After the experience of seeing GREAT EXPECTATIONS on the big screen, I looked forward to what David Lean would do with OLIVER TWIST. I wasn't disappointed--it's possibly the best version of the Dickens tale that I've ever seen with all the Victorian-era darkness and poverty serving as a rich background to a number of interesting Dickensian characters.
ALEC GUINNESS has the role of a lifetime as Fagin, the pickpocket thief who keeps his boys on a tight reign. Among the boys--the very young ANTHONY NEWLEY as The Artful Dodger. But a standout in the film is the central performance of young JOHN HOWARD DAVIES--he's a brilliant choice to play the underfed boy in the poorhouse "who wanted more" and is eventually reunited with Mr. Brownlow (the wonderful HENRY STEPHENSON) for a happy ending.
Later musicalized and called OLIVER!, it's hard to watch the film today without recalling where the musical numbers were inserted and almost expecting them to break out in song. But the bleak atmosphere of Lean's film about the orphan waif taken in by a gang of thieves is so stark, at times, that it rules out thoughts of musical moments.
ROBERT NEWTON makes a picturesque Bill Sykes but is occasionally over the top in his characterization, but KAY WALSH makes a wonderfully compelling Nancy and FRANCIS L. SULLIVAN is wonderful as Mr. Bumble.
Summing up: Full display of the art of Guy Green's B&W cinematography to heighten the mood of the drama.
ALEC GUINNESS has the role of a lifetime as Fagin, the pickpocket thief who keeps his boys on a tight reign. Among the boys--the very young ANTHONY NEWLEY as The Artful Dodger. But a standout in the film is the central performance of young JOHN HOWARD DAVIES--he's a brilliant choice to play the underfed boy in the poorhouse "who wanted more" and is eventually reunited with Mr. Brownlow (the wonderful HENRY STEPHENSON) for a happy ending.
Later musicalized and called OLIVER!, it's hard to watch the film today without recalling where the musical numbers were inserted and almost expecting them to break out in song. But the bleak atmosphere of Lean's film about the orphan waif taken in by a gang of thieves is so stark, at times, that it rules out thoughts of musical moments.
ROBERT NEWTON makes a picturesque Bill Sykes but is occasionally over the top in his characterization, but KAY WALSH makes a wonderfully compelling Nancy and FRANCIS L. SULLIVAN is wonderful as Mr. Bumble.
Summing up: Full display of the art of Guy Green's B&W cinematography to heighten the mood of the drama.