Marilyn never made a Christmas movie, but at least one of her films has a Christmas connection. O. Henry’s Full House (1952) is a tribute to the great American writer, featuring five of his short stories introduced by novelist John Steinbeck.
The final episode, ‘The Gift of the Magi’, stars Jeanne Crain and Farley Granger as a impoverished young couple trying to make the best of Christmas. And ‘The Cop and the Anthem’, which opens the film, is not a Christmas tale, but was first published in December 1904 and deals with a similar theme – how the poorest among us suffer most during winter.
Charles Laughton stars as ‘Soapy’, a tramp who wants desperately to get arrested so he can spend the winter in jail. In one comic scene, he accosts a young lady (played by Marilyn at her most luscious), but she welcomes his advances.
You can watch O. Henry’s Full House here, and read ‘The Cop and the Anthem’ here.