Directed by Otto Preminger • 1947 • United States
Starring Linda Darnell, Cornel Wilde, Richard Greene

Following an epic casting search for a leading lady to rival that of GONE WITH THE WIND, Linda Darnell won the plum title role of this lavish bodice ripper, based on the scandalous bestseller by Kathleen Winsor. Darnell proved a perfect choice to play the sultry, enterprising Amber St. Clair, who leaves behind her puritanical family to make it in London, where she gradually goes from courtesan to noble lady through her relationships with various men (among them a typically and deliciously dissolute George Sanders as King Charles II). Like the book, the film came under fire from the Catholic Church for its supposed immorality—likely the very thing that propelled it to blockbuster box-office success.