A young pregnant woman makes her way to a Workhouse in Mudfog where she gives birth to a baby boy and dies. The Beadle, Mr. Bumble names the boy ‘Oliver Twist.’ Years later, Oliver is brought back to the workhouse where he and the other boys are treated cruelly by Mr. Bumble and matron Widow Corney. When a group of boys draw straws, Oliver gets the shortest one and so has to ask for more gruel. As punishment, Bumble sends Oliver to work as an apprentice for undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry. However, when Sowerberry’s older apprentice, Noah Claypole, insults Oliver’s deceased mother, Oliver flies into a rampage and attacks Noah, earning lashes from Sowerberry.
To escape the torture, Oliver travels a seven day journey to London, where he befriends the Artful Dodger, a young pickpocket who introduces him to Fagin, an elderly criminal who trains boys how to steal. Fagin is, in fact, working with a mysterious man known as Monks, Oliver’s half-brother, whose prime goal is to ensure Oliver becomes a criminal to lose an inheritance which favours the latter, left by Monks’ father. As part of Monks’ plan, Fagin sends Oliver out with Dodger to pick pockets. When Dodger and his friend, Charlie Bates, steal a handkerchief from Mr. Brownlow, Oliver is thought to be the thief and arrested. Learning of this, Fagin and his vicious associate, Bill Sykes, fearing that Oliver will “peach”, send Sykes’ lover, Nancy to the court, where the latter learns that Oliver has been found innocent and taken to live with Mr. Brownlow.
Meanwhile, Monks visits Bumble and the Widow Corney (now Bumble’s wife) and buys a locket belonging to Oliver’s mother; the only proof of Oliver’s identity. When Mr. Brownlow sends Oliver to return some books, Sykes and Nancy bring Oliver back to Fagin’s lair, though Nancy immediately regrets doing so when Fagin attacks Oliver for trying to escape. Sometime later, whilst at the Three Criples pub, Nancy overhears a conversation between Fagin and Monks and learns of the latter’s true intentions towards Oliver. Whilst Sykes takes Oliver out to commit a robbery, Fagin pays Dodger to spy on Nancy, who informs Mr. Brownlow about Monks’ plan, though keeps Fagin and Sykes' names out of it. Dodger reports to Fagin and Sykes, causing the latter to murder Nancy, believing her to have betrayed him.
Nancy’s murder brings down the public onto Fagin, Monks and Sykes. Monks is questioned by Brownlow, who by now, realises that Oliver is indeed his grandson. Monks is forced to confess his evil plot against Oliver, causing the police to arrest him. Bumble and the Widow Corney are also fired from their jobs at the workhouse, for assisting in Monks’ scheme. Sykes is pursued by a mob and uses Oliver as a hostage. He is shot by a member of the mob, loses his footing and accidentally hangs himself. Oliver is rescued and returns to live with Brownlow, finally finding the family he sought.
Although critically acclaimed, Alec Guinness's portrayal of Fagin and his make-up was considered antisemitic by some as it was felt to perpetuate Jewish racial stereotypes.[3] Guinness wore heavy make-up, including a large prosthetic nose, to make him look like the character as he appeared in George Cruikshank's illustrations in the first edition of the novel. At the start of production, the Production Code Administration had advised David Lean to "bear in mind the advisability of omitting from the portrayal of Fagin any elements or inference that would be offensive to any specific racial group or religion."[4]
Lean commissioned the make-up artistStuart Freeborn to create Fagin's features; Freeborn had suggested to David Lean that Fagin's exaggerated profile should be toned down for fear of causing offence, but Lean rejected this idea. In a screen test featuring Guinness in toned-down make-up, Fagin was said to resemble Jesus Christ.[5] On this basis, Lean decided to continue filming with a faithful reproduction of Cruikshank's Fagin, pointing out that Fagin was not explicitly identified as Jewish in the screenplay.[6]
When released in 1948, the film was criticized by American columnist Albert Deutsch, who had seen the film in London. Deutsch wrote that even Dickens "'could not make Fagin half so horrible,' and warned that the film would fan the flames of anti-Semitism." The New York Board of Rabbis appealed to Eric Johnston, head of the Production Code Administration, to keep the film out of the U.S. Other Jewish groups also objected, and the Rank Organization announced in September 1948, that U.S. release was "indefinitely postponed."[7]
As a result of such protests, the film was not released in the United States until 1951, with 12 minutes of footage removed.[8] It received great acclaim from critics, but, unlike Lean's Great Expectations, another Dickens adaptation, no Oscar nominations. The film was banned in Israel for antisemitism. It was banned in Egypt for portraying Fagin too sympathetically.[9]
The March 1949 release of the film in Germany was met with protests outside the Kurbel Cinema by Jewish objectors. The Mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, was a signatory to their petition which called for the withdrawal of the film. The depiction of Fagin was considered especially problematic in the recent aftermath of The Holocaust.[10]
Beginning in the 1970s, exhibitors began to show the full-length version of Lean's film in the United States. It is that version which is now available on DVD.
Reception
The film was the fifth most popular film at the British box office in 1948.[11][12] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1948 Britain was The Best Years of Our Lives with Spring in Park Lane being the best British film and "runners up" being It Always Rains on Sunday, My Brother Jonathan, Road to Rio, Miranda, An Ideal Husband, Naked City, The Red Shoes, Green Dolphin Street, Forever Amber, Life with Father, The Weaker Sex, Oliver Twist, The Fallen Idol and The Winslow Boy.[13]
The producer's receipts were £277,300 in the UK and £103,100 overseas.[2]
"...it is safe to proclaim that it is merely a superb piece of motion picture art and, beyond doubt, one of the finest screen translations of a literary classic ever made."[14]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 24 critics, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The site's critics' consensus reads:
"David Lean brings the grimy beauty of Charles Dickens' Victorian England to vivid cinematic life in Oliver Twist, a marvelous adaptation that benefits from Guy Green's haunting cinematography and Alec Guinness' off-kilter performance."[15]
Legacy
Author Marc Napolitano noted that Lean's version of Oliver Twist had an impact on almost every subsequent adaptation of Dickens's novel. The film had two major additions that were not in the original novel.[16] Of the opening scene, an idea that originated from Kay Walsh,[17] Napolitano wrote:
"The opening scene, which depicts the beleaguered and pregnant Agnes limping her way to the parish workhouse in the midst of a thunderstorm, presents a haunting image that would resonate with subsequent adaptors. Even more significantly, the finale to the Lean adaptation has eclipsed Dickens's own finale in the popular memory of the story; the climax atop the roof of Fagin's lair is breathtaking."
Songwriter Lionel Bart acknowledged that Lean's film "played a role in his conception" of the musical Oliver![16] Lean biographer Stephen Silverman referred to the 1968 film version of Oliver! as "more of an uncredited adaptation of the Lean film in story line and look than of either the Dickens novel or the Bart stage show."[1]
"One common complaint about the form of Dickens' Oliver Twist has been that the author fell so in love with his young hero that he could not bear to make him suffer falling into Fagin's hands a third time and so made him an idle spectator in the final half of the book."
Author Edward LeComte credited Lean for resolving the issue in his film version,[18]: 50 where Oliver remains "at the center of the action" and has a "far more heroic" role.[18]: 47
^ abcChapman, J. (2022). The Money Behind the Screen: A History of British Film Finance, 1945-1985. Edinburgh University Press p 354. Income is in terms of producer's share of receipts.
^ abNapolitano, Marc (2014). "Chapter 1 - Setting The Stage: Oliver Twist, Lionel Bart, and Cultural Contexts". Oliver!: A Dickensian Musical. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-936482-4.
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