Oliver Twist (1948)
Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 0
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 8,357
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Movie Info
The second of director David Lean's adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel (Great Expectations (1946) was the first), Oliver Twist expertly boils down an enormous novel to a little less than two hours' screen time. The film begins with baby Oliver left on the doorstep of an orphanage/workhouse by his unwed mother. Proving a difficult charge to the wicked orphanage official, Oliver (John Howard Davies) is sold into a job as an undertaker's apprentice. He runs away and joins a gang of larcenous
Jul 30, 1951 Limited
Jan 12, 1999
United Artists
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Cast
-
Robert Newton
Bill Sikes -
Alec Guinness
Fagin -
Kay Walsh
Nancy Sikes -
Francis L. Sullivan
Mr. Bumble -
John Howard Davies
Oliver Twist -
Anthony Newley
Artful Dodger -
Mary Clare
Mrs. Corney -
Ralph Truman
Monk -
Josephine Stuart
Oliver's Mother -
Gibb McLaughlin
Mr. Sowerberry -
Kathleen Harrison
Mrs. Sowerberry -
Amy Veness
Mrs. Bedwin -
W.G. Fay
Bookseller -
Maurice Denham
Chief of Police -
Ivor Barnard
Chairman of the Board -
Diana Dors
Charlotte -
Hattie Jacques
Singer -
Frederick Lloyd
Mr. Grimwig -
Edie Martin
Annie -
Henry Stephenson
Mr. Brownlow -
Peter Bull
Landlord of "Three Crip... -
Henry Edwards
Police Official -
Michael Dear
Noah Claypole -
Kenneth Downey
Workhouse Master -
Deirdre Doyle
Mrs. Thingummy -
Maurice Jones
Workhouse Doctor -
-
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All Critics (19) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (0) | DVD (6)
Alec Guinness as the master pickpocket Fagin is the high point of David Lean's 1948 version of the Dickens classic.
From every angle this is a superb achievement.
Perhaps marginally less beguiling than Great Expectations, but still a moving and enjoyable account of Dickens' masterpiece.
Top CriticIt 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.
It's Lean's direction that makes the production really pop. It's relentless, but fluid and deft, keeping us on our toes rather than wallowing in misery.
Despite compression of characters and charges of Alec Guinness' anti-Semitic potrayal of Fagin, David Lean's version is still the most dramatically compelling, historically atmopsheric, and flawlessly acted.
Definitely the version to see before you subject yourself, say, to Polanski's bloated 2005 version.
Classic Dickens ... the definitive version. Please, sir, we want some more!
The ultimate version of the Dickens novel.
Many of the novel's characters have been excised or compressed to fit the time frame of the film, but only the most die-hard Dickensians will protest.
Lean's black and white film plays much better on the screen than does Dickens' original text in high school literature classes.
...the film's merits are generous enough to compensate for its author's longwinded prose.
Charles Dickens' novel rendered on the screen by an ambitious filmmaker, David Lean, is a flawed film of visual and emotional power.
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Foreign Titles
- Oliver Twist (DE)
- Oliver Twist (1948) (UK)
