Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist
Directed by David Lean
Written by David Lean and Stanley Haynes from the novel by Charles Dickens
1947/UK
Cineguild
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Oliver Twist: Please Sir, I want some more.[/box]

It was hard to pick the stills for this film.  They are all so beautiful.  So is the film.

The story is the old one.  Little Oliver Twist (John Howard Davies) is born in the parish workhouse on a dark and stormy night to a mother who wears no wedding ring.  An old lady in attendance takes a locket from the mother’s poor dead body and pawns it.  Oliver is raised by the parish in the kind of orphanage that gave the word Dickensian its meaning.  Then the little mite is sent to work picking okum in a workhouse.  When he has the temerity to ask for an additional bowl of gruel at supper, the Beadle Mr. Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan) rapidly sells him to the highest bidder for being a rebel.

The man who pays for him is undertaker Sowerby.  He likes Oliver’s wan looks that make him perfect as a mourner in front of the hearse at children’s funerals.  But poor Oliver is relentlessly tormented by fellow underling Noah Claypool. He goes a bit crazy and attacks Noah when he slurs Oliver’s mother.  The authorities are called but Oliver escapes and makes the long walk to London.

In the city, Oliver is spotted by a pickpocket called The Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) who takes him home to Fagin (Alec Guiness), a fence who also runs a gang of boy thieves.  Before Oliver can be corrupted, however, he is caught for a theft attempted by the Dodger on gentleman Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson).  Mr. Brownlow is strangely drawn to the boy and takes him in.

Back at the home front, Fagin and his vicious colleague Bill Sykes (Robert Newton) are frantic that Oliver will tell tales.  They send Bill’s girlfriend Nancy (Kay Walsh) to spy on the boy.  Eventually, he is snatched and returned to the den of inequity.  Thereafter, it is a battle of good and evil with Nancy changing sides midway.

Throughout, there is an unlikely subplot dealing with a mysterious stranger who knows Oliver’s true identity and will do anything to keep it forever hidden.

Alec Guiness’s performance as Fagin was one of his first big roles and he disappears into the character.  It is stereotypical almost to the point of anti-Semitism, though faithful to the character created by Dickens.  I appreciate that here, as in the novel but unlike the musical, Fagin is not a loveable old scallawag but a thorough rotter.  Robert Newton is awesome as Sykes and his performance in the aftermath of Nancy’s death is unforgettable.

But the real reason to see this movie is the beautiful, awe-inspiring visuals.  It is one of those films about which it can be said that each frame could be framed and hung.  The opening storm as Oliver’s mother trudges toward the workhouse to give birth is worth the price of admission.  Very highly recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iNO7WSag3I

Trailer