this movie: Love. The similarity of these two stories, including plot twists and sacrifice for one’s lover, will glue them into one story. Given that the characters live in poverty and it is wintertime when they suffer from cold, diseases, and lack of money, the music will be dry yet beautiful with minimal accompaniment.

The movie will be approximately 20 minutes long. The story begins in the evening and ends on the same night. I need three actors to play Jim, Brett, and the priest (supporting role) and two actresses to play Della and Johnsy.

Synopsis

The below stories will be shown in parallel but not in sequence.

#1. Della and Jim live in poverty. As Christmas arrives, Jim and Della want to buy a small surprise gift for one another, although they only have a little money to spend. They decide to sell what they own and prepare a gift for their lovers. Jim sells his watch, which his father gave him, to buy a comb set for Della. Della sells her hair to buy Jim’s watch chain. When they exchange their gifts, both realize they have bought unusable gifts, as Jim sold his watch and Della sold her hair.

#2. Johnsy is a young artist who lives in Greenwich Village. The town suffers from pneumonia as the weather turns into winter. Johnsy also has pneumonia and is getting weaker every day. She can see leaves falling through her windows and have unhopeful thoughts that she will die with the last leaf falling into the ground. One night, her husband, Brett, spends his whole night outside drawing a leaf on the wall under the storm. The next day, Johnsy looks out the window, having thought the last leaf would have fallen. However, she finds that the last leaf survived the storm last night. She finds her will to survive and recovers fast. However, Brett, who drew the leaf under the storm, gets pneumonia and fades away.

Songs

S#1 Sung by Brett

(Brett brings his canvas and starts drawing at dawn)

When the stars above are shining and splendid to light,
When the dawn is near, the time for artists to come.

Dark is a cloud, darker the sky is.
Let my brush brightens you up.

Cold is the night, colder the dawn is.
Let my singing warms you up.

The tip of my pencil begins to stride.
The tail of my brush leaps for joy.

What a nice harmony that you make.

Better need to hurry.
Inspiration comes like thunder,
goes away like lightning.

S#2 Sung by Brett and the priest

(time passes; the morning arrives; the priest approaches Brett)

Good morning, good morning.
Morning is here.
The night is over.
The birds are singing.
Beautiful morning, indeed it is.

How is your wife?
She is fading fast.

I am praying for her every day.
At first, we thought it was just a cold.
Every day, she is getting weaker.
She whispers at the window,
“When the last leaf is gone, I will be gone.”

Cold night will be warmed by hot soup.
Dark night will be brightened by love.
We keep our hope that
God will be good,
and He has a plan for us.

Sun will rise again in darkness.
Stars rise for the lost and wanderers.
We just patiently wait for the first light.
And you will know 
it was not a bad night at all.

May He keep you.
May He keep her.
May He give the strength to stand.

May He bless you.
May He bless her.
May His face always shine upon you.