If you liked Tom Jones, you'll love The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders: a very silly, British period piece that spends two hours setting up and delivering sexual scenes and jokes. Kim Novak plays the title character: a poor, oversexed maid, who sleeps with every man she gets her hands on, including Vittorio De Sica, Richard Johnson, and George Sanders. I didn't like Tom Jones, so by my own recommendation, you might think I'd rake Moll Flanders across the coals.
However, even though it's too silly, historically inaccurate, and dated for my usual taste, I found it far more entertaining and funnier than its predecessor. Perhaps Miss Novak was just delightful enough to save the movie, but my money lies on the script's concept instead. Albert Finney was delightful as well, but his version was nearly unbearable. There have always been rouges who have charmed women into proverbial haystacks and then abandoned them. Over the centuries, there have been no consequence to men acting that way, so a story that centered around a bed-hopping cad could have been realistic. Since Tom Jones was so ridiculous, I found it incongruous. Moll Flanders centered around a bed-hopping woman - which in itself was ridiculous. In the 1700s, a woman couldn't sleep her way to the top without drastic consequences and earning a society-shunning reputation. However, the initial concept lets the audience know, "Yes, this comedy could never have happened in real life," so we can feel free to laugh at its inane historical inaccuracy.
