A Touch of Larceny is a 1959 British comedy film directed by Guy Hamilton and starring James Mason, George Sanders, Vera Miles, Harry Andrews, Rachel Gurney, and John Le Mesurier. It is based on a diverting and mildly cynical novel, The Megstone Plot (1956), by Paul Winterton under the pseudonym Andrew Garve. Philandering Commander Max Easton, now desk-bound and under-worked in the Admiralty, finds he suddenly needs to make some money when he falls for American Virginia Killain. When he hatches a plot to disappear in circumstances that suggest he has defected and then return to sue the papers, Virginia doesn't take much notice - at least at first.