The only film written and directed by Robert Bolt, it starred his wife, Sarah Miles,[3] as Lady Caroline, Jon Finch, Richard Chamberlain, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, John Mills, Margaret Leighton and Michael Wilding.

Despite the misgivings of his mother, the marriage seems happy enough at first, a love match, but on their honeymoon in Italy William becomes concerned about Lady Caroline's wilful behaviour, which leads to a man's death.

Meanwhile Lady Caroline meets the poverty stricken Lord Byron (Richard Chamberlain), and visits his modest flat.

Byron has a sudden success with his long poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and becomes a wealthy celebrity, feted in society.

Eventually he tires of her, and after she appears with Byron at a Holland House costume ball as a black slave, half naked and covered in greasepaint, she finds herself humiliated and a figure of derision in society.

Lady Caroline's behaviour becomes more bizarre when, dressed as a coach boy, she stalks Byron to a ceremonial dinner commemorating Wellington's victory against the French.

The film was the directorial debut of screenwriter Robert Bolt and starred his wife Sarah Miles in the title role.

Bolt said he was attracted to the story of Lamb because it "was funny, touching and entertaining" and felt the movie was about "the struggle between the romantics of the world and the classicists....

Richard Chamberlain and Sarah Miles would star, with cameos from Laurence Olivier, Margaret Leighton and John Mills.

The film score was composed by Richard Rodney Bennett, who later based a concert work, Elegy for Lady Caroline Lamb for viola and orchestra, on some of the material.

His Caroline Lamb is an hysterical fool but also a misunderstood free spirit struggling against a hypocritical society—a sort of Regency Zelda.