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Movies / Upcoming / Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist

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Oliver Twist (1948)

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Reviews Counted:16

Fresh:16

Rotten:0

Average Rating:8.7/10

Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins

Genre: Dramas

US Box Office: $0

Synopsis: This lavish adaptation based on the Charles Dickens novel OLIVER TWIST is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by... This lavish adaptation based on the Charles Dickens novel OLIVER TWIST is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the Artful Dodger, a notorious scrounger, and he joins his household of young boys who are trained to steal for their master. The boys thieving activities, and others who desire to cash in on Oliver's fortune through criminal activities, leads to murder and community outrage as they are hunted down. This version is topped by Alex Guinness's masterly performance as the Artful Dodger's fence, that great misguided connoisseur of the gutter and archthug, Fagan. [More]

Starring: Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, Anthony Newley, Kay Walsh

Starring: Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, Anthony Newley, Kay Walsh, Francis L. Sullivan, Henry Stephenson, Mary Clare, John Howard Davies

Director: David Lean

Director: David Lean
Story: Charles Dickens
Producer: Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan
Screenwriter: David Lean, Stanley Haynes
Composer: Arnold Bax

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Oliver Twist

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1 - 18 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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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.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
01/16/09
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

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.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
03/25/08
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Alec Guinness as the master pickpocket Fagin is the high point of David Lean's 1948 version of the Dickens classic.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
11/06/07
Don Druker
Don Druker
Chicago Reader

From every angle this is a superb achievement.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
11/06/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Perhaps marginally less beguiling than Great Expectations, but still a moving and enjoyable account of Dickens' masterpiece.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out

Definitely the version to see before you subject yourself, say, to Polanski's bloated 2005 version.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
12/31/05
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

No review available.

comment Comment
11/06/05
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

Classic Dickens ... the definitive version. Please, sir, we want some more!

comment Comment
09/30/05
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
09/18/05
Boxoffice Magazine
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
08/14/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

No review available.

comment Comment
04/28/05
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat

No review available.

comment Comment
07/04/04
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

No review available.

comment Comment
06/23/04
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

The ultimate version of the Dickens novel.

comment Comment
10/01/03
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

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.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/30/03
TV Guide's Movie Guide

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.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/20/03
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Lean's black and white film plays much better on the screen than does Dickens' original text in high school literature classes.

Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | comment Comment
02/26/03
John A. Nesbit
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews

Charles Dickens' novel rendered on the screen by an ambitious filmmaker, David Lean, is a flawed film of visual and emotional power.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide
 
 
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