Surprisingly erotic bodice-ripper chronicling the romantic dalliances of a jaded aristocrat. Sometimes the characters seemed a bit too eccentric to be believable (surely any doctor as incompetent as Dangerfield describes would face malpractice suits at least) but the story moves briskly to places the heart didn’t realize it wanted to go.
While the story of the courtesan who sleeps her way to the top isn’t a new one, the titular Contessa reaches new heights (depths?) of promiscuity. How promiscuous? She tells the heartsick main character she will be home “after five”—but specifies she isn’t referring to the hour but the amount of men to whom she plans to make love. Promiscuous, I tell you.