Poster makes it look like Keyes social worker is a femme fatale.

MR. SOFT TOUCH did so-so business in 1949, grossing $4,400,000, placing 68th, as one of four Columbia vehicles Glenn Ford headlined that year, teamed again with Evelyn Keyes, the last of six times they’d worked together. As in previous mismatched-couple turns the two stars did (Flight Lieutenant, The Adventures Of Martin Eden, The Desperadoes, The Mating of Millie) they’re better than the material.

‘Joe Miracle’ (Ford) came back from the war a hero only to find gangsters had ripped off his nightclub and killed his partner. He steals his money back from them, and biding his time to flee the country before they get to him, he poses as someone else and hides out in a settlement house (today called a community center) which is getting set up for the Christmas season. Social worker ‘Jenny Jones’ (Keyes) begins to see through Joe’s subterfuge, and at the same time starts to fall for the guy—wouldn’t ya know it? But that works both ways, and equally smitten Joe still has to fend off thugs who approach the Yule bearing guns instead of gifts.

JOE: “What’s that smell?”  JENNY: “Poverty.”

He tells her “You oughta climb ladders more often. Go ahead and move some more. You do something to clothes when you move.” Maybe that worked with social workers during Christmas in 1949. Today…?

An odd hybrid of nourish crime drama, light romance, and comedy with a holiday backdrop, it has a certain following as a Christmas flick. Given the dramatic elements that seems a stretch, but then Die Hard is now regarded as a “Christmas movie” staple, so who be we to Grinch?  The make-it-mesh screenplay was done by Orin Jannings (Force Of Arms, A Time To Love And A Time To Die), adapted from a story by Milton Holmes, who had a thing for fables about tough guys doing the right thing for a swell dame (Mr. Lucky, Salty O’Rourke, Johnny O’Clock). Direction was split between Henry Levin (a genre hopper) and Gordon Douglas (taking the hard-boiled route) as was the duel effort camerawork, clean black & white lensing shared by Joseph Walker and Charles Lawton Jr. Less laudable is the music score from Heinz Roemheld, which puts a foot on the ‘cute’ pedal.

“Is there still a law against hitting a man with glasses on?”

With John Ireland (snarky newshound), Beulah Bondi (little to do), Percy Kilbride (cheesy folksiness), Clara Bandick, Angela Clarke, Ted de Corsia (a bad guy, big surprise), Stanley Clements, Roman Bohnen (the last role for that capable character player), Harry Shannon, Helene Stanley, Charles Trowbridge, Gordon Jones, Maudie Prickett, Ray Teal (one of his many cops) and Myron Healey. 93 minutes.