Heartbeat (1946)

A teenage girl (Ginger Rogers) runs away from a reform school and ends up in the hands of a Fagin like charlatan (Basil Rathbone, who steals the movie) who runs a school for pickpockets. When one of her victims (Adolphe Menjou) catches her trying to steal his pearl pin, he blackmails her into a scheme of his own. A remake of the 1940 French film BATTEMENT DE COEUR and directed by Sam Wood (KITTY FOYLE). In order for a romantic souffle like this to work, it needs a light touch and that Wood doesn't have (at least not here). But even if Wood had given the film the necessary sparkle, what really kills it is the miscasting of the 35 year old Rogers playing an 18 year old delinquent when she's the same age of her leading man, Jean Pierre Aumont. Watching Rogers act all childish and girlish is downright embarrassing. With Melville Cooper, Eduardo Ciannelli, Mikhail Rasumny and Mona Maris.