Lilli Palmer

A bawdy story of how a poor damsel surrenders her virtue again and again to get to the top of society. Based on Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel of the famed English adventuress Moll Flanders (Kim Novak). Moll is first engaged as a maid by an eighteenth-century English family chiefly composed of sex-starved males. She marries the imbecilic second son, who prefers booze to copulation. Too embarrassed to speak the truth of him, she demurely tells friends, "Modesty forbids me to reveal the secrets of the marriage bed." She then meets a rich banker (George Sanders), becomes maid-companion to a Count (Vittorio De Sica) and his Lady, and finally weds the banker, but leaves him on their first night together. She then joins a group of thieves, falls in love with James "Jemmy" Seagrave (Richard Johnson), and becomes their number one asset before she is sent to prison. After she is released, she finds Jemmy, and, in the end, everyone is on an America-bound boat except the banker, who fortuitously dies of a heart attack before he has had an opportunity to alter his will. —alfiehitchie

Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany. Stockholm, 1942: Eric Erickson is a native American who has been granted Swedish citizenship. Because of his oil trade - Sweden is officially neutral, so trade with both warring parties is possible - he is blacklisted by people who collaborate with the enemy. The British put pressure on him to become an agent of the Allies. His business and frequent trips to Germany serve as a cover. It is not long before his new, feigned pro-Nazi attitude alienates him from his Swedish surroundings and his wife. In order to gain an insight into the Nazis' oil supply, Erickson pushes ahead with his plans for a new refinery. At a business meeting, he meets Marianne Möllendorf, an officer's wife who also works as an agent. The two fall in love. When one of his German friends dies, Erickson rushes to Germany to destroy a dangerous document. The Gestapo arrest him and question him about his relationship with Marianne. The noose tightens. —Arte An American oil company executive of Swedish descent, now living in Sweden, is blackmailed into spying for the Allies during World War II. At first resentful, his relationship with a beautiful German Allied agent causes him to realize how vital his work is. When he learns that his anti-Nazi German associates are under suspicion from the Gestapo, he risks his own life to go back inside Nazi Germany to finish his work and try to save his friends. It's an exciting story with great characters, filmed partly in the locations where the story took place. —Carol

Without a new play and money, a 55-year-old Broadway producer retires, but only then does his 22-year-old secretary tell him that she loves him. He decides to make that a scene in a new play and get her to write it, then play the role. After 30 years of producing Broadway plays, Russ Ward is ready to quit. On being given notice, his 22-year-old secretary, Ellie Brown, tells him that she loves him. Russ proceeds to romance Ellie in a May/December affair and turn this into a hit play. —Bob Lipton <lipton@dorsai.org>