The Furnished Room story

owgm1x26 · 1974-02-24

A young man's months-long search for a missing girl ends in a haunted room in a boardinghouse. Directed by: Alan Gibson. Story by: David Ambrose, based on the short story by O. Henry.

6 total · 3 choice · 2 major · 1 minor

Theme	Level	Motivation
coping with a loved one being missing	choice	The story follows a young man, John Cambridge, after he arrives at a rundown boardinghouse in search of a missing woman who was in some unspecified way very dear to him. What John didn't know, and what the boardinghouse landlady deliberately concealed from him, is that the woman he was seeking had recently committed suicide in the very room that John rented at the boardinghouse.
despair	choice	The story culminates in John Cambridge taking his own life in the boardinghouse room where a woman, named Louise, who was very dear to him had taken her life just a week prior. In the case of Louise, she went to the city thinking that she'd become a big star, but ended up staying at a depressing boardinghouse while eking out a living in the unforgiving theater business. John took took his life in despair.
suicide	choice	The story culminates in John Cambridge taking his own life in the boardinghouse room where a woman who was very dear to him had taken her life just a week prior.
ghost	major	In one interpretation of the story, Louise's ghost was inhabiting the boardinghouse room where Louise had recently committed suicide. John, who had taken up in the room, saw Louise's ghost in a mirror. The story concluded with Louise's ghost sitting alongside John's dead body. In his opening remarks, Orson Welles spoke of ghosts.
lying	major	The story concerned John Cambridge questioning the boardinghouse landlady Mrs. Purdy over the whereabouts of a woman who he was seeking. Mrs. Purdy cruelly withheld from John that the very missing woman who he was searching for had committed suicide in the same room that Mrs. Purdy had rented to him, because she wanted to profit from him staying there.
greed for riches	minor	Mrs. Purdy cruelly withheld from John that the very missing woman who he was searching for had committed suicide in the same room that Mrs. Purdy had rented to him, because she wanted to profit from him staying there.