On December 17, Turner Classic Movies is airing the little-seen Mr. Soft Touch from 1949, which is undeniably Christmas film noir. The Holiday season is integral to the plot, which revolves around a Christmas tree, a Christmas party, Christmas decorations and a horde of ne’er-do-wells in Santa suits.
Nightclub owner Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) returns from WWII to find that the mob has looted his nest egg. He’s able to rob it back, but now he’s got to hide out from the gangsters until his ship literally sails. As circumstances develop, he pretends to be a down-and-outer so he can stay in in the settlement house (isn’t that quaint?) run by social worker Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes).
Mr. Soft Touch has many of the elements of classic film noir:
- a cynical underworld where shady characters are robbed by even shadier types.
- the WWII vet who has gotten screwed, and his only option to make himself whole is illegal.
- a protagonist whose actions are driven to please a beautiful woman.
- a hero who takes a bullet in the street.
- a cast packed by recognizable characters of the period: John Ireland, Beulah Bondi, Percy Kilbride and Ted de Corsia.
- gritty 1949 San Francisco locations.
That being said, Mr. Soft Touch is light comic noir and often silly. We accept the plot contrivances because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Here, Evelyn Keyes isn’t a femme fatale for once; she’s a naïve do-gooder, but she’s sexy all the same, and sparks fly between Ford and Keyes as she inches him toward altruism and redemption.
I watched on Mr. Soft Touch last year on TCM because it is not available to stream. Set your DVD for a rarity.
