The Amorous Adventures Of Moll Flanders

This bawdy, misconceived farce stars Kim Novak in what amounts to a distaff remake of TOM JONES. As the title character, Novak's a poor 18th-century prostitute who aspires to become a woman of substance. The thin plot, very loosely based on Defoe's novel, recounts her struggle for money and status through series of affairs, marriages, and other contrivances. She falls in love with a highwayman who tries in vain to fool her into thinking he's a wealthy man, renting an enormous ship to impress her. Instead, she marries a rich banker (George Sanders) who soon dies of a heart attack, leaving her with a vast fortune. She is then free to marry her beloved. The film tries...