Oliver Twist (1948)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Charles Dickens (by)
David Lean (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 July 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

A Screen Event To Be Remembered For All Time !

Plot:

Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London...

Plot Keywords:

Pickpocket | Young Boy | Orphan | Child Abuse | Criminal Gang

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Robert Newton	...	Bill Sikes
Alec Guinness	...	Fagin
Kay Walsh	...	Nancy
Francis L. Sullivan	...	Mr. Bumble
Henry Stephenson	...	Mr. Brownlow
Mary Clare	...	Mrs. Corney
Anthony Newley	...	Artful Dodger
Josephine Stuart	...	Oliver's Mother
Ralph Truman	...	Monks
Kathleen Harrison	...	Mrs. Sowerberry
Gibb McLaughlin	...	Mr. Sowerberry
Amy Veness	...	Mrs. Bedwin
Frederick Lloyd	...	Dr. Grimwig
John Howard Davies	...	Oliver Twist
Henry Edwards	...	Police Official

Runtime:

116 min | USA:105 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | Germany:12 | Egypt:(Banned) (original release) | Canada:G (Ontario) | UK:A (Janus print) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Cineguild

Trivia:

Banned on inital release in both Israel and Egypt; in Israel for being anti-Semitic, and in Egypt for making Fagin too sympathetic.

Goofs:

Plot holes: Bill Sikes and Nancy easily recognize Oliver despite never having seen him before.

Quotes:

Town Crier: [SPOILER] Murder! Brutal Murder!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Return to the Edge of the World (1978)

Soundtrack:

My Hat, It Has Three Corners

David Lean's superior Dickens adaptation

This excellent film is part of a duo of Dickens' books turned into silver screen magic by David Lean in the 1940s (Great Expectations with John Mills is the other).

Keeping to the spirit of the book (although not leaving the bleak ending intact) it allows us to follow the fortunes of young Oliver (John Howard Davies, who later gave up acting to become a big shot at the BBC), through his unhappy years at the orphanage under the watchful eye of the Beadle (the huge Francis L Sullivan, who played many similar roles throughout the decade), to his association with boy thieves under the thumb of Jewish money-dealer Fagin (Alec Guinness, in one of his career highlights).

The casting is generally superb - Kay Walsh (then Mrs David Lean) is effective as Nancy, while Robert Newton is suitably unhinged and menacing as Bill Sikes. In the undertaker's, Diana Dors is showy as Charlotte the maid; while in London, Anthony Newley makes an early scene-stealing Artful Dodger (like Jack Wild in the musical version, this Dodger isn't all bad and wants to make sure Nancy and Oliver are all right).

'Oliver Twist' is one of the greats of British cinema and does justice to a complex book. Highly recommended.