The 1945 film "Yolanda and the Thief" is a musical film set in South America. Johnny Parkson Riggs (Fred Astaire) and Victor Budlow Trout (Victor Morgan) are two confidence men in the fictional Andean country of "Patria" where there are mountains and llamas. Johnny plans to swindle Yolanda (Lucille Bremer), a young woman who has inherited a large company. At one point is a suitcase filled with currency and bonds that Johnny has gotten from Yolanda. A Mr. Candle (Leon Ames) retrieves the case and he and Johnny flip a coin for it. The coin is a prop coin which has actress Greta Garbo on it. A waiter takes the coin and the two men then flip another coin which has a "Barber head" obverse and a "spread eagle on a stick" reverse.

Johnny is a confidence man and Victor is a fugitive banker; both men are wanted by the police. The men are riding a train to Patria where they will be safe.

Yolanda is the sole heiress to a large business combine. She leaves a church school to move home to a palace and take up her duties.

The men read a newspaper article about Yolanda and Johnny decides to pursue her. Victorx is skeptical of the idea. Meanwhile, Yolanda arrives home.

The two men head for the palace, and Johnny overhears Yolanda asking a statue of an angel for guidance. The men return to their hotel and Johnny contacts Yolanda and tells her that he is the answer to her prayer. Yolanda heads over to the hotel to meet her "guardian angel." Johnny is waiting for her.

Johnny meets Yolanda and she is convinced that he is "Mr. Brown", an angel. Victor doesn't like the idea of scamming a woman and tells Johnny, causing Johnny to have a strange dream.

And later Johnny encounters a striped road.

Johnny visits Yolanda at the palace and convinces her that she will be better off without so much money. He brings a document for her to sign, a Power of Attorney.

In a room full of things, Johnny points out where Yolanda is to sign the paper.

Yolanda, being helpful, opens a safe and hands Johnny a pile of currency and stock certificates which he puts in a suitcase. Johnny throws the suitcase out a window to Victor, who misses it. Another visitor, Leon Ames, has been hanging around the men, and he picks up the suitcase. Back at the hotel, the three men are together.

Victor and Leon know that one needs the Power of Attorney to sell the stock, and the men agree to flip a coin to decide who keeps everything. Victor produces a "special" coin.

The prop coin has an image of actress Greta Garbo.
A similar coin appeared in her 1933 film "Queen Christina".
Victor calls "heads" and flips it, but a passing waiter grabs the coin.
Leon offers his "coin".

Leon's coin appears to be "heads", but it flips itself over revealing "tails", and Victor and Johnny win the money.

The obverse of this coin has a "Barber head" coin design named after US Mint coin designer Charles Barber. The reverse has a "spread eagle on a stick" design. Later, with the money in hand, Johnny feels bad about scamming Yolanda, and he writes out a confession letter.

Yolanda receives the letter and meets Johnny who tells her that he and Victor are leaving the country.

A policeman on the train tells Johnny and Victor that they will be arrested once they cross the border out of Patria. Leon suggests that they stay in Patria and has the train stopped.

Fred Astaire as Johnny Parkson Riggs
Frank Morgan as Victor Budlow Trout
Lucille Bremer as Yolanda Aquaviva
Leon Ames as Mr. Candle
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Writers: Jacques Théry, Ludwig Bemelmans, Irving Brecher