indirectly. Direct adaptations include the 1952 movie The Ransom of Red Chief starring Fred Allen and Oscar Levant (part of O. Henry's Full House), the segment "The Ransom of Red Chief" in the 1962 Soviet black-and-white comedy film Strictly Business by Leonid Gaidai, the 1977 "The Ransom of Red Chief" episode of the ABC Weekend Special series, the 1984 opera Ransom of Red Chief (libretto, music, and orchestration by Brad Liebl), and the 1998 television film The Ransom of Red Chief; there is also Le Grand Chef, a French direct adaptation made in 1959 by Henri Verneuil, with Fernandel and Gino Cervi. Indirect adaptions include the 1929 Japanese silent comedy Straightforward Boy by Yasujirō Ozu, the British film Don't Ever Leave Me (1949) played with a girl instead, with Petula Clark in the role, the episode "The Ransom of Red Chimp" of the 1990s Disney animated series TaleSpin, the 1985 Soviet animated short , the films Too Many Crooks (1959) and Ruthless People (1986) (which take the story a step further), and "The Ransom of Rusty Rex", a segment of the 2015 anthology film Tales of Halloween. A 2015 episode of the radio comedy anthology Stanley Baxter's Playhouse, titled "Two Desperate Men" after how the kidnappers sign their note, relocated the story to rural Scotland in the 1930s. References External links Full audio dramatization also available free from WOUB Public Media (Athens, Ohio) online here. 1907 short stories 1900s short stories American short stories Short stories by O. Henry Works originally published in The Saturday Evening Post Short stories adapted into films