Review of Oliver Twist

Introduction

Before he became ‘the’ David Lean, the director who brought us ‘Laurence of Arabia’ and ‘Doctor Zhivago’ honed his talent directing two startling adaptations of the novels of Charles Dickens. First, in 1946, with ‘Great Expectations’ and then, two years later, Lean brought his unique approach to the story of the orphaned boy who just wanted a little bit more and alas ends up mucking it with a bunch of scraggly pickpockets, criminals and general undesirables in the suffocating mist of Victorian London.

Video

Like ‘The African Queen’ and just about all the other discs on Carlton’s Classics Collection, ‘Oliver Twist’ looks excellent given its age. The full-frame transfer has excellent contrast and good definition. Strangely, the darker a scene is, the better it looks.

Audio

An extremely basic mono track that is fairly clear, save a few moments that are a bit on the muddy side.

Features

A pretty good documentary that reveals such delights as Robert Newton’s frightening on-set alcohol abuse and some cool behind-the-scenes make-up tests with Alec Guinness. Apart from that it’s the basics all the way: animated photo gallery, trailer and cast/crew notes. The failure to stretch out to a commentary track is a constant annoyance.

Conclusion

A mostly excellent adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, with a ridiculously famous plot that scarcely requires outlining. However, Lean’s film benefits from the relatively infrequent interpretations of this particular novel compared to the well-worn likes of ‘Great Expectations’, lending the film an undeniable air of the ‘definitive.’ Naturally, all of the Dickensian trappings are present and correct (and they fit Lean like a glove): moral broad-strokes, brilliant melodrama, and the wonderful characterizations of tragic martyrs and brutish, banal villainy (here best personified by Newton’s genuinely terrifying Bill Sykes). If John Howard Davis’ Oliver does little more than gaze like a dazed doormouse, it’s more than made up for by Alec Guinness’ breathtaking transformation into a genuinely contagious looking Fagin, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Rasputin with a mild case of leprosy.

That said, it’s Guy Green’s overwrought but astounding camerawork that’s the real star here: lending the gothic, near expressionistic sets a pungent atmosphere and unforgettable sense of time and place. Indeed, combined with Lean’s penchant for sweeping cinematic gestures, the entire thing occasionally feels like sensory overload, unbalancing the story in favor of the sheer ambition of the presentation. So, if it’s not quite up to the standard of some of Lean’s later work (and certainly not as good as his masterful version of ‘Expectations’), it’s certainly a finer translation of the story than the diabolical musical version ‘Oliver!’, which, unbelievably, took just about all of the Oscars this version failed to get a sniff at.