Mr. Soft Touch

Plot synopsis:
Polish American Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) returns from fighting in World War II, only to find his San Francisco nightclub under the control of the Mob, and his friend and partner Leo missing and presumed murdered. To get even, he robs $100,000 from his former business, planning to leave the country as soon as possible. He goes to the apartment of Victor Christopher (Ray Meyer), Leo's brother, where he picks up a ticket Victor and his wife Clara (Angela Clarke) had purchased for him. However, he discovers to his dismay that they could only book him on a ship that sails for Yokohama on Christmas Eve, the next night. He has to hide until then. When the police come to stop Victor from ringing a bell and disturbing the neighbors, Joe pretends to be him in order to spend the night safely in jail. However, Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes), a kind-hearted social worker, gets him remanded into her custody instead.
She takes him to the Borden Street Settlement House, where the down and out are helped, among them a talkative, opinionated carpenter named Rickle (Percy Kilbride). As they get better acquainted, Jenny and Joe begin falling in love, though she turns down his advances, as she believes he is a wife beater. Joe causes trouble. He turns the tables on some youths who try to cheat him at craps and also accidentally falls on an old piano, breaking it. Feeling responsible, he goes to a nearby piano store (actually a front for a gambling parlor) and, pretending to be newly assigned to the police precinct, cons the owner into donating a piano in return for Joe turning a blind eye to the illicit activities there. However, he is recognized by newspaper columnist Henry "Early" Byrd (John Ireland).
Byrd tries to find out from Jenny if Joe is staying at the settlement house, but she refuses to divulge anything. From Byrd's description, Jenny realizes that Joe is not Victor. When she finds out Joe also has a pistol, she insists he leave. Byrd returns and tries to get Joe to tell him the name of the man providing protection to the crooks, but Joe refuses to talk. When he collects his money, Jenny pleads with him to give it back so they can start a life together. He counters by asking her to leave the country with him. Neither accepts the other's proposal. Meanwhile, the mobsters force Clara to tell them where Joe is hiding and start a fire to smoke him out. They recover the money, but the settlement house is left in smoldering ruins.
Joe enters the nightclub through a secret passageway and takes the money again from the new boss, Barney Teener (Roman Bohnen). He hires some men to dress up as Santa Claus to distribute presents to the children at a fundraiser at the settlement house. Joe slips in as another Santa and leaves the money to pay for the rebuilding. As he slips away, Jenny realizes what is going on and chases him out into the street, calling his name. Hearing this, the waiting mobsters shoot Joe in the back. The film ends at this point, leaving it unclear whether he will live or die, or what the future holds for the couple.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
Rare Noir Comedy hybrid....
The credentials for a superb Noir are all there: Glenn Ford has been one of the most convincing (and still strangely unsung) anti-heroes American cinema has produced.
The wonderful opening sequence (in which Ford escapes both the police and the mob) is as minimalistic ally brilliant as the seemingly tight budget would have allowed.
Yet after only a short while the film's tone changes radically: sweeter music, romantic comedy and a (however underplayed) Christmas tear-jerker emerge from what promised to be a crisp, economic little masterpiece.I'm not saying the uneven pacing ruin the film completely but my suspicion is, looking at the credits (no, I don't mean the cast which features a wonderfully noir-ish array of characters: Evelyn Keyes, John Ireland, Ted de Corsia) there are TWO directors (one made good noirs with Ford, the other made Rat Pack flicks with Sinatra, Davis Jr, Martin et al), TWO directors of photography...For what it's worth my guess is the producer got cold feet and hired a second director to save (a lame comedy?
a routine noir?) a product he wasn't very happy with.
He probably made a mistake....
Missed Holiday Classic.
The ingredients are all there for a superb Christmas holiday classic, but Mr. Soft Touch somehow fails to measure up.
It could be because two directors with two different visions if any, Gordon Douglas and Henry Levin got assigned to this film from Columbia.The film starts out with the same premise as Angels With Dirty Faces.
Glenn Ford is a former nightclub owner who while serving in World War II was done out of his share of the club by the mob.
Unlike James Cagney who expected to move back into partnership with Humphrey Bogart and George Bancroft, Ford's a bit more realistic than that.
He just robs the place and he's got both the law and Ted DeCorsia and assorted hoods looking for him.Circumstances manage to place Ford in a settlement house in San Francisco where Evelyn Keyes takes an interest in him.
He actually starts to help out around the place and spreads just a bit of that hundred grand he robbed from the mob.
But Keyes who can't help falling for Glenn and her boss Beulah Bondi know he's trouble.Mr. Soft Touch is not a bad film, but it could have been a holiday classic, it goes wide of the mark with some bad direction.
Or maybe no direction, could happen with two directors.
The most interesting character in the film is John Ireland who plays a sleazy tabloid columnist, but a man with an impeccable nose for news and trouble.Glenn Ford's fans should like Mr. Soft Touch and Evelyn Keyes is absolutely radiant as the social worker.
They teamed a few times as well for Columbia, but never got the acclaim that Ford did with Rita Hayworth in Gilda.
Of course Mr. Soft Touch isn't Gilda..
Glenn Ford comfortably yet weirdly shifts between film-noir and comedy.
Here is a strange movie.
Depending on what part you are tuned into, you may be watching a gangster movie with vintage Depression-era wise-guy chatter, or a heart-touching true-meaning-of-Christmas film, or a comic variation on a "Crazy House"-type theme, featuring scenes with eccentric characters pontificating weirdly.
Then I saw that there were two directors, so maybe that is why the film shifts so much.Not that it is bad.
On the contrary, "Mr. Soft Touch" is quite an entertaining movie, with a fast-paced script that barely ever pauses to catch its breath.
The reason this film works for me is that Glenn Ford so easily slides from film-noir to romance to comedy and back and forth again.
A very interesting role for Glenn, perhaps inadvertently given a chance here to show how versatile he could be.Evelyn Keyes plays an interesting character as well.
It is unusual for a film made in what was still the 1940's to feature a character who so openly refers to, and sometimes uses manipulatively, a handicap such as deafness; the references to the hearing aid may make a modern viewer a little uncomfortable.The only character who seems out of place is John Irelands's crusading reporter.
He wears a pair of dark-framed, "please don't hit me" glasses, which don't seem right for some reason.
His character is perhaps a good guy, perhaps not; we never really find out, and in the end, neither we nor the directors seemed to care.
Just not sure how he really fits in.From a social standpoint, "Mr. Soft Touch" presents an up-close and intimate look at private charity in the days before the government took over that role.
We get a chance to spend quality time with those caring souls who fought tirelessly against an endless shortage of money and supplies, and who believed that it was worth helping people, even if it was only one person at a time.
No one in this movie whines about getting a check from the government.The bottom line, then, is that you have a film that is part "Little Caesar", part "Its a Wonderful Life", part "Bowery Boys", and part "You Can't Take it with You".
If you accept the genre-changes that occur haphazardly throughout the film as all part of the fun, then you can have yourself an enjoyable hour and a half in the company of "Mr. Soft Touch"..
Two directors, a mix of noir and comedy - someone changed his mind....
A war hero returns from the service and winds up stealing his own money back from the mob in "Mr. Soft Touch," a 1949 film starring Glenn Ford, Evelyn Keyes, John Ireland, and Ted de Corsa.Ford plays Joe Miracle (shortened from his Polish name) who comes home before Christmas and finds out his partner in a club has been murdered by the mob, and the mob has taken his money.
Joe retaliates by breaking into the club and stealing $100,000 from the safe.
With everyone looking for him, Joe has a friend buy him a ticket to Japan, but the ticket is for a later date.
So he takes off and enters a settlement house run by Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes).
Jenny thinks Joe is a musician down on his luck.
Meanwhile, a newspaper columnist who knows what happened wants Joe's story and is trying to track him down.
In writing about Joe, the mob picks up his trail.Given the cast, Mr. Soft Touch was obviously intended to be a noir but turns into kind of a Christmas romance with comic aspects.
For some reason it failed to hold my interest, even though I love Glenn Ford.
The acting was good all around, but I preferred the beginning noir and wish it had stayed on that route.
The original director was replaced, possibly to change the direction of the movie.Someone on this board mentioned that John Garfield would have been better in this role.
He would have been very good as he always was, but he and Ford were different kinds of types and actors.
Garfield looked and acted tough, and Glenn Ford was Everyman.
I think his casting in this is the better choice.
Joe is a likable, nice guy who was ripped off by the mob while he was off serving his country.
Glenn Ford didn't have Garfield's range, but in the right role, he was very effective.
And, I might add, easy on the eyes..
Not bad, but too heavy on the schmaltz to be anything more than a time-passer.
"Mr. Soft Touch" is an odd sort of film.
It's like merging a film noir movie with a schmaltzy family film--and the results are far from great.
Now I am not saying it's a bad picture--but it could have easily been a lot better--mostly because of its saccharine script.The film begins with Glenn Ford on the run.
It seems he held up a nightclub and stole $100,000.
But was it exactly stealing?
It seems that the club had belonged to Ford but while he was off fighting in the war, it was stolen out from under him.
So, the money is just payback for what was rightfully his--at least in his mind.
The problem is that the mobsters who now run the place are not about to let him get away with it...and Ford needs to get out of the country ASAP.Now here is where it gets bizarre.
His boat doesn't leave for a day so Ford tries to get himself locked up for the night--as he figures at least he'll be safe.
But a do-gooder social worker feels sorry for him and gets the police to agree to release him to her program--something Ford really doesn't want.
And, after a while, Ford's tough-guy persona is slowly eroded as he starts to think of others and care about the people in this Salvation Army-like setting.
Well, it is predictable but a bit ridiculous--so watch it if you are really, really curious.
I wouldn't.Ford's character is a bizarre enigma.
He's supposed to be tough and nasty--and he's good at that.
But later, he's supposed to be a softy--and this just never range true.
Nor, for that matter, did the script..
Interesting Jumble.
Nightclub owner Joe returns from WWII only to learn gangsters have taken over his business and killed his partner.
Being a tough guy himself, he gets the money back, but now needs to hightail out of the country.
But before his ship sails, he's thrust into a neighborhood settlement house, whose winsome supervisor tempts him with a different kind of life.Oddball Xmas film, sort of like gangster noir meets Xmas spirit.
I'm surmising it's holiday fare since Santa and the spirit of giving amount to the subtext.
Plus, "Miracle" is Joe's (Ford) last name— no guess work there.
Nonetheless, the tough guy overlay is heavy and darkly photographed.
And catch that ending—certainly not what I expected as noir triumphs.
Then too, just count actor Ford's number of smiles, or leading lady Keyes'.
It's more like dour Xmas than the merry kind.
Still, I kind of enjoyed the overall result.
Maybe because it manages to convey a spirit of giving without rubbing our nose in it.
After all, Joe's more interested in keeping the hundred-grand than doling it out to the needy.
Good thing the kids are there to ease his greed.
Still, the movie's pretty uneven.
The gangster part sort of drops in and out.
I get the feeling no one in production had a clear concept of the desired result.
Overall, the parts may not fit well, but they are lively, never dragging.
Still, it's an interesting little film, but don't expect it to show up for holiday celebration, except maybe for fans of 40's noir..
Just passable.
Reworking of an old John Garfield film, with some of the same cast, this slight drama tells the story of a guy (Ford) on the run with stolen loot who ends up in a settlement house.
There he learns a few things about life and himself.
He falls for a woman (Keyes) who works there and has taken pity on him, thinking he is a down and out musician.
A reporter (Ireland) discovers his true identity, which leads to gangsters pursuing him and causing no end of trouble.
Ford is OK, but Garfield was much more convincing in an almost identical role.
Keyes is simply window dressing.
This kind of film was very popular in the 1930s, but pretty passe by the late 1940s.
Columbia or whomever probably was looking over some old movie scripts and decided to dust this one off and make it the bottom half of a double bill..
A Soft Touch for the Holiday Hearted ***1/2.
Simply wonderful holiday yarn starring Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes.
This is a heartwarming 1949 film dealing with the true meaning of holiday giving.When Joe Miracle returns from the war, he discovers that his nightclub has been taken over by the mob and his partner killed.Joe, Ford, takes the money back that belongs to him and of course the mob pursues him.Joe takes refuge in a friend's home.
The latter is quite eccentric, but who is aided by Evelyn Keyes, a settlement worker who mistakes the guy for Joe.Joe hides out in the settlement house and practices good deeds by helping those less fortunate.
Naturally, romance blossoms between Joe and the Keyes character.The mob remains in pursuit and Joe takes a bullet for his efforts.
He probably survived but we're not 100% positive of that.The two matronly older settlement workers here are Beulah Bondi and Clara Blandick, the latter remembered as Auntie Em in "The Wizard of Oz."Percy Kilbride provides comic relief as a resident in the place spewing forth his practical philosophical ideas.A heartwarming tale depicting the basic good in man and how it is restored..
Mister Capra, are you here?.
Mister Capra, are you here?.
Glenn Ford is Joe Miracle (nee with some Polish jawbreaker of a real name).
He returns from the war to find that a gangster, the ever reliable Roman Bohnen, assisted by his even more ever-reliable coffee-grinder-voiced henchman, Ted DeCorsia, have killed his partner and stolen the money from the night club Ford and his partner owned.Ford, quite naturally, steals it back and the gangsters are after him.
Ford finds sanctuary in a settlement house run by Evelyn Keyes for indigents and neighborhood kids.
Keyes mistakes Ford for a bum and puts him up in the upstairs flophouse in a bunk with shredded sheets and blankets.
Ford must have these indignities visited upon him for the few days until his ship leaves for a foreign port.Guess what happens.
He outwits the gangsters and Ford and Keyes fall in love and Ford, dressed as Santa Claus, uses the money to refurbish the settlement house with new mattresses, sheets, hot and cold running maids, and everything else until it looks like the Burj El Arab Hotel in Dubai.
Everybody lives happily ever after except those who don't deserve it.The Depression-era script seems to have been taken out of some unused filing cabinet and dusted off.
It may have been rejected at some time earlier by Frank Capra as too sappy for his attention.
The "kids" in the settlement are derived from "Dead End", with their oddball features and funny hats.
One of them wears a beanie -- in 1949.
They try to teach the supposed novice Ford how to shoot dice, and they lose to their surprise.
The shtick was done better in an Abbot and Costello movie in 1941.
But the kids simply serve as an index of how much care has gone into the production, which is to say not much.Actually, the beginning, which has the police in pursuit of Ford through the neighborhoods of San Francisco has some rather promising crime-drama elements.
The location is unmistakable, the Bay Bridge prominently featured.
But then, for some reason, the sense of place disappears and the city becomes studio bound and utterly fictional.
Several addresses are mentioned in the script.
A movie-obsessed fan Googled them and none of the streets exist in San Francisco.
(There is a brief glimpse of a street sign identifying the real Valencia.) Not that the city is ever named, but it it had been, it would have been called something like "Central City", as was the thinly disguised Los Angeles in "The Street With No Name." Something generic, you know?
Glenn Ford goes through the movie looking intense.
He always looks intense.
Even when he's comically cheating "the kids" out of their change during the game of craps, you can't tell the scene is supposed to be funny.
I have no idea why he adopted this stern and unamused stance.
He had a considerable comedic talent that he displayed in later roles.Overall, it's dull, silly, and predictable, a cross between film noir and Capraesque comedy, and a not an especially easy one to bear.
The "soft touch" of the title has shaped the entire production.