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.

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.

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!

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.