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Heartbeat
USA 1946
produced by Robert Hakim, Raymond Hakim for New World Productions
directed by Sam Wood
starring Ginger Rogers, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Basil Rathbone, Melville Cooper, Mikhail Rasumny, Adolphe Menjou, Eduardo Ciannelli, Mona Maris, Henry Stephenson, Eddie Hayden, Ivan Lebedeff, Torben Meyer
screenplay by Morrie Ryskind, additional dialogue by Rowland Leigh, based on the film Battement de Coeur, written by Hans Wilhelm, Max Kolpé, Michel Duran, musical direction by C. Bakaleinikoff
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Arlette (Ginger Rogers), a reform school runaway, joins professor
Aristide's (Basil Rathbone) school for pickpockets, where she's accepted
because she is so good at acting innocent. And it doesn't occur to
Aristide for one minute that she actually might be just as innocent as she
looks - point is, stealing just isn't Arlette'S thing, but neihter is
reform school, so she plans on making just enough money stealing to be
able to afford herself a husband-in-name-only, because being married would
keep her out of reform school. Arlette's first attempt at stealing goes
horribly wrong because she gets caught by her victim - but it just happens
that that victim, the Ambassador (Adolphe Menjou) is in need of a
pickpocket, so he dresses Arlette up and takes her to a ball where she has
to steal a watch out of young attaché Pierre's (Jean-Pierre Aumont)
pocket, just so the ambassador can figure whether his wife (Mona Maris) is
having an affair with Pierre - by checking whether he carries a photograph
of the wife in his watch. He has, but Arlette has taken some precautions
and removed the picture before handing the watch to the ambassador ...
because Arlette has of course fallen in love with Pierre - and he with her
as well. Eventually, Arlette confesses everything to Pierre, and he
promises to help her - by setting him up with his penniless friend
(Melville Cooper), who's supposed to marry her - in name only. This is of
course good news but also heartbreaking for Arlette, because she was
hoping to marry Pierre - which is pretty much out of the question because
it might cause a scandal because of his social rank an dher humble
origins. After much to and fro, Arlette of course marries Pierre and not
his friend anyways, and everything ends happily - also thanks to the
ambassador, whom she threatens to put on the spot. A romantic
comedy that starts out interestingly - with the school for pickpockets -
but soon veers into more familiar territory - and remains utterly
predictable throughout. Now this is bad enough, but what's worse is that
the film's characters don't seem to be properly fleshed out and several
situations these characters are thrown into seem to be random and are not
fully developed. And while Ginger Rogers gives a competent, entertaining
performance, she just doesn't come across convincingly as the 18-year old
the script demands (she was about 35 when the film was made). That all
said, teh film is certainly not the worst romantic comedy you have ever
seen - but you probably have seen much better, too.
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