Terence Young’s The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders is an enjoyable if predictable period romp without a more wicked sense of lusty fun coming to the fore.
The Production: 2.5/5
After the critical and financial international success of Tony Richardson’s Tom Jones, it came as no surprise that there was a succession of lustful period romps that followed in its wake. Terence Young’s The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders captures some of the bawdiness and bedlam of Tom Jones’ appeal, but the writing is spotty, the narrative episodic, and the tone inconsistently maintained. Spirited performances from a star-studded cast and a bountiful production crammed with period trappings aid greatly in keeping the movie afloat, but, in the end, the whole affair is never quite as fun or as involving as it might have been.
Orphaned as a youngster and raised by gypsies, Moll Flanders (Claire Ufland as a child, Kim Novak as an adult) aspires to be a gentlewoman. An early marriage to and widowhood from a drunken fool (Derren Nesbitt) nets her neither wealth nor station, but it does show her the path to respectability: using her voluptuous looks to snare a man of means. Her adventures in London culminate in her becoming a lady’s maid to Lady Blystone (Angela Lansbury) and the Count (Vittorio De Sica), poverty-stricken aristocrats living on the remnants of the lady’s jewels. But having her lady’s clothes and the appearance of wealth attracts a roguish scalawag (Richard Johnson) who’s tiring of being a highwayman and who assumes the gorgeous Moll in her lady’s finery is a genuine aristocrat and HIS ticket out of poverty. Their dual impersonations as rich people only lead to later feelings of betrayal and further escapades for them both to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, a journey that will lead them both to the brink of the gallows.
Denis Cannan and Roland Kibbee’s screenplay has moved events from Daniel Defoe’s novel up a century to place the action more or less in 18th century England, and many of Moll’s sexual escapades (and subsequent children) from the novel have been eliminated. At the time of its release, the film was thought tasteless and too explicit (there is also a lack of repentance from the lawless in the movie), but modern eyes can see that despite many men lusting after the voluptuous Moll, very little is actually being shown, and this version of the film is the uncut, uncensored edition. Director Terence Young gives a free hand to slapstick shenanigans throughout the film’s overlong 131-minute run time with three chaotic sequences among the film’s highlights: a date between Jemmy and Moll at a café which builds mishap upon mishap, a shipboard masquerade between the two that goes hilariously awry (Jemmy’s cohort Squint played by Leo McKern steals the scene and the movie with his monkeyshines), and the climactic robbery sequence that haplessly results in all in the principal thieves’ band being arrested. Despite their pretenses, the blossoming love between Moll and Jemmy is real, but their continual love scenes aren’t filmed particularly alluringly and grow tedious after a time (in real life, Kim Novak and her leading man Richard Johnson did marry after the production wrapped, but the union lasted barely more than a year).
Kim Novak was the replacement pick for Moll when the producers’ first choice, Oscar nominee Diane Cilento, proved unavailable. She does what she can without really essaying a British accent (she had learned her lesson from the fiasco of her remake of Of Human Bondage), and she’s weighed down with an expansive, mostly unattractive red wig, but she can get into the slapstick of it all and not embarrass herself, and she does look tempting in the vast array of gowns she “borrows” from Lady Blystone. Richard Johnson as Jemmy doesn’t have much screen charisma, but he’s right in the spirit of the piece and does fine. Angela Lansbury as the toney British lady having a hard time adjusting to poverty is a delight underplaying her role quite appealingly, and Vittorio De Sica as her worthless husband does well, too, one of many older men in the film lusting frothily after Moll. As stated earlier, Leo McKern never fails to delight as Squint (rubbing jam on his face to feign blood and shoeing away the flies it attracts; using a clever contraption to mimic a full crew on the shipboard sequence and then tumbling overboard). Film veterans George Sanders as a banker hot for Moll and Lilli Palmer as the head of a robber band are delightfully droll throughout. You’ll also enjoy Cecil Parker, Daniel Massey, Hugh Griffith, Roger Livesey, and Richard Wattis in small but notable parts.
Video: 4/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s Panavision aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec, a new scan taken from the original camera negative. While the film mostly looks quite lovely with good sharpness, appropriate contrast, and excellent color, stray bits of dust speckle throughout the running time, and the main title sequence looks very poor indeed, mixed with dirty, soft dupes of shots from the movie as the cast is introduced. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is of the period and completely adequate. Dialogue has been recorded well (Kim Novak does a fair amount of narration throughout the film particularly in the first reels and the final ones), and John Addison’s elaborate music (he also scored Tom Jones but doesn’t overly rely on the harpsichord this time) and the various sound effects are combined for a most effective aural track. There are no problems with hiss, pops, crackle, or flutter.
Special Features: 2/5
Audio Commentary: film historians David Del Valle and Daniel Kremer have a helter-skelter stream of consciousness discussion of the film and its personnel but veer off topic many times into talking about other films, actors, and personalities. Film aficionados may find the unorganized jumble of jabber edifying, but a little organization and a reticence from spilling all their film knowledge in every statement would make the lengthy conversation more enjoyable.
Theatrical Trailer (3:38, SD)
Kino Trailers: Thoroughly Modern Millie, Irma La Douce, Man’s Favorite Sport? For Love or Money, The Mirror Crack’d.
Reversible Cover Art
Overall: 2.5/5
Terence Young’s The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders is an enjoyable if predictable period romp in the manner of Tom Jones without its more wicked sense of lusty fun coming to the fore. It’s nice to have the complete, uncensored version of the movie in high definition for the first time, and fans of the stars will likely be pleased with the release.
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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