noir christmas anyone? see Mr. Soft touch if so
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| Posted on December 22, 2019 at 07:29:35 | ||
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Posts: 7061
Location: so cal Joined: September 24, 2003 |
The thin man was the featured film at my recent night at the movies, featuring a christmas noir series of films. It is a great film, so much fun, one of the best in the thin man series.. But I didn't come here to extoll great classics, it was the wild film that played second that drove me to post about it. I dig the film noir style, and this film, "Mr. Soft Touch". was a true noir, boy meets girl, resulting in inescapable tragedy for the dude, sooner or later.. you know how cruel the world can be. Starring a young glenn ford and Evelyn Keyes, it has both the long dark foreboding shadows and evocative camera angles, , mixed in with a grip of studio cliches . a great supporting cast, and a bunch of Santa clauses running around , right before a tragic fire, Somehow it all pulls together into a remarkable movie. It seems incredible, but they somehow wanted to make a noir film set at Christmas, and it works well, one couldn't ask for more in a true film noir ending., It had two directors in the credits, maybe one guy did the whacky studio comedy stuff, and the other guy made the noir part. Perhaps you have seen it, it played on TV once in a while, It's a mind bender, as true noir films tend to be. Mr. Ford plays a character named Mr. Miracle"or more often Joe Miracle in scenes , to help keep everything jolly and Christmas bright. (without giving much away, it even has a chase scene with an opening draw bridge, just like once upon a time in Hollywood, but I suspect back then it wasn't a well worn idea, where today it was used much like a stamp among a collection) I tried, but can't resist a short comment on the thin man's Myrna Loyd, what a great star. She has a statue of herself in front of her high school in Venice. She was selected as a personification of beauty by the artist who was doing the life sized bronze of liberty or something, I don't remember, in a flying liberty pose in front of the school. She was nobody special at the time, just a young a person with movie star looks. And good lord, does she bring it in her thin man work. I guess it was pre code, because she throws a lot of boobege all over the place. I suppose the version I saw on TV so many times was slightly edited, I would have noticed a few of those scenes, and perhaps some of the quick sexual wise cracks, but I was young when it was a TV favorite. I guess I should also give a nod to the remarkable job William Powel always did in his role as the high and happy playboy, reluctant great detective. As good as he is , he is hardly a fair match for audience attention when myrna Loy comes out in high fashion Art Deco style. That kind of stuff sells tickets. I bought one, 85 years after it was made, it still can draw a decent Friday night crowd. I mean, some of them must have been decent, it wasn't just me there. .
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