Although Carol Reed’s Oliver! (1968) is perhaps the most popular adaptation, and the depiction of Fagin by Alec Guinness in Lean’s version has been problematic since the film’s release, there is much to admire and enjoy in this take on Dickens’s beloved second novel. Orphaned Oliver’s journey from workhouse to the streets of squalid, Victorian London, a city of frequent cruelty and injustice, as one of a gang of pickpockets is brought to vivid life by John Howard Davies (Oliver), Robert Newton (Bill Sykes), Kay Walsh (Nancy), and Anthony Newley (the Artful Dodger), and by the striking, German Expressionist-influenced cinematography.

Screening as part of The Films of David Lean season.