Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- John Howard DaviesOliver Twist
- Robert NewtonBill Sykes
- Alec GuinnessFagin
- Kay WalshNancy
- Francis L. SullivanMr. Bumble
- Henry StephensonMr. Brownlow
- Mary ClareMrs. Corney
- Anthony NewleyArtful Dodger
- Ralph TrumanMonks
- Michael DearNoah Claypole
Recommendations
- 100
The New York Times
A superb piece of motion picture art and, beyond doubt, one of the finest screen translations of a literary classic ever made. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
The sets are as much a part of the story as the dialogue, and set designer John Bryan's work is effectively photographed by Guy Green. All the acting is first-rate, and there is not a false note from the cast. - 100
Variety
From every angle this is a superb achievement. - 80
Empire
Evocative and endearing - a worthy string to the Lean bow. - 80
Time Out
Perhaps marginally less beguiling than Great Expectations, but still a moving and enjoyable account of Dickens' masterpiece, which gets off to a memorable start with Oliver's pregnant mother battling through the storm to reach the safety of the workhouse. - 75
Chicago Reader
Alec Guinness as the master pickpocket Fagin is the high point of David Lean's 1948 version of the Dickens classic. - 75
LarsenOnFilm
It’s less impressionistic than Great Expectations and more starkly insistent—fitting for a work that doubles as a social tract about the mistreatment of children in England in the early 1800s. John Howard Davies, as Oliver, has a heartbreakingly fresh face, one that’s increasingly bewildered by the cruelty continually visited upon him. - 70
The New Yorker
In the person of Alec Guinness, Fagin the Viper, the corrupter of youth, has a sly, depraved charm.
