Mr. Soft Touch | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gordon Douglas Henry Levin |
Screenplay by | Orin Jannings |
Story by | Milton Holmes |
Produced by | Milton Holmes |
Starring | Glenn Ford Evelyn Keyes |
Cinematography | Charles Lawton Jr. Joseph Walker |
Edited by | Richard Fantl |
Music by | Heinz Roemheld |
Color process | Black and white |
Production company | Columbia Pictures |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $1.6 million [1] |
Mr. Soft Touch is a 1949 American film noir crime film directed by Gordon Douglas and Henry Levin and starring Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes. [2] The film is also known as House of Settlement. [3] [4] [5]
Polish American Joe Miracle (Mirakowski) returns from fighting in World War II, only to find his San Francisco 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, 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 worker 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 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 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.
Mr. Mom is a 1983 American comedy film directed by Stan Dragoti and produced by Lynn Loring, Lauren Shuler, and Aaron Spelling. It stars Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Martin Mull, Ann Jillian, and Christopher Lloyd. It tells the story of a furloughed Detroit automotive engineer who becomes a stay-at-home dad and takes care of three young children, as his wife returns to a career in the advertising industry as an executive at a large agency. Released on July 22, 1983, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $64 million against its $5 million budget.
The Beast with Five Fingers is a 1946 American mystery horror film directed by Robert Florey from a screenplay by Curt Siodmak, based on the 1919 short story of the same name by W. F. Harvey. The film stars Robert Alda, Victor Francen, Andrea King, and Peter Lorre. The film's score was composed by Max Steiner.
He Who Gets Slapped is a 1924 American silent psychological thriller tragedy film starring Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, and John Gilbert, and directed by Victor Sjöström. The film was written by Victor Seastrom and Carey Wilson, based on the Russian play He Who Gets Slapped by playwright Leonid Andreyev, which was completed by Andreyev in August 1915, two months before its world premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre on October 27, 1915. A critically successful Broadway production, using an English language translation of the original Russian by Gregory Zilboorg, was staged in 1922, premiering at the Garrick Theatre on January 9, 1922, with Richard Bennett (actor) playing the "HE" role on stage. The Russian original was made into a Russian movie in 1916.
Live Flesh is a 1997 erotic romantic thriller drama film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, based on the 1986 novel of the same name by English author Ruth Rendell. The film stars Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal, Ángela Molina and José Sancho, with Penélope Cruz and Pilar Bardem.
Mantrap is a 1926 American silent comedy film based on the novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis. Mantrap stars Clara Bow, Percy Marmont, Ernest Torrence, Ford Sterling, and Eugene Pallette, and was directed by Victor Fleming.
The Phantom of Crestwood is a 1932 American pre-Code murder-mystery film released by Radio Pictures, directed by J. Walter Ruben, and starring Ricardo Cortez, Karen Morley, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, Anita Louise, H.B. Warner, and Pauline Frederick. Morley plays Jenny Wren, who plans to extort money from various wealthy ex-lovers, after she lures them to a ranch called “Casa de Andes” near Crestwood, California. The picture features what Leonard Maltin called an "eye-popping" flashback technique, where the camera seems to whirl from one scene to the next, although William K. Howard had actually pioneered this technique earlier that year in The Trial of Vivienne Ware.
One Life to Live is an American soap opera that was broadcast from 1968 to 2013, on the ABC network from 1968 to 2012. The series starts with One Life to Live storylines (1968–1979). The plot continues in One Life to Live storylines (1980–1989). The plot in the next decade is outlined in One Life to Live storylines (1990–1999) and the story concludes in One Life to Live storylines (2000—2013).
The World According to Garp is a 1982 American comedy drama film produced and directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams in the title role. Written by Steve Tesich, it is based on the 1978 novel of the same title by John Irving. For their roles, John Lithgow and Glenn Close were respectively nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 55th Academy Awards.
Song of Love is a 1947 American biopic film about the relationship between renowned 19th-century musicians Clara Wieck Schumann and Robert Schumann. The film, which also stars Robert Walker and Leo G. Carroll, was directed by Clarence Brown and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Ivan Tors, Irma von Cube, Allen Vincent, and Robert Ardrey co-authored the screenplay, which was based on a play by Bernard Schubert and Mario Silva.
One Terrible Day is a 1922 American silent short film, the first entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang series to be released. Directed by Robert F. McGowan and Tom McNamara, the two-reel short was released to theaters on September 10, 1922 by Pathé.
Tight Spot is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson and Brian Keith. The story was inspired by then prominent U.S. Senator Estes Kefauver's strong-arm tactics in coercing Virginia Hill to testify in the infamous Bugsy Siegel organized crime prosecution. The Democratic senator from Tennessee attracted national attention with the new medium of televised investigation hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The next year saw Kefauver as the Vice Presidential nominee with former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II for the Democrats in the 1956 election against Republican incumbent 34th president Dwight D. Eisenhower and his running mate Richard M. Nixon, who were reelected.
Roman Aloys Bohnen was an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his roles in the films Of Mice and Men (1939), The Song of Bernadette (1943), and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
Fame is a 2009 American teen musical drama film directed by Kevin Tancharoen from a screenplay by Allison Burnett. It is a loose remake of the 1980 film of the same name. The film follows talented high school students attending The High School of Performing Arts in New York City, where students get specialized training that often leads to success in the entertainment industry.
All Through the Night is a 1942 American comedy-crime-spy thriller film directed by Vincent Sherman and starring Humphrey Bogart, Conrad Veidt and Kaaren Verne, and featuring many of the Warner Bros. company of character actors. It was released by Warner Brothers. The supporting cast features Peter Lorre, Frank McHugh, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Barton MacLane, and William Demarest.
Frisco Jenny is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Ruth Chatterton and Louis Calhern. Its story bears a resemblance to Madame X (1929), Chatterton's previous hit film.
Death on the Diamond is a 1934 comedy-mystery film starring Robert Young. It was based on the novel Death on the Diamond: A Baseball Mystery Story by Cortland Fitzsimmons, directed by Edward Sedgwick and produced and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a Mexican-American film trilogy. The films are based on a chihuahua named "Papi" going through adventures alongside his family and friends.
The Tartars/I Tartari is a 1961 Italian-Yugoslavian epic historical Technicolor film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Victor Mature and Orson Welles. It is one of the sword-and-sandal genre films made in Italy in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Endless Love is a 2014 American romantic drama film directed by Shana Feste and co-written by Feste with Joshua Safran. A second adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel, the film stars Alex Pettyfer, Gabriella Wilde, Bruce Greenwood, Joely Richardson and Robert Patrick.