The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders ** (1965, Kim Novak, Richard Johnson, George Sanders, Lilli Palmer, Angela Lansbury, Leo McKern, Daniel Massey, Vittorio De Sica) – Classic Movie Review 9170

Floundering Flanders 

‘I had been tricked once by that Cheat called love, but the Game was over.’

Paramount clearly wanted to turn Daniel Defoe’s 1722 novel into a cash-in on the success of 1963’s Tom Jones – based on another English classic of the same 18th-century period. But this crudely fashioned bawdy historical comedy lark doesn’t have the style or wit of the Albert Finney film. And, anyway that was a one-off, as its director Tony Richardson found when he made Joseph Andrews.

Director Terence Young’s 1965 The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders stars a miscast Kim Novak, who flounders as Moll Flanders, the woman who plans to sleep her way to the top of 18th-century English society, moving up from a highwayman to riches via The Banker (George Sanders).

Rarely has sex looked so dull and tedious, giving the impression that director Young was too old for this kind of thing. The strong British character cast helps.

It also stars Lilli Palmer, Angela Lansbury, Leo McKern, Daniel Massey, Vittorio De Sica and Cecil Parker.

Also in the cast are Claire Ufland, Peter Butterworth, Dandy Nichols, Noel Howlett, Barbara Couper, Daniel Massey, Derren Nesbitt, Judith Furse, Anthony Dawson, Roger Livesey, Jess Conrad, Noel Harrison, Mary Merrall, Richard Wattis, David Lodge, Hugh Griffith, Michael Trubshawe, Richard Goolden, Leonard Sachs, Basil Dignam and Liam Redmond.

Actor Derren Nesbitt wrote, produced and directed another Amorous film, The Amorous Milkman in 1972.

The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders is directed by Terence Young, runs 125 minutes, is made by Winchester Productions, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Dennis Cannan and Roland Kibbee, is shot in Technicolor by Ted Moore, is produced by Marcel Hellman, is scored by John Addison, and is designed by Syd Cain.

The costumes are by M. Berman and the music is performed by Sinfonia of London.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9170

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