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.
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.