Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist is a 1948 British film and the second of David Lean's two film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. Following his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his adaptation of Dickens' 1838 novel, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan, cinematographer Guy Green, designer John Bryan and editor Jack Harris. Lean's then-wife, Kay Walsh, who had collaborated on the screenplay for Great Expectations, played the role of Nancy. John Howard Davies was cast as Oliver, while Alec Guinness portrayed Fagin and Robert Newton played Bill Sykes (Bill Sikes in the novel).
Plot
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.
More details
| author | David Lean |
|---|---|
| contentLocation | England |
| director | David Lean |
| editor | Jack Harris |
| genre | drama |
| keywords | arrest baby boy belong betray evil plot force how to learn mysterious man pregnant woman rescue trying to escape |
| musicBy | Arnold Bax |
| producer | Anthony Havelock-Allan Ronald Neame |
| productionCompany | Cineguild |
| publisher | General Film Distributors |
| recordedAt | Pinewood Studios |