Maria Madlen Madsen

A re-edited U.S. release of the 1958 West German film Mit Eva fing die Sünde an (Sin Began with Eve), The Bellboy and the Playgirls (1962) features roughly fifteen minutes of new color footage directed by Francis Ford Coppola and edited by Jack Hill. The added material follows a bellboy who dreams of becoming a private detective and spies on a group of women at the hotel—lingerie sales representatives who give him more than enough to investigate.

During rehearsals for a provocative stage play, director Gregor clashes with young actress Dinah, who resists performing an intimate love scene. To challenge her views, he guides the cast through a series of imaginative theatrical tableaux spanning the history of love, art, and desire. As rehearsal and fantasy blur, past ideals confront modern attitudes, forcing the actors to reconsider what intimacy and morality mean both onstage and off.