Heartbeat (1946)

If you imagine a sort of Parisian start to "Oliver Twist", then you can envisage "Arlette" (Ginger Rogers) alone and broke on the unforgiving streets of Paris. Luckily, their equivalent of "Fagin" is running his own school for pick-pockets and so "Aristide" (Basil Rathbone) decides that she might make for an ideal addition to his student fraternity. Her first attempt is a bit of a disaster but luckily for her, her victim (Adolphe Menjou) is an ambassador with a mission of his own. If she does some sleight of hand for him, the he'll forget she tried to pinch his pearl pin. Her mark is the dashing young "Pierre" (Jean-Pierre Aumont) who happens to have a secret of his own. She turns out to be more efficient this time, but their magnets are turned on and soon the two are falling head over heels for all to see - except them! With his secret now in the wrong hands a series of misunderstandings, duplicity and diplomatic shenanigans follow. What chance of any romance surviving this? Rogers is on engaging form here, especially at the start as the naive and nervous "Arlette" has to learn the ropes from her manipulative tutor, and there's an obvious but still quite amiable chemistry with Aumont that builds nicely, if predictably. Mona Maris turns in quite a fun series of cameos as the ambassador's long-suffering wife and though it's far too long, it's still quite an enjoyable "Ginger does Dickens" that's just a bit stodgy in the middle.