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Absolutely Fantastic

A Masterpiece!

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

"Oliver Twist" the novel rests at top of mind for the general public when it comes to Charles Dickens. Dickens wrote better novels, so why is "Oliver" so magisterial in his canon? Maybe I'm at fault for not liking the book more, but I suspect the answer has much to do with David Lean.Lean's adaptation of "Oliver Twist" is a textbook example of how a director can boil away the dross and bring out the core of a great story, adhering to the spirit of the author's intent but rediscovering it as a product of its place and time in a way that makes it timeless. The Expressionistic camera-work, its deep-focus lens pulling out details from a seemingly slapdash set, married to an unobtrusive yet penetrating score and a variety of brilliant character actors lending face and voice to a true group effort. It's like "Citizen Kane" meets Hogarth.When we first meet Oliver, he is inside his dying mother as she makes her painful way to a solitary light on a hill, a light that proves more ominous as she gets closer. Her painful journey is later made light of by one of Oliver's first enemies, a beadle named Bumble who sees her strength and bravery as exposing an animal nature that allows for his mistreatment of her son. "God Is Love" says the message on the brick wall of Oliver's workhouse, but there is no love for the boy in the first third of the film, a harrowing journey for any sensitive viewer to make.Francis L. Sullivan plays Bumble, an actor who gives the best performance in Lean's earlier Dickens movie, "Great Expectations." He's quite fine here playing quite a different role, both menacing and funny, but other actors make even deeper impressions.Alec Guinness gives his breakout performance here as Fagin, the crafty thief and seducer of virtue. Yes, Fagin as written by Dickens is also known as "the Jew," and with his big prosthetic nose Guinness plays with that stereotype more than a bit, but he also gets at the core of Dickens' villain by using that to accentuate his role as the consummate outsider, finding diabolical angles in a world where he is not welcome. Guinness was such a cerebral actor that it's hard to adjust to the feral nature of his performance here, except it makes the part and thus the movie.Fagin is a frightening villain, as is first-billed Robert Newton as the crazed Sikes, because we get the fear at the core of their villainy. Dickens wrote "Oliver Twist" not as adventure story but social exposé of his native London, a cruel city of dire poverty and no second chances. Seeing young Oliver (John Howard Davies) at its mercies is no easy thing, and we realize how Fagin and Sikes are products of that society. Watching them face a mob bent on their comeuppance is both thrilling and horrifying, because we know by then how cruel their world is.When the undertaker Sowerberry (Gibb McLaughlin) complains to Bumble early on about the small price given for his services to the workhouse, Bumble just smiles: "So are the coffins!" How he can smile at such a thing is harder to reckon than any of Fagin or Sikes' awful crimes.Being plunged into such a world, one wants for the relief Oliver first finds, than loses, with kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson). Much streamlining is called for here, and aptly done by Lean and co- screenwriter Stanley Haynes. Ditching a maudlin subplot involving a young woman Oliver befriends named Rose Maylie is a stroke of genius given how little she is missed. More problematic is the matter of Oliver's mysterious stalker, Mr. Monks, who does show up here but in a way that raises more questions than answers.Could Oliver have been better incorporated into the film's second half? Howard Davies does great with what he's given, and I for one wanted more. But I think what you do get is pretty classic in its own right, a finale that ranks up there with the best filmdom has ever offered.You will want to read the book after seeing the movie, if you haven't already. And you will likely admire it, as I do, for its humanity and bracing power. Still, for getting across both Dickens' story and its underlying social commentary, no one, not even Dickens himself, did as good a job as Lean and company do here.

Really enjoyed the 1948 film of "Oliver Twist", and to my mind the definitive version of the story. I saw the 1968 musical which was good, but was inflated to 150 minutes with musical numbers and almost came to a stop in some parts. It won an Oscar for Best Picture, but the '48 film was better in several respects.First off, the acting was superior in the Lean picture. Clive Revill was a pale imitation Alec Guinness as Fagin, and Francis L. Sullivan, while not a singer, was a much better actor than Harry Secombe. And, last but not least, Robert Newton's interpretation of Bill Sykes was far superior to Oliver Reed's. Reed's Sykes was a bully while Newton imbued the character with a psychopathic element missing from Reed's. It was also remarkable to note the resemblance between John Howard Davies and Mark Lester, the two child actors who seemed like twins.The earlier version also conveyed the overarching feeling of hopelessness and the grinding poverty of the lower classes, as much a tribute to the art director as to the intelligent script, written by Lean himself. Musical director on that version was Muir Mathieson, and it doesn't get better than Mathieson. "Oliver Twist" is one of the best adaptations of literature to the screen as has ever been done.

I can't even believe there are people who prefer this narrative jalopy to Lean's infinitely finer 'Great Expectations.' Oliver Twist is simpleton fodder. The waif protagonist is NOT interesting. He is acted upon, and actions occur around him because having a child protagonist is essentially uninteresting and problematic. Because he's so helpless and feeble (read: virtuous), nothing complex can happen to him without introducing some adult agents. Any danger Oliver experiences, lost its threat 50 years ago from over-familiarity. Every Dickens story involves illegitimacy and tiresome coincidences. OT features the biggest whopper of a coincidence in all of Dickens oeuvre: Imagine you're an orphan who doesn't know who your parents are. Imagine yourself lost in a massive city. Imagine the first person you steal from, just happens to be your long-lost grandfather. Oh come on... what a hideous, clumsy, amateurish device. Bill Sikes is one dimensional. Nancy's motives shift inexplicably. I found nothing interesting in this non-complex plot from the very first viewing. Only Great Expectations miraculously escaped Dickens tiresome, facile morality. The only reason this receives three stars is for the dramatic b/w camera work.

I've seen the Ron Moody musical version, and I saw the Sir Ben Kingsley/Roman Polanski version, but this of course is the most acclaimed version of the classic Charles Dickens tale, from director Sir David Lean (Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia). You probably know the story pretty well already, but just in case, I'll go through it. Basically, a Mother (Josephine Stuart) struggled to give birth in the workhouse, but she did, and died shortly after. 11 years later, the boy, Oliver Twist (John Howard Davies) is the orphan living with many lonely children, and Mr. Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan) sends him to a work house after he said "Please, sir, I want some more" (gruel). After a little while he runs away and ends up in London, soon meeting pick pocket, the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) who takes him to the "care and comfort" of Jewish criminal Fagin (Sir Alec Guinness). The rest of the film sees Oliver trying to pick pocket, and getting to many scrapes, with the likes of Nancy (Kay Walsh) and her abusive lover Bill Sikes (Robert Newton), Chief of Police (Maurice Denham) and Police Official (Henry Edwards), and many others, till he finds his real place of comfort, and all the bad people get what they deserve. Also starring Ralph Truman as Monks, Henry Stephenson as Mr. Brownlow and Diana Dors as Charlotte. Apparently Guinness's portrayal of Fagin was considered anti-Semetic, being banned in America, I think it is the best portrayal of the character, "My Dear", lol. Other cast members, including young Davies (who would go on to produce and direct shows such as Fawlty Towrers and Mr. Bean) are very good, the story is very well put together and feels very dark, a very good adaptation by one of the finest British directors. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best British Film. Sir Alec Guinness was number 12 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, he was number 2 on Britain's Finest Actors, and he was number 11 on The World's Greatest Actor. Very good!