Ginger Rogers

Jean-Pierre Aumont

Adolphe Menjou

Melville Cooper

Mikhail Rasumny

Eduardo Ciannelli

Mona Maris

Henry Stephenson

Basil Rathbone

Ed Agresti

Lulu Mae Bohrman

Jack Chefe

Adolph Faylauer

Bess Flowers

Fred Hueston

Wilbur Mack

Rodney Bell

Robert Cherry

William Frambes

Jacques Lory

Fred Farrell

Eddie Hayden

Ivan Lebedeff

Torben Meyer

Albert Petit

Louis Mercier

Sam Harris

Richard Neill

James Carlisle

Jack Deery

George Ford

Robert Locke Lorraine

Hans Moebus

Victor Romito

Rommie

Scott Seaton

Count Stefenelli

Robert Hakim

Roland Gross

Joe C. Gilpin

Raymond Hakim

Joseph A. Valentine

Morrie Ryskind

Howard Greer

George Sawley

Rowland Leigh

Mel Berns

Sam Wood

Jack Murton

Lionel Banks

J.R. Whittredge

C. Bakaleinikoff

Paul Misraki

Max Kolpé

Terry Kellum

Earl B. Mounce

Hans Wilhelm

John Sherwood

Linwood G. Dunn

Vernon L. Walker

Russell A. Cully

H. de Schulthess

Lonnie D'Orsa

Michel Duran

Ralph Dawson

Albert Simpson

Milton Howe

Wilbur Bradley

John E. Tribby

Comedy

Romance

Heartbeat

Robert et Raymond Hakim

New World Productions

United States of America

CinemaSerf

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.

English