The public that turned out in large numbers for Tom Jones didn't come to this. Maybe it was Kim Novak versus Albert Finney and definitely director Terence Young isn't known for his comedy (comedy in Bond films is very different).
One reviewer wondered if people preferred to see men behaving badly in a sexual way to women but I'm not sure that's true - few films were more popular than Gone with the Wind or The Wicked Lady. But those two films have what this doesn't - clearly defined goals. Scarlett O'Hara wanted Ashley - it propelled her through the whole film, into three marriages, through a war, to even help Ashley's wife. Lady Skelton wanted excitement (and also true love) because she was recovering from the death of her mother.
Moll Flanders is ill defined here. What does she want? What drives her? It would've been easy to adjust what's here. She could've forever loved that dissolute rich brother at the beginning, sought vengeance on him.
Similar mistakes were made incidentally on the adaptation of Forever Amber.
The other thing those successful films had which the unsuccessful ones doesn't is a "good" character to contrast. Moll/Novak needed a "good girl" to compare to and also there needed to be two guys who loved her truly. Richard Johnson is there for one.
There's sped up cameras, and the cast that tries - no one is slumming and some are perfect: Leo McKern, Lili Palmer, Angela Lansbury, George Sanders, etc. There is real heat in the scenes between Novak and Johnson - they fell in love - and the film would've been much better if it had centered around their relationship.
These films are hard to do. Terence Young can't pull it off. But the biggest issue isn't evne Novak's performance it's an inability to convey what Moll Flanders is or why she is the way she is or why she does what she does. She sort of goes from one set piece to another. The skinny dips which is fun but not enough.
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