Main Cast: Robert Newton, Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Francis L. Sullivan, John Howard Davies
Release Year: 1948
Country: UK
Run Time: 116 minutes
Plot
The second of director David Lean's adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel (Great Expectations (1946) was the first), Oliver Twist expertly boils down an enormous novel to a little less than two hours' screen time. The film begins with baby Oliver left on the doorstep of an orphanage/workhouse by his unwed mother. Proving a difficult charge to the wicked orphanage official, Oliver (John Howard Davies) is sold into a job as an undertaker's apprentice. He runs away and joins a gang of larcenous street urchins, led by master pickpocket Fagin (Alec Guinness). Oliver is rescued from this life by the kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson); but, with the complicity of evil Bill Sikes (Robert Newton), Fagin abducts Oliver. Sikes' girl friend Nancy (Kay Walsh) restores Oliver to Brownlow, leading to tragic consequences before an ultimately happy ending. Oliver Twist was filmed in England in 1948, but its American release was held up for three years due to the allegedly anti-Semitic portrayal of the duplicitous Fagin. Even in its currently censored form, Oliver Twist is one the best-ever film versions of a Dickens novel. It served as a blueprint for Oliver! (1968), the Oscar-winning musical version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
David Lean's ambitious interpretation of this Charles Dickens classic is a powerful but flawed film. Guy Green's hyaline cinematography dominates the picture from its opening shots of a terrified young woman stumbling around in a stormy heath to its closing scenes of mob violence. His camera is perched above the characters, implying moral superiority to the many flawed characters, while making the ever-vulnerable Oliver look cowed and beaten. The turbulent world of mid-19th century London, with its incessant hustle and bustle of human industry, is recreated so carefully that the vibrant set designs almost overshadow the memorable characters that roam these streets. A smorgasbord of urban decay, social disorder, and class conflict imbues the film with a potent sensuality, as both natural elements and human architecture conspire to consume the disadvantaged. An unrecognisable Alec Guinness, endowed with pounds of prosthetics to mask his youthful vigour, creates a sympathetic Fagin out of a potentially racist caricature. Robert Newton's Mephistophelean Bill Sikes is exemplary, particularly in the scene in which he brutally murders Nancy then sits in tortured and hysterical contemplation of the deed. Dickens' faith in the human spirit is well-depicted in Oliver's ability to survive despite the cruelty of this unjust world. Both Dickens when he wrote the novel and Lean when he filmed it were men near the beginning of their careers whose optimism shone through the darkness of the material. However, the film closes with scenes of mob vigilantism and sentimentality that carry messages betraying the social commentary that precedes them. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide
Anthony Newley - Artful Dodger; Mary Clare - Mrs. Corney; Ralph Truman - Monk; Josephine Stuart - Oliver's Mother; Gibb McLaughlin - Mr. Sowerberry; Kathleen Harrison - Mrs. Sowerberry; Amy Veness - Mrs. Bedwin; W.G. Fay - Bookseller; Maurice Denham - Chief of Police; Ivor Barnard - Chairman of the Board; Diana Dors - Charlotte; Hattie Jacques - Singer; Frederick Lloyd - Mr. Grimwig; Edie Martin - Annie; Henry Stephenson - Mr. Brownlow; Peter Bull - Landlord of "Three Cripples"; Henry Edwards - Police Official; Michael Dear - Noah Claypole; Kenneth Downey - Workhouse Master; Deirdre Doyle - Mrs. Thingummy; Maurice Jones - Workhouse Doctor
Credit
Margaret Furse - Costume Designer, David Lean - Director, Jack Harris - Editor, Arnold Bax - Composer (Music Score), Muir Mathieson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Guy Green - Cinematographer, Anthony Havelock-Allan - Producer, Ronald Neame - Producer, John Bryan - Set Designer, Stanley Grant - Special Effects, Joan Suttie - Special Effects, Stanley Haynes - Screenwriter, David Lean - Screenwriter, Charles Dickens - Book Author
