It is 1720 and a group of little uniformed girls in an orphanage are apprehensively awaiting the annual inspection by the Governors. One by one the children are presented and dutifully answer questions as to what they would like to be when they grow up . . .
“A dairymaid,” says one; “A maid-servant,” replies another, and so on down the line until the Mayor (Cecil Parker) stops to question a pert and pretty little girl, who astounds him by answering “A lady!” The little madame’s name is Moll Flanders.
We next come across Moll (Kim Novak) when she is grown up and find her in the household of that same Mayor who was touched by her artless reply to his question when she was a child.
Although nominally a serving wench, Moll is treated as one of the family and her natural charms have been much enhanced by what she has learned from her “betters”.
She is rather drawn to the Mayor’s eldest son (Daniel Massey) who flatters only to deceive and promises marriage to Moll if she will agree to other proposals. The poor girl succumbs only to find herself without a ring and without her virtue.
The heat of a summer day prompts Moll to take a dip in a cool lake, leaving her clothes on the bank. Two highwaymen, Jemmy (Richard Johnson) and Squint (Leo McKern) happen along and promptly go through Moll’s clothing, hoping to find something of value.
Moll starts for the shore to save her things and is rescued from Squint’s ribaldry by the timely arrival of the Mayor’s youngest son (Derren Nesbitt) who puts the highwaymen to flight, but is himself overcome by the sight of the comely Moll emerging from the lake as Mother Nature made her. He insists on immediate marriage, and in spite of the family’s misgivings, Moll accompanies him to the altar.
Sadly the marriage is doomed from the start as Moll’s husband’s real love is the bottle and he spends most of his time in his cups. One day, when he is more drunk than usual, his gig overturns and Moll becomes a widow.
No help is forthcoming from her husband’s family so the poor girl has to fend for herself, obtaining a post as lady’s maid to Lady Blystone (Angela Lansbury), a middle-aged woman with a weakness for an Italian Count (Vittorio De Sica).
Moll is sent ahead to London with her mistress’s baggage, and finding Lady Blystone’s finery quite irresistible, borrows some of it for herself. A fellow passenger in the coach, a banker (George Sanders) is deceived into thinking her a grand lady and makes tentative advances.
Things are going just fine when along come our two highwaymen friends, Jemmy and Squint, to hold up the coach. Moll has her wits about her and manages to save most of the banker’s treasure by an astute ruse for which he is deeply grateful.
If Moll proved herself to have amorous inclinations when she was in the countryside, they were nothing compared to what happens after she has installed herself in Lady Blystone’s London house. The fact that two men think she is a great lady (when she is, in truth, only a lady’s maid) necessitates several quick changes.
There are plenty of comings and goings and lots of feudin’ and fussin’ and fightin’ all over town, and even notorious Newgate Jail and its fearsome Governor (Hugh Griffith) begins to loom ahead for our heroine.
It’s a funny, bawdy 18th-century romp in the tradition of Tom Jones(1963), lavishly filmed in Technicolor and based on Daniel Defoe’s novel.
Moll Flanders
Kim Novak Young Moll
Claire Ufland Jemmy
Richard Johnson Squint
Leo McKern Lady Blystone
Angela Lansbury The Count
Vittorio De Sica The Banker
George Sanders Dutchy
Lilli Palmer Grunt
Peter Butterworth Bishop
Noel Howlett Orphanage Superintendent
Dandy Nichols The Mayor
Cecil Parker The Mayor’s Wife
Barbara Couper The Mayor’s Elder Son
Daniel Massey The Mayor’s Younger Son
Derren Nesbitt Elder sister
Ingrid Hafner Younger Sister
June Watts Miss Glowber
Judith Furse Officer of Dragoons
Anthony Dawson Drunken Parson
Roger Livesey Jeweller
Richard Wattis Draper
Terence Lodge Lawyer
Basil Dignam Prison Governor
Hugh Griffith Lord Mayor of London
Michael Trubshawe The Ordinary
Richard Goolden Prison Doctor
Leonard Sachs The Turnkey
Michael Brennan Convict Ship Captain
Liam Redmond Convict Ship Officer
Neville Jason
