Film Snail

7.5

Oliver Twist

NR·1948·116m

Drama

Adventure

Crime

Comedy

Drama

Adventure

Crime

Comedy

Summary

When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.

Cast

John Howard Davies

Oliver Twist

Robert Newton

Bill Sykes

Alec Guinness

Fagin

Kay Walsh

Nancy

Francis L. Sullivan

Mr. Bumble

Henry Stephenson

Mr. Brownlow

Mary Clare

Mrs. Corney

Anthony Newley

Artful Dodger

Ralph Truman

Monks

Michael Dear

Noah Claypole

Diana Dors

Charlotte

Josephine Stuart

Oliver's Mother

Kathleen Harrison

Mrs Sowerberry

Gibb McLaughlin

Mr. Sowerberry

Amy Veness

Mrs. Bedwin

Frederick Lloyd

Mr. Grimwig

Henry Edwards

Police Official

Ivor Barnard

Chairman of the Board

Maurice Denham

Chief of Police

Michael Ripper

Barney

Peter Bull

Landlord of 'Three Cripples'

Deidre Doyle

Mrs. Thingummy

Kenneth Downey

Workhouse Master (as Kenneth Downy)

W.G. Fay

Bookseller

Edie Martin

Annie

Fay Middleton

Martha

Graveley Edwards

Mr. Fang

John Potter

Charlie Bates

Maurice Jones

Workhouse Doctor

Hattie Jacques

Singer at 'Three Cripples'

Betty Paul

Singer at 'Three Cripples'

Johnny Briggs

Undetermined Minor Role (Uncredited)

Albert Chevalier

Courtroom Policeman (Uncredited)

Erik Chitty

Workhouse Board Member (Uncredited)

Arthur Mullard

Undetermined Minor Role (Uncredited)

Nosher Powell

Undetermined Minor Role (Uncredited)

Dennis Wyndham

Man In Street Who Punches Oliver (Uncredited)

Crew

Director, Screenplay

David Lean

Novel

Charles Dickens

Screenplay

Stanley Haynes

Reviews

Geronimo1967

July 9, 2022

You only have to watch the opening few sequences of David Lean's striking adaptation of this, probably the most famous of Dickens' stories, to know that you are in for a treat. The dark clouds chase the poor, wretched, mother as she seeks any shelter she can from the impending storm and so, Oliver is born in the workhouse and the story begins. Francis L. Sullivan and Mary Clare are super as the exploitative and cruel face of the workhouse from which he is eventually sold and after a brief spell leading funeral cortèges for children, Oliver ends up befriending the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and falling into truly bad company. Alec Guinness and Robert Newton epitomise evil and avarice, violence and brutality and are outstanding as Fagin and Skyes - and with Kay Walsh and Henry Stephenson (and also, a slightly under-rated Frederick Lloyd, too) you just could not leave the story in any better hands. A truly captivating film that belongs in anyone's library.