Mr. Soft Touch (1949)

The greatest movie ever!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

One of the best films i have seen

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

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.

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.

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".

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.