The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders is a 1965 British historical comedy film directed by Terence Young and starring Kim Novak, Richard Johnson, and Angela Lansbury.

In 18th century England, an orphan, Moll Flanders, grows up to become a servant for the town's mayor, who has two grown sons.

She meets a bandit, Jemmy, who mistakes her for the lady of the house and begins to woo her, pretending to be a sea captain.

As the banker's only inheritor and now a wealthy widow, Moll buys "freedom" (in the form of transportation) for herself, her true love, and her friends, and she and Jemmy have a shipboard wedding on their way to America.

He convinces Moll to allow him to accompany her for the night, becoming extremely angry when she suggests that it would be improper, causing her to relent and agree to let him stay.

While the Blystones are away one day, one of the thieves, Jemmy, in disguise, comes to the Blythstone estate under the guise of returning the stolen hatbox.

The Blystones return as Jemmy is leaving the house, and they believe him to be a man inquiring about their mortgage whom Moll turned away from the estate.

Jemmy returns to find Moll being hassled by the men and he starts a fight, which spreads to the rest of the bar.

They argue, and Jemmy accidentally reveals to Moll that he was also lying about his wealth and status in order to marry rich.

During a less than earth shaking evening with the banker, now her husband of convenience, Moll looks to the window into the night to see Jemmy and his gang of bandits causing a ruckus below.

It is shortly after this Moll starts up her criminal career as a means of making her own way and paying for room and board, pawning stolen silver with The Governess.

She begins apprehensively, taking a silver cup from the street and working her way up to stealing fabrics off store shelves with a hook lined cloak.

As she learns new tricks and tips on how to steal and not get caught, Moll eventually develops a taste for the con world and even grows to enjoy it, taking pleasure in the costumes she adorns.

One of the biggest variances in the movie versus the original book is the lack of Moll Flanders' adventures to America before her escape from jail.

This includes a largely important subplot in the book where Moll has a marital relationship to her half-brother (unbeknownst to them both) in Virginia and discovers her mother alive and well, living with him.

This conflicts with the original depiction of Moll within Defoe's book, which has her start out with a childlike innocence towards sex and the manipulations of men.

"It is true, I had my Head full of Pride, but knowing nothing of the Wickedness of the times, I had not one Thought of my own Safety or of my Virtue about me.

In the movie, after successfully buying their freedom, Moll, Jemmy, and several other Newgate inmates board a ship for America and to a fresh start.

However, Moll and Jemmy are back to their thieving and conniving ways, stealing a pocket watch off one of the crewmen while their wedding ceremony is taking place, making it known that despite their time spent in prison, no lessons have been learned.

In Defoe's book, Moll is led to repentance during her time in Newgate when she sees Jemmy in jail, and reflects upon how her actions have harmed others.

From a young age she mentions she wants to be a 'gentlewoman,' not knowing the word's true meaning (prostitute), thinking that she would be providing for herself through honest work.

Instead of Moll being reliant on her husband's money, which was the norm of the time period, she instead provides funds for their mutual growth and life.

She is released because her current husband sees her and dies from shock, leaving Moll with an inheritance which she uses to buy herself and several other prisoners their freedom.

[5] In 1954 Vanessa Brown, who had played the Girl in The Seven Year Itch on Broadway, announced she would star in a film version to be produced by her husband, Richard Franklin, and based on a script by Roland Kibee.

[6] Later Marcel Hellman of Associated British was going to produce a version based on this, starring Richard Todd as the highwayman with Michael Anderson to direct.

In February 1964 it was announced J. Arthur Rank had purchased the script off Roland Kibee for $125,000 and a percentage of the profits from Dr Robert Alan Franklin, a Hollywood plastic surgeon, and his partner in the property, British producer R. Burry Brush.

They had held the rights to the script for a decade and at one stage the film as almost to be made at 20th Century Fox but the deal fell over.

Marcel Hellman, who helped negotiate the deal, was to be executive producer[1] Later that month it was announced Terence Young would direct and Denis Canan was rewriting the script.

[14] The difficulty of finding authentic locations meant the setting of the story was moved from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century to use Queen Anne buildings.

[19] Kim Novak took a three-year break from motion pictures after this film, though her 1965 scenes in Eye of the Devil were deleted and reshot with Deborah Kerr.