''Mr. Soft Touch'' is a 1949 American
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
crime film
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
directed by
Gordon Douglas and
Henry Levin and starring
Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006), known as Glenn Ford, was a Canadian-born American actor. He was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the biggest box-office draws of th ...
and
Evelyn Keyes. The film is also known as ''House of Settlement''.
Plot
Polish American
Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...
Joe Miracle (Mirakowski) returns from fighting in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, only to find his
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
nightclub taken over by the mob, and his friend and partner Leo missing and presumed murdered. He steals $100,000 from his former business, planning to leave the country. Victor Christopher (Leo's brother) and his wife Clara had purchased a ticket for him for an ocean voyage. However, he discovers that they could only get him passage on a ship that sails on
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...
, two days later. He has to hide until then. When the police come to stop Victor because he is causing a disturbance, Joe pretends to be him in order to spend the night safely in jail. However, Jenny Jones, a kind-hearted local
social work
Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social wo ...
er who was visiting earlier at Victor and Clara's apartment because of reported domestic problems, gets him remanded into her custody instead.
She takes him to the Borden Street Settlement House, where the down-and-out are helped. As they get better acquainted, Jenny and Joe begin falling in love, though she turns down his advances, as she believes he is Victor. Joe falls from a ladder while hanging some Christmas decorations tumbling onto and breaking an old upright piano. He later goes to a nearby piano store (which he knows is actually a front for a backroom gambling parlor), and pretending to be a detective newly assigned to the precinct, cons the so-called salesman/owner into donating a piano in return for Joe turning a blind eye to the illicit activities. However, he is recognized by local
muckraking
The muckrakers were reform-minded journalists, writers, and photographers in the Progressive Era in the United States (1890s–1920s) who claimed to expose corruption and wrongdoing in established institutions, often through sensationalist publ ...
newspaper columnist Henry "Early" Byrd, who had written about and broadcast radio news reports and opinions about the nightclub heist, and who possibly could have done it. Jenny and her co-workers are stunned when a large grand piano is delivered, as well as linens and blankets.
Byrd tries to find out from Jenny if Joe is staying at the settlement house, but she refuses to tell him anything. From Byrd's descriptions and questions, Jenny figures out that Joe is not Victor. When she finds out Joe has acquired a pistol, she insists that he leave the premises. During their argument, he describes his lifelong drive to get out of the "gutter" where he was born, and accuses her of living in an ivory tower and not knowing the real sordid underside of life; she shames him by telling of how a drunken blow from her father in her childhood rendered her deaf, so she has to use a hearing aid.
Byrd 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 hidden loot, Jenny pleads with him to give it back so they can start a life together afresh. 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 out and start a fire at the charity house to smoke him out. They recover the money, but the settlement house is left smoldering in ruins. Joe tries to justify himself to Jenny, but she pulls out her hearing aid to show him she is not listening.
Joe enters the gambling joint through a secret passageway and takes the money back from the office vault of the new crime boss, Barney Teener. Joe hires some homeless men to dress up as
Santa Claus
Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Chris ...
to distribute presents to the children at a fundraiser back at the settlement house. Joe slips in as one of them and leaves the money to pay for the rebuilding of the settlement house. Jenny realizes what is really going on and chases him out into the street, calling his name. Hearing this, the waiting mobsters shoot Joe in the back. Seeing himself literally lying in the gutter, he begs Jenny to take him out of it. She lifts him into her arms, embracing him and says he is not in the gutter anymore. The film ends, leaving it unclear whether he will live or die.
Cast
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Glenn Ford
Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006), known as Glenn Ford, was a Canadian-born American actor. He was most prominent during Classical Hollywood cinema, Hollywood's Golden Age as one of the biggest box-office draws of th ...
as Joe Miracle. This was also the last of six films in which Ford and Keyes co-starred together.
*
Evelyn Keyes as Jenny Jones
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John Ireland as Henry "Early" Byrd
*
Beulah Bondi as Clara Hangale
*
Percy Kilbride as Rickle
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Clara Blandick
Clara Blandick (born Clara Blanchard Dickey; June 4, 1876 – April 15, 1962) was an American character, film, stage and theater actress who portrayed Aunt Em in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's '' The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). As a character actress, ...
as Susan Balmuss
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Ted de Corsia as Rainey
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Stanley Clements as Yonzi
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Roman Bohnen
Roman Aloys Bohnen (November 24, 1901 – February 24, 1949) was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films ''Of Mice and Men (1939 film), Of Mice and Men'' (1939), ''The Song of Bernadette (film), The Song of Be ...
as Barney Teener. This was Bohnen's final film. He succumbed to a heart attack in March 1949, five months before the film's release.
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Lora Lee Michel as Sonya
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Harry Shannon as Police Sergeant Garrett
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Charles Trowbridge
Charles Silas Richard Trowbridge (January 10, 1882 – October 30, 1967) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 230 films from 1915 to 1958 principally playing patrician authority figures.
Biography
Trowbridge was born in Verac ...
as Judge Fuller (uncredited)
See also
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List of Christmas films
Many Christmas stories have been Christmas film, adapted to feature films and TV specials, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on television. Since the popularization of home video in the 1980s, these films are sold and re-sold every ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Soft Touch
1949 films
1949 crime drama films
American black-and-white films
Columbia Pictures films
Film noir
Films directed by Gordon Douglas
Films directed by Henry Levin
Films set in San Francisco
Films scored by Heinz Roemheld
Films about organized crime in the United States
1940s Christmas drama films
American crime drama films
1940s American films
American Christmas drama films
1940s English-language films
English-language crime drama films
English-language Christmas drama films