Heartbeat (1946) User Reviews

Average scene-by-scene remake of 'Battement de coeur'.

[RogerTheMovieManiac88 · 6/10 · 22 July 2013]

I waited to view 'Heartbeat' until I had first managed to watch the French original from 1940 that this movie is derived from. I felt that to see them in chronological order offered the best chance to appraise them relatively.

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Battement de coeur', finding it possessed a lightness of touch and was full of sparkling wit. Despite watching it on a SECAM tape that didn't play terribly well in my PAL VCR, the French original bowled me over with its zest and sprightly charm. The inestimable Danielle Darrieux shines as only she can.

After such a pleasing viewing experience, I was rather intrigued to discover how the story would play out under different auspices, but with Max Kolpe again contributing to the writing. It really proved to be a bad case of deja-vu when a week later I watched the DVD of 'Heartbeat'. I honestly don't know who decided that it should be a scene-by-scene remake. Constrained by adhering rigidly to the scenes from 'Battement de coeur', 'Heartbeat' was always going to struggle to be anything other than forced in areas to persons who had already viewed the 1940 movie. For example, the scene where Ginger Rogers kicks the floor in adolescent frustration at being detained just falls flat, whereas the scene in 'Battement de coeur' exhibited buckets of vitality and flouncing joie de vivre. The half-hearted reenactment of scenes and characters' movements was eerie and strange to observe.

Up to about two-thirds of the way through, I wasn't particularly held by the script or by the performances. For me, the early scenes in the pick-pocket school are uninspired recreations of those in 'Battement de coeur'. Even the dummy they practice on is exactly the same! Luckily though, it gradually grew on me and began to charm me somewhat. In contrast to many reviewers, I feel that the romantic elements of the second half aid the movie considerably. The scenes in the last reel of Rogers and Aumont dancing contain more spontaneity and zest than those that have gone before.

'Heartbeat' is inoffensive and contains some reasonably funny moments involving watches. Despite being over-aged for her role, I thought Rogers was appealing and displayed a nice mix of teenage shyness and spunkiness. Adolphe Menjou and Basil Rathbone appear fleetingly but are good value as always. As the teacher, Rathbone is watchable but he cannot quite equal the menacing and imposing performance of Saturnin Fabre in 'Battement de coeur'. Menjou does well and is at the centre of many of the funniest intrigues. Overall, the movie is relatively likable but considerably hamstrung by its aping of the French original. Do attempt to take in 'Battement de coeur' before seeing this, for goodness' sake!

Hollywood remake from Gallic film with a Ginger Rogers as sparky pickpocket

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 25 March 2009]

A young girl( a lively Ginger Rogers) escaped from a reformatory, becomes the best student in a Parisian school for pickpockets(ruled by Basil Rathbone). At the beginning she attempts out her skills on an old man(Adolphe Menjou). Later when she tries to rob an attractive diplomat(Jean Pierre Aumont) they fall in love instead.

This fresh and funny farce is one the last works where director Sam Wood shows an increasing blandness in a lighthearted love story with comedy touches. Main and support cast is frankly outstanding. Top-notch, virtuoso acting by Ginger Rogers, she was the number one as dancer actress and a fascinating comedian: ¨Monkey business¨ and won an Oscar for her portrayal in ¨Kitty Foyle: natural story of a woman¨. Remaining cast formed by the French young Jean Pierre Aumont as dashing diplomat, the classic Sherlock Holmes, Basil Rathbone, the memorable Adolphe Menjou, Henry Stephenson as veteran Ambassador and the Italian Eduardo Ciannelli. Sam Wood was a good filmmaker, an expert director of actresses, almost all the magnificent acting in his movies were given by ladies, with the exceptions of the Marx Brothers in ¨Night at the Opera¨, and ¨A day at the races¨ and Robert Donat in ¨Goodbye Mr Chips¨; as are extraordinaries, Ann Sheridan and Betty Field in ¨King Row¨, it is Ingrid Bergman, marvelous when we remember her in ¨For whom the bells tolls¨, and of course Ginger Rogers in ¨Heartbeat¨ and ¨Kitty Foyle¨; these outstanding Rogers'performances are matched by Joan Fontaine's ¨Ivy¨, Gladys George's ¨Madame X¨ and Jean Arthur's ¨The devil and Miss Jones¨. Plus the picture packs a very high standard cinematography by Joseph Valentine.From the late 1920s Sam Wood was with MGM, where he remained until his death at 1966 with some exception as ¨Heartbeat¨ with RKO. Sam Wood angered the acting community by his work for Joseph McCarthy and his House UnAmerican Activities Committee.

Ginger in another one of her "don't act your age" roles...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 23 February 2007]

GINGER ROGERS again is photographed in soft focus so that she can fool the camera lens into having us believe her as an 18 year-old girl who is taught to be a pick-pocket at a crime school run by no less than BASIL RATHBONE. Encouraged to become a petty thief, she is sent off to ply her trade and soon finds herself caught up in a romantic liaison with a wealthy Frenchman JEAN-PIEREE AMOUNT.

In outline, the story sounds like it would have a lot of potential as a charming romantic comedy. And sometimes it almost works. Rathbone does a smoothly professional job as her crime school mentor and ADOLPHE MENJOU adds sophistication to the supporting cast. But Ginger remains unconvincing throughout, sadly miscast in a role that could only have been carried off by an actress who was young enough to assume such a role.

Whatever tricks of photography were needed to photograph Rogers in a soft glow are simply wasted. She's never for a moment convincing as an ingénue and the film should have been scrapped once it was revealed that the casting mistake would ruin the story. Alas, another misfire for Rogers during a period which alternated between good and bad roles in some films that ranged from mediocre to excellent.

Summing up: Hardly worth your time.

Charming, old-fashioned fun

[Oriel · 20 June 1999]

I stumbled upon this film in an early-morning, commercial-filled broadcast, but such was its charm that I not only stuck with it but sought out a copy of my own. Part of its appeal is an unusual--and unusually wistful--role for Rogers: as a reluctant pickpocket-in-training, she combines a poignant innocence with her trademark spunk. Basil Rathbone is, as always, elegantly nasty as her mentor/Svengali, and the good old-fashioned happy ending will satisfy the romantic in you. This may not be for those who prefer Ginger in dancing mode, but if you enjoyed the cheerful sentimentality of Kitty Foyle, you should check out Heartbeat.

Heartbeat is not as worth picking up as it should had. This movie got really boring really fast.

[ironhorse_iv · 6/10 · 16 January 2017]

Actress, Ginger Rogers is best known for her performances in RKO's musical films in which she was partnered with Fred Astaire such in the case with 1935's film 'Top Hat' & 1936's film 'Swing Time'. However, after two commercial failures with Astaire in 1938's 'Carefree' & 1939's 'The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle". Rogers began to branch out into dramatic films and comedies. This movie is one of those films. Directed by Sam Woods, the film tells the story of a young naïve struggling escapee, Arlette (Ginger Rogers) willing to do anything; in an attempt to avoid, going back to reform school, even dealing with schemers, liars, and cheats by pickpocketing and playing the system in Aristocratic Paris. Without spoiling the movie, too much, the first part of the movie was indeed the best part, as I found the idea of a pickpocket academy to be, very unique, even if it's a bit unbelievable. It remind me, so much of author Charles Dicken's 'Oliver Twist' with everybody trying to get Arlette to do something very wicked. However, after a few scenes of pickpocketing, the film really turn into mindless boring fluff, with her, abandoning it, for another gold digger scheme in which, she tries to shame marry an aristocrat in order to get a working permit. Because of that, the film plot got really generic and forgettable. Plus, all the life was suck, out of the room, as the humor and great acting was gone, as interesting supporting characters like Professor Aristide (Basil Rathbone), Yves (Mikhail Rasumny) & 'the Ambassador' (Adolphe Menjou) were replaced by below-standards hammy acting, from Jean-Pierre Aumont as Pierre de Roche & Melville Cooper, as Pierre's friend, Roland. It was no longer fun to watch. It would likely have worked better if personalities like Aristide and 'the Ambassador' stick around longer. Both were amazing characters. Who knew that, an actor that is best known for playing detectives, Basil Rathbone would be so great, as a funny masterful criminal! He was wonderful! For Mikhail Rasumny, I hate the fact that his character was barely used. He was wonderful as the trouble man, looking for work. For Adolphe Menjou, he was the only actor that seem like he was from France. Everybody else, seem like they were miscast. Don't get me wrong, Ginger Rogers isn't bad in the role that she was given, but her American southern accent was pretty jarring to hear, in a film that supposedly taking place in Europe. It would have work, better, if the movie explain that she was indeed an illegal immigrant AKA American in France, living in the streets. Then it would make sense, why her character acts the way, she does. Another thing that was jarring about her performance was the fact that the 35 year old, Rogers was playing an 18 year old reform school delinquent. It was just too big a stretch for this viewer's imagination. Despite, not looking the part, she does had a mix of teenage shyness and spunkiness. However, I wish the movie used more of her dancing skills. The ballroom scenes could had been better, if that was the case. Still, the movie had some really good scenes that shows the pressures of self-preservation. I love the movie theater scene, it was brilliant. Seeing the surrounding speaks, without the character moving their mouth was a wonderful move by the director, even if the movie, they are seeing, is it's a bit too convenient to what is happening in the main plot. Still, in the end, I have to say, the original French film in which this movie was based on, "Battement de Coeur" AKA "Beat of the Heart", was better. After all, everything about this American version seem like a shot for shot remake of 'Beat of the Heart'. Even the dummies are nearly the same. So, they had to be, doing something right. In my opinion, even the acting was better. French actress Danielle Darrieux & actor, Claude Dauphin were far more stunning, savour, and incredibly charismatic than anybody in 'Heartbeat'. Also, the plot was more focus on the pickpocketing than this film. At least, the good old-fashioned happy ending in 'Beat of the Heart' seem more earn than it was in the American remake. So, overall: I have to say "Heartbeat' is a few beats off from me, really liking it. It's too bad, because this movie could had stolen my heart, but it didn't. It was just disappointing.

Comedy Morphs into Dull Romance

[jayraskin1 · 6/10 · 17 August 2010]

This movie starts out great in the first half hour. Basil Rathbone, Ginger Rogers and Aldolph Menjou play some very funny scenes. Unfortunately, Jean Pierre Aumont shows up and the comedy disappears. We get a love story that doesn't really go anywhere. There's little chemistry between Rogers and Aumont. Plus, there's the problem of having a real Frenchman playing with an American actress who is supposed to be a French woman, but does not have a French accent.

The movie also doesn't take place at any particular time. At first I thought we were in the 1890's in Paris, but then it sort of shifted to the 1920's and 30's. In the narrative, the movie takes place over a few weeks, so this is not a deliberate time jump, just a result of sloppy film-making.

The movie should have stuck with Rathbone and Menjou, but they disappear for much of the second half of the film and we are left with the much duller character of Aumont. This forces Rogers to supply whatever comedy and passion the film is capable of showing. She looks like she's waiting for Fred Astaire to show up. Alas, he never does.

Ginger Rogers playing an 18 year-old?!?!?!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 19 December 2006]

This is a very watchable movie, but it is also amazingly dumb in places and should have been a lot better. A lot of the problem should rest on the shoulders of Ginger Rogers, who for at least the second time in her career is ridiculously portraying a woman half her age! This 35 year-old actress plays an 18 year-old and is about as convincing at that as she would have been playing Hattie McDaniel's role in GONE WITH THE WIND! This same ridiculous idea was the plot for another Rogers film, THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR, where at 32, she played a school girl!!! While a very small number of actresses MIGHT have been able to carry this off, Ms. Rogers appeared at least her chronological age and in both films it just comes off as ridiculous. While not quite as bad as Mae West in MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (who was 77 and STILL making passes at young men), it was still along the same lines as far as actresses who won't admit that they are no longer the young starlets they had once been decades earlier.

The second problem is that the film in many ways has two totally different tones. I loved the first portion of the film where we see Basil Rathbone operating a school for would-be thieves! This segment is very funny and incredibly original--I really wanted to see much more of this. The second portion was a very familiar love story with complications. Sure, it was fun to watch but not nearly as much as the other part--and it was very, very hard to believe that the budding romance could be real. Frankly, the film tries a bit too hard and comes off as forced.

The bottom line is that this is merely a time-passer and nothing more. If you do watch it, though, try not to laugh when Ginger tells the camera how old she is supposed to be--it isn't supposed to be a comedy!

Don't mess with French originals

[vert001 · 6/10 · 20 August 2016]

HEARTBEAT is one of the most overt adult fairy tales that you'll come across, its storybook wedding at the end dropping any hint of realism. Such movies live or die by their charm or lack of such, and while I've little doubt that the French original was oozing with that quality, HEARTBEAT only sporadically compels a quiet smile on its audience's faces. Too much of it leaves us waiting for something to happen, and not much ever does.

Ginger Rogers was certainly too old to play her character effectively (she was nearly twice Arlette's given age) and you can see her trying too hard to convey a girlish freshness and naivete with her performance (ironically, these are qualities that she specialized in during her dances with Fred Astaire). I originally thought Jean-Pierre Aumont's performance to be very dull, but a second viewing suggested that it was much more the writing than anything lacking in what Aumont was doing. Adolphe Menjou has little to do, and while Basil Rathbone brings energy and a sense of fun to proceedings that desperately needed these qualities, he disappears through the final 2/3 of the picture. A movie about his school for pickpockets would have been a lot easier to sit through than the plodding romance that we got.

I was surprised to learn that HEARTBEAT, despite being a fairly high- budgeted project, earned a decent profit for RKO Studios. It's not terrible, but that's a bit more than it deserved.

Ordinary and miscast

[jjnxn-1 · 5/10 · 18 March 2012]

Lets get this out of the way right off the top, Ginger Rogers is too old for her part in this film! True she looks very lovely and far younger than the 35 years she was when this was made, perhaps 25 or 26, but she is supposed to be an 18 year old escapee from a reform school and there is no amount of soft focus that could make that believable.

As far as the rest of the film its a mediocre effort wasting the other two assets it has on hand, Adolph Menjou and Basil Rathbone, in small parts. The story itself is rather ridiculous held up by the talent involved but it's wasted effort. A forgettable enterprise, all the stars have made better films that should be sought out instead.

Ginger Whine

[writers_reign · 3/10 · 30 November 2015]

When will they learn? That's purely rhetorical if anybody asks you. Born in 1917 - and still with us - Danielle Darrieux began her career in movies at the start of the Sound era and before the end of the thirties was the biggest female star on the French screen playing essentially the same role over and over in a series of lighter=than air romantic comedies that often required her to sing a song or two. In the mid-point of the decade she teamed up with writer-director Henri Decoin for The Green Domino, an entry with slightly more substance, they married and made a string (six) of successful souffles before divorcing in 1941 after Premiere Rendez- vous, but remained friends and made a further three films together. One of the biggest successes was Battement de coeur in which Darrieeux played a fugitive from Reform School who enrolled in a school for pickpockets under the leadership of Saturnin Fabre and, after a series of adventures encountered her Prince Charming in the shape of Claude Dauphin. It was delightful and enchanting in equal measure the perfect antidote to the outbreak of war. For reasons best known to themselves RKO decided to remake it in 1946 with a decidedly mid-thirtyish Ginger Rogers in the Darrieux role, Basil Rathbone replacing Saturnin Fabre and authentic, albeit wooden, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Aumont in the Claude Dauphin role. In a reverse alchemy a soufflé turned into a suet pudding and no one came out of it well. One to be avoided.

Bubbly Like Pink Champagne

[Laurel-Canyon · 10/10 · 3 September 2010]

A light comedy like this is so different from typical Hollywood fare. It's a delightful French omelette - fluffy and sophisticated all at once. It leaves a sweet savour and refreshment, where other 'zany' comedies rely on just heaping up one cliché after another, thick and fast, with an often indigestible, overcooked, somewhat tiresome result.

"Heartbeat" keeps you guessing what will come next, like the most skilled flirt.

Six years earlier in 1940, the film "Beat of the Heart" ("Battement de Coeur") was produced in France, starring the stunning Danielle Darrieux and the incredibly charismatic Claude Dauphin. As an American remake, "Heartbeat," according to the credits, was the creation of the three original French writers, plus two additional Hollywood writers for adaptation and additional dialogue.

Overall, it makes its trans-cultural moves very well, in a romantic dance across the Atlantic.

Ginger Rogers is completely convincing as an 18-year old, and on this point I disagree with other reviewers. It should be considered, for the sake of argument, that an 18-year old woman in Europe in 1940, or in 1946, had the maturing experience of World War II imprinted on her mind and heart. Truly, such a creature was a child-woman, not a plastic doll, an airhead, a sex object, or a narcissistic 'Material Girl'. She would have had the character of an adult, combined with true innocence, the innocence of a person who has seen cruelty and ugliness and crime, but has not yet personally become corrupted.

As a matter of fact, I don't think any 18-year old American starlet would have had a clue as to how to play this part effectively. The following actresses certainly would have been "the right age". Amazingly, these five were the only American ingénues with star quality in 1946. Would you have cast any one of them, instead of Ginger Rogers? I doubt it. They simply weren't ready yet for such a role.

Patricia Neal, age 20; Grace Kelly, age 17; Janet Leigh, age 19; Jeanne Crain, age 21; Ann Blyth, age 18.

On the other hand, these two European lovelies would have been perfect, and they were already skilled on both stage and screen. But they would not come to Hollywood for several more years.

Audrey Hepburn, age 17; Jean Simmons, age 17.

Adding to its unique character, "Heartbeat" handles some very mature themes with a delicate, Cosmopolitan flare. The leading man is the lover of a married woman, and he is in the diplomatic corps of her older husband, "the Ambassador." This portrayal by Adolphe Menjou is perfect - suave, funny, devious, and attractive. Now Arlette knows from the very beginning that the handsome Jean-Pierre Aumont, the man she is falling in love with, the man who enjoys baiting her innocence, is himself a scoundrel. For his part, he tries to get rid of her puppy-dog affection by marrying her off to a sponger who will take her off his hands for a price. The actor captures this duplicity expertly. He is not at all a one-dimensional Romeo!

By the way, the humorous sponger is played to the hilt by British comic actor Melville Cooper, who was actually a true hero, a veteran of the First World War who had been captured by the Germans. Another tour-de-force performance is delivered by Russian emigré Mikhail Rasumny. He was already 56 when he charmed the viewers of "Heartbeat" playing the thief/butler who counsels Arlette when she needs it most.

As for the opening episodes with Basil Rathbone, playing a sort of Fagin to a motley group of over-aged delinquents, these scenes serve to introduce Arlette as a most extraordinary young lady, indeed. She actually manages to fool Professor Aristide himself, the expert schemer and arch criminal of them all! A spectacularly funny cameo for Sherlock Holmes!

Far from suffering through this film, let alone finding it boring, I was immensely entertained to the very end. The 'Hollywood ending' was really not predictable. In a film like this, anything could have happened.

The whole fantasy was delightfully bubbly, like pink champagne.

One of the tragic artistic misfires of all time.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 15 February 2017]

It's a reunion for Ginger, With director Sam Wood ("Kitty Doyle", with Adolph Menjou ("Stage Door "). Then why is it such a fiasco? Ahead of its time? Perhaps, but that doesn't make it good. Out of the ordinary for Ginger Rogers' usual works? Definitely as well, because her character is like nails down a chalkboard, and not really likable. Ginger's other side of the track characters at least had some class and knew when to shut up. Another major issue is that she's about 15 years too old for this part, a young waif out of reform school becomes a professional pickpocket, trained by Basil Rathbone, and later taken in by the suave Menjou whose really out for no good as well. Along comes Jean Pierre Aumont to sweep her off her feet, and it's on the path to reform for the out of her element Ginger who wasn't having much success in films in the mid 1940's in spite of still being considered an A lister.

This seems to be striving for the European style of films, not the Italian or French new wave, but an operatic elegance that was present in the films of Cocteau but seems forced and overstuffed here, ultimately seeming pretentious. Indeed, it is a remake of a French film. Ginger has one scene where she gets to screech like a teenager, making me wonder if dogs were barking in the San Fernando valley as she filmed this scene in Hollywood. She's forced to speak like a much younger character and dresses closer to how "I'll Be Seeing You" co-star Shirley Temple did. Menjou seems like he's still acting in the romantic comedies of the early 1930's, as if he was in another film altogether. This is pretty much an almost fiasco, but it looked so good in its lavishness that I just couldn't bear to give this a bomb. I give Ginger credit for wanting to try something different, but with all her talent and grace, she just wasn't right for this part.

Does Have Its Moments, But Never Really Comes Together

[Snow Leopard · 3 January 2006]

Despite having some talent and material to work with, this feature produces just a few good moments, and it never really comes together the way it might have. The cast, headed by Ginger Rogers and including some fine supporting actors, certainly supplied plenty of talent. The story idea was only mildly imaginative, but it had the potential for some decent comedy and entertaining romantic mix-ups. But it seems to go in too many different directions at different times, and perhaps as a result, it has a few stretches of good material packed amidst some longer, less interesting parts.

Rogers was easily one of the more attractive and talented actresses of her era, but the role of Arlette just doesn't seem to work for her. The character is not really as interesting as the situation, and Rogers often seems to be trying too hard. In any case, the character never quite rings true.

The story starts with Arlette, a reluctant enrollee in a school for petty criminals, getting roped into a scheme by an unscrupulous aristocrat that plunges her into a series of romantic and personal complications, as she develops a tangled relationship with a diplomat played by Jean-Pierre Aumont. The story is pure fluff, deliberately implausible but with some good possibilities, and it would likely have worked better with a lighter, more farcical touch all around.

Basil Rathbone is well cast as the 'professor' at the crime school, and there are some amusing details in his classes and teaching methods, but all of the sequences in the 'school' are essentially just elaborations on the basic gag idea. Adolphe Menjou was an ideal choice for the unprincipled nobleman, but he has to contend with some clunky dialogue in his part. For all of these and other reasons, "Heartbeat" - though probably worth seeing - never hits its stride, and it delivers less than it could have.

Ginger Gets a Touch of Basil

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 1 February 2009]

Reform school knock-out Ginger Rogers (as Arlette Lafron) is trained as a Parisian pickpocket, upon release from the institution. Unfortunately, Ms. Rogers is almost immediately caught. During the running time, she receives admirable support from sexy Jean-Pierre Aumont, teacher Basil Rathbone, and ambassador Adolphe Menjou. Even in soft focus, the lovely Rogers is an unconvincing 18-year-old. Interestingly, she did, with script and charm, manage the girlishness in "The Major and the Minor" (1942). Perhaps, "Heartbeat" was hoped to be the same sort of success. Not quite, but the cast and crew do what they can.

**** Heartbeat (5/10/46) Sam Wood ~ Ginger Rogers, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Basil Rathbone, Adolphe Menjou

This is the kind of movie I like to see.

[Dimitri44 · 10/10 · 31 March 2014]

To be successful, there has to be close coordination between the script writer, the cinematographer, and the director, and this movie has it. It was the golden age that gave us scripts that those with some education could understand and admire. The supporting facial expressions, the expert camera work, alas, where are they now?

The reviewers from the American side of the Atlantic always seem to have a strange fixation on the ages of the performers. For me, Ginger Rogers fit the role most admirably, and so, please, her true age here is irrelevant. The only thing I noticed is that this film was set to take place in Europe, although many actresses, such as Ginger Rogers, have American faces. You can often tell a European face, but too bad, Audrey Hepburn was then below 18, not good for the Hayes office. It could be that those on the European side of the Atlantic might notice such things, and otherwise, no problem. No such problem, in fact, for Adolphe Menjou, who, perhaps surprisingly, was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Just who advised Ginger Rogers

[moi-23 · 24 October 2004]

As much as I like Ginger Rogers (and so many other members of the cast) it was impossible for me to relate to her at age 35 and wearing a dreadful part "fright wig" passing for an 18 year old reform school delinquent; it was just too big a stretch for this viewer's imagination and I thought in general the film lacked verve. In relation to Ginger playing a much younger character than her years how can one forget her in "The Major and The Minor" at age 32 passing herself off as a 12 year old? With the softest focuses available at the time this was still an incredible piece of casting! I believe this film was a remake of a French film entitled "Battement De Coeur" made in 1939 which I intend to track down for comparison purposes.

Watchable and at times charming

[paintmyballspink · 8/10 · 22 July 2007]

OK, so we know Oscar won't be knocking at the door for this title, but it is a watchable and charming film. Despite being a bit older than the age of her character, Ginger Rogers plays the part well and does look young. In many scenes she pulls off the part well enough and looks quite stunning. Adolph Menjou is also quite entertaining, his character's appearance usually brings out a laugh or two. I do recommend this film. The story has enough to it to keep you in your chair, and you may find yourself wanting to see more of a certain actor or actress. It's not my film of choice but if it's available give it a chance. It wasn't great but this film has enough to it to keep the viewer interested.

Definitely worth a viewing

[BooBoo516 · 15 April 2006]

This film, although not among Ginger Rogers best work, is certainly worth checking out. As usual she is most engaging--she plays a teen (she was actually 35) somewhat convincingly. She has run away from a girls reformatory and is recruited by Professor Aristide (Basil Rathbone), who runs a pickpocket academy in Paris. She is assigned a pickpocketing "job" by a corrupt ambassador (Adolph Menjou). Of course along the way she meets a man (Jean-Pierre Aumont), falls in love and well, you get the drift. The supporting cast is also entertaining most notably Adolph Menjou, although one doesn't see Basil Rathbone nearly enough here. At times the story is slow moving and quite predictable, but when Ginger is on the screen her beauty,charm and magnetism more than compensate for this. If you are a fan of Ginger Rogers, Adolph Menjou or Basil Rathbone this largely forgotten film is worth a look.

Effervescent fun

[daleholmgren · 9/10 · 5 July 2018]

I don't get these people who nastily compare this movie to the original French movie. Don't bother - what movie is EVER better the second watching? It's the delightful discovery the first time of the amusing dialogue, the unfolding of the plot, that brings so much amusement. Basil Rathbone has a wonderful part, and the movie gets off to a rollicking start with some very funny classroom scenes. Adolph Menjou brings charm and class to everything he does, and Ginger Rogers proves again why she, and not so many other actresses, was in the upper echelon of Hollywood royalty. That's the other thing - all these nasty comments about Ginger playing an 18 year old at 35. Why? She was gorgeous, and it's easy to suspend disbelief. It's a fricking movie. Why don't they complain that it REALLY wasn't filmed in Paris, as long as they are whining about authenticity?

Looks Like There Was a Backstory To This Yawner

[dougdoepke · 3 February 2019]

Before turning into a big yawner, the story starts off with a bang. Rathbone is a self-appointed professor of a pickpocket academy that he runs like a military school. There the fine arts of relieving people of their valuable personal possessions are taught and practiced in grand style. So I was prepared for the imaginative best.

But then the romance between Rogers and Aumont takes over and the talk never stops. That might be okay if Rogers were allowed her usual sparkly style. But she's not. Instead her character parades around in fluffy finery that a hundred lesser actresses could have managed. And that leads me to believe the studio, RKO, was using her celebrity to advance French import Aumont's career. That may also account for why an obviously over-age Rogers, 39, is miscast as a reform school "girl". That too might be okay if actor Aumont had more than one lifeless expression, but here he's about as engaging as an upscale manikin.

All in all, the romance that dominates drags the film into well-deserved oblivion. Too bad such able performers as Menjou and Cooper are largely wasted in the process. Wasted too is a promising pickpocket premise that could have produced real amusement. Anyway, I would advise fans of Rogers, myself included, to skip this disappointing entry. In short, there's a good reason it's unknown among the Rogers canon.

For a people in despair

[OldieMovieFan · 10/10 · 26 November 2023]

Heartbeat was a huge hit, one of the biggest of Ginger's career. Rogers had been the most popular film star in Europe for many years, dating clear back to 1934's "The Gay Divorcee" and with her leading man, Jean-Pierre Aumont being a hero of the French Resistance during World War II, Heartbeat played in France for years. Millions of free tickets were given away in Europe, without any publicity, to give some small relief to the people in despair after World War II, and it appears the studio assisted in the effort because despite the huge box office receipts, profit was much less than usual for a Rogers film.

The bizarre outfit she wears, sport shorts with matching color high heels and a fur top! Seems utterly inexplicable. It is explained however, through the plot: Melville Cooper is selected to be Ginger's husband in an arranged marriage to gain her freedom from reform school, and the hapless bankrupt uses Jean-Pierre Aumont's money to buy her several outfits (Aumont is outraged at the cost). Thus Cooper's taste is responsible for that gauche bikini, which is so striking that people have talked about it ever since.

Lighthearted, swinging through poverty and despair to crime and on to one of the most elegant romances ever seen, "Heartbeat" was a perfect tonic for war-torn Europe.

Never heard of it and should have kept it that way.

[Byrdz · 22 January 2017]

Some times there is a reason that you have never heard of a film. This is one of those films. For me, it does not work.

Ginger Rogers was a simpering, childish thirty-five-year-old attempting to look and sound like a teenager and is annoying and cloying. The hairdo and dresses are just plain silly.

Perhaps with a real teenager playing the part, the story would have worked but, sadly, we will probably never know.

Basil Rathbone as the Fagin-like pickpocket school professor was interesting as were Menjou, Aumont and Melville Cooper. The back story of Roland and Pierre seemed to be non-existent even though I did not doze at all through this film. Perhaps it would have been better if I had.

Skip it.

Young Ginger Rogers is one of my favorite things.

[cgvsluis · 8/10 · 27 January 2022]

Arlette is an escaped reform school girl who joins an academy for pickpockets in Paris.

"It's no good, when I lie everyone knows it. Maybe I should go in to politics where it doesn't matter."-classmate

"A white marriage where after the wedding you never see the groom again."-classmate

"To steal to stay honest. For that I'll do it."-Arlette

Arlette decides she can't steal, but a classmate tells her she should get married and that would solve her problems. The problem is she needs money for one of these "white marriages"...so she steals and gets caught the first time out. The Ambassador catches her and then blackmails her into stealing the watch of a young diplomat Pierre who she subsequently falls in love with.

This is a young gorgeous and sassy Ginger Rogers. She is brash but beautiful. The sets and costumes are lush and gorgeous.

"I always cry when I'm happy."-Arlette.