Oliver! [Blu-ray]

Director: Carol Reed Carol Reed

Overview

Inspired by Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, this film version of the musical hit does a masterful job of telling its story almost exclusively through song and dance. Once 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist falls in with such underworld types as pickpocket Fagin, it becomes necessary to inject more "straight" dialogue.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/11/2018
UPC:	0043396546462
Original Release:	1968
Rating:	G
Source:	Sony Mod
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:33:00
Sales rank:	19,417

Special Features

Behind-the-scenes featurette; Meeting Oliver!; Meeting Fagin!; The locations of Oliver!; Theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ron Moody	Fagin
Shani Wallis	Nancy
Oliver Reed	Bill Sikes
Harry Secombe	Bumble
Jack Wild	The Artful Dodger
Hugh Griffith	Magistrate
Joseph O'Conor	Mr. Brownlow,Actor
Leonard Rossiter	Sowerberry
Hylda Baker	Mrs. Sowerberry
Kenneth Cranham	Noah Claypole
Megs Jenkins	Mrs. Bedwin
Sheila White	Bet,Composer
Wensley Pithey	Dr. Grimwig
James Hayter	Mr. Jessop
Elizabeth Knight	Charlotte
Fred Emney	Chairman - Workhouse
Edwin Finn	Pauper - Workhouse
Roy Evans	Pauper
Graham Buttrose	Fagin's Boy
William Smith	Actor
Peter Locke	Fagin's Boy
Eric Rogers	Composer
Lionel Bart	Composer

Technical Credits

Vernon Harris

Carol Reed	Director
John Woolf	Producer
John Cox	Sound/Sound Designer
Bob Jones	Sound/Sound Designer
Vernon Harris	Screenwriter
Allan Bryce	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

It’s not uncommon for a literary classic to arrive on the screen muddled, mangled, or altered beyond recognition. And certainly this flamboyant, musical take on Oliver Twist expands on the source material. Yet, one can’t help but imagine that even Charles Dickens would savor the cinematic delight that is Oliver! right down to its titular exclamation point. Director Carol Reed, skillfully opening up Lionel Bart’s 1960 stage adaptation, wrests once-in-a-lifetime performances from his cast. Mark Lester stars as the workhouse waif who escapes the confines of his orphanage and falls in with a larcenous band of street urchins. His best pal is the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild), an impudent, cunning little rascal who is the right-hand man, so to speak, of wily old Fagin (Ron Moody in an Oscar-nominated performance). Lester is simultaneously mischievous and angelic as Oliver; Wild invests the Dodger with a self-assuredness far beyond his years; Moody portrays Fagin without the malignance usually associated with that character; and Oliver Reed plays Bill Sykes with all the menacing ferocity one expects of that unregenerate evildoer. The songs -- including “Food, Glorious Food,” “Consider Yourself,” “I’d Do Anything,” and “You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two” -- remain fresh and lively. Reed’s adroit handling of Vernon Harris’s screenplay doesn’t miss a beat. Every opportunity to punch up a scene is taken, and it’s hard to imagine how Oliver! could possibly have turned out better. The Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences had the same opinion, awarding the film six Oscars, including Best Picture of 1968. Some films retain their excellence but show their age. Oliver! isn’t one of them -- you’ll find it just as exhilarating today as audiences did back in the '60s.