Heartbeat
Page Two

Heartbeat

Fluffy Continental comedy with Ginger Rogers' name to spark box-office response. Title is misleading and extra selling is needed to point it up as light, escapist film fare with average gross possibilities. "Pygmalion" theme lends itself to Miss Rogers' talents and strong performances by others in the cast are on the credit side. These factors do considerable in glossing over production and story weaknesses that otherwise might militate against film's chances.

Continental flavor of Paris locale is maintained by Sam Wood's direction in unfolding story of a girl who becomes an apprentice in a pick-pocket school, goes to an embassy ball and finds romance after she learns how to be a lady. Plot opens with the school conducted by Basil Rathbone and how he lures new pupils in. After preliminary schooling, Miss Rogers fluffs her first assignment, is forced by ambassador Adolphe Menjou to lift a watch from Jean Pierre Aumont at the ball. Antics up to this point are amusing if not always clear, but story hits a stock pattern afterwards as it carries Aumont and Miss Rogers through misunderstanding but without any doubt of the eventual finale clinch.

Aumont is interesting as the young diplomat who falls for the femme purse-snatcher. New romance gets him out of a lightly established previous affair with Mona Maris, Menjou's wife. It is the character performances by others in the cast though that give a lift to proceedings. Menjou is expert. Melville Cooper as a cadgering lush is good for chuckles. Mikhail Rasumny as a pickpocket friend to Miss Rogers is delightful. Rathbone's professional performance furnishes laughs. Eduardo Ciannelli, Henry Stephenson and others do well.

Production by Robert and Raymond Hakim does not offer the top physical backing usually displayed for a star of Miss Rogers' calibre.  Lensing by Joseph Valentine is not up to his usual standard. Miss Rogers sings score's one tune, "Can You Guess?" cleffed by Paul Misraki and Ervin Drake. Tighter editing is needed on a number of overlong sequences in the film, which was adapted by Morrie Ryskind from an original script by Hans Wilhelm, Max Kolpe and Michel Duran.

Brog.

—Variety, April 24, 1946

HEARTBEAT GAY ROMANCE IN PARTS TOO LONG

Despite the fact that it sags noticeably through the middle, this gay, amusing and quite improbably romantic comedy with a Continental flavor will exert rather strong appeal to feminine fans. The handsome, blonde Frenchman, Jean Pierre Aumont, recently discharged from war service, is likely to become a new "heartbeat" for the romantically-inclined matrons. Although the males may find it too fluffy and repetitious, Ginger Rogers and a first-rate supporting cast will insure above-average grosses, except in rural or action spots. It's a typical "Pygmalion" theme—or from gutter-snipe to lady in a few weeks—and it has been brightly handled for the most part. Director Sam Wood has added many delightful incidental comedy touches to pad out the action but at least 20 of its 102 minutes could have been clipped to make a tighter film. After a most original opening, with the credits shown on a series of old Parisian billboards, the picture starts at a smart farcical pace but it slows down after romance rears its head. From then on, the deft characterizations of Adolphe Menjou, Melville Cooper and, particularly, Mikhail Rasumny, do most to keep interest alive.

In pre-war Paris, Ginger Rogers, recently escaped from a reformatory, is tutored in the art of picking pockets at Basil Rathbone's alleged "art school." Her first victim, Adolphe Menjou, a distinguished ambassador, catches her stealing his stickpin and, instead of turning her over to the police, he dresses her in fine clothes and send her to the official ball to steal a watch from Jean Pierre Aumont, a young diplomat. The latter has been too friendly with Menjou's wife, Mona Maris, but Miss Rogers removes the lady's picture from the watch and then returns it to Aumont after the ambassador is convinced of his wife's innocence. Her assignment over, Miss Rogers leaves the ball but is followed by Aumont, who has fallen in love with her. She is finally forced to confess that she is a pick-pocket who is in danger of being sent back to the reformatory unless she can get a husband "in name only." Aumont picks on his impoverished friend, Melville Cooper but, after the latter has transformed Miss Rogers into a "lady," the young diplomat finds he cannot let her sacrifice herself. A wedding, with the ambassador and other diplomats in attendance, is a typical "fairy tale" ending.

Ginger Rogers, who does a capable acting job throughout, is more convincing as the shiny-faced fugitive from a reformatory than as the glamorous guest at the embassy ball. Jean Pierre Aumont is well cast as the young diplomat but it is Basil Rathbone, as the tempestuous professor whose students are taught the art of picking pockets; Mikhail Rasumny, as a wise and understanding friend of the heroine; Melville Cooper, as an impoverished ne'er-do-well, and Adolphe Menjou, as the jealous ambassador, who make their every scene stand out. Eduardo Ciannelli and Henry Stephenson are other reliables in a well-nigh perfect supporting cast.

—Denley, Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin, April 29, 1946

Heartbeat
Must Sell on Ginger Rogers

The name of Ginger Rogers will sell "Heartbeat" for better than average grosses, and the personality of Ginger Rogers will give the picture what measure of satisfaction it brings to audiences.

The basic idea of the picture seems to be rich in farce-romance possibilities. It is the Cinderella theme, which has Ginger a reform school fugitive, enrolled in a pickpocket school, moving on into action amid the splash and splatter of high society life, and meeting her Prince for the budding of love. In this case the Prince is a diplomat, Jean Pierre Aumont.

The structure could have provided a light, swiftly moving piece of gay froth, with moments of pseudo-drama in menace to out petite heroine, and dabs of Gallic sentiment. Scripting, by a corps of writers, is none too smooth, and Sam Wood apparently was not able to straighten out its course.

The scene is Paris, and the central factor a school for pickpockets conducted by Basil Rathbone. Ginger's first assignment is a neat stickpin job on Adolph Menjou, but she flubs it and then must yield to his scheme to attend a ball that evening and purloin a watch from Aumont, said watch supposedly bearing within its case a picture of Adolph's wife, Mona Maris.

That's the outline of the structure, and numerous laugh-getting situations result in its telling, all of them played for full values by the above par cast. What is missing is smooth flow.

Miss Rogers is seen to personal advantage. Aumont satisfies in a brittle way. Menjou is suavely impressive, Rathbone is Rathbone, and Michael Rasumny is a delightful scene-stealer as a bumbling pupil. Mona Maris is a charming suspected wife.

Production values are on a class scale, Parisian atmosphere being both well developed and attractive as presented in the top-notch Joe Valentine photography. The picture is the first Hakim brothers production for the American market and evidences their willingness to spend for top quality.

—Box Office Digest, May 11, 1946