Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Mischa Redfern I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Nicolas Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

dougdoepke 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.

edwagreen 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.

audiemurph 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".

Robert J. Maxwell 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.