Oliver Twist (1948)
Director: David Lean
Charles Dickens’ early work of the poor orphan boy finds its
first motion picture adaption in the hands of British filmmaker David Lean,
producing a beautifully composed product with a good share of controversy. Like
any movie adaptation, the story would be altered slightly, but its result was
one of the best loved pictures out of the United Kingdom’s cinematic history,
and is strongly considered the finest adaption of the Dickens novel. Starring beloved
British character actor Robert Newton and a stage actor who was becoming Lean’s
favorite performer in film, Alec Guinness, this picture embodies the soul of
the original work and would inspire nearly most the future adaptions that have
been observed since.
Oliver Twist is a
drama about a young orphan boy who flees from abusive caretakers finding
himself mixed in with a fiendish man and his world of crime. Young Oliver (John
Howard Davies), orphan of a nameless girl who died giving birth at a parish
workhouse, finding himself ill treated by those that run the orphanage and the
undertaker he was to apprentice runs away to the streets of London. There he
meets the Artful Dodger (Anthony Newly), a crafty pickpocket, who recruits him
his band of swindlers led by the greedy older Jewish man named Fagin (Alec Guinness).
A mix up lands Oliver caught and warmly taken in by a kindly and prosperous
older gentleman named Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson). Fagin, along with his
associate Bill Sykes (Robert Newton), in fear of Oliver exposing their crime syndicate
feel they must kidnap the young boy back. Through a series of dangerous and
deadly confrontations with the orphan it is discovered Oliver’s long hidden parentage,
revealing Brownlow to be his grandfather in the film’s happy ending.
What is so great about this picture is that this adaption
lacks the overly dialogue driven story that so many other adaptions of lengthy
novels usually inherited. David Lean shares the story primarily through
visuals, body language, atmosphere, and mood to deliver the drama and conflict
of this frightened young boy yearning for paternal love. If one was not
familiar with the source material this picture very well could have been mistaken
as completely new material, because this film lacks the forced nature of forcing
too much into the limited running time. The fresh acting of newcomer child
actor John Howard Davies, along with the cinematography and editing this
feature presents a motion picture based around moods that is so refreshingly
different from usual adaptations of famed works that appear to be more running
off checklists of important moments from its prior popular work.
Coming off the success of 1946’s Great Expectation, also an adaption of a Dickens novel, David Lean
was looking to repeat the successful formula as his directorial career was escalating
as a writer/director following his days as a successful editor. Having a role
in penning the screenplay allowed him to rely more on his visuals. We can
observe how his past as an editor influences his creative choices with as the
film forms together so effortlessly where every shot has its purpose with
wonderful timing that one with editing knowledge would understand. With the
opening scene alone manifests the skill of the filmmaker in this sense of mood
and timing. Shared entirely without dialogue a young lady, revealed to be
Oliver’s mother, finds her way to a parish and gives birth to Oliver where each
shot is in its own ways simple, but at the same evoke heavy emotions with a
character we have just met and know nothing about. Complete with heavy use of
shadows, weather effects, acting, mood, and compelling timing this opening
could be a short subject in itself, but is only the prologue to the story about
to unravel. David Lean gets it right from the first frame in this picture.
Despite this film being a work of Dickens it does not feel
like it is confined by the style of a preconceived Dickens universe. I mean
this in a completely positive manner as the characters lack the need of cockney
overplaying of Dickens characters many naïve American viewers may be accustomed
to. That is not to say these is not some, because there definitely is. Rather,
the use of cockney English characters just seems to fall perfectly in line with
the cast of characters hat all appear well rounded and diverse. Robert Newton,
one of the very finest British character actors of his day, embodies the drive
of Sykes instead of appearing as the stereotype, something he would do in one
of his most well-known works Treasure
Island a few years later. Many “smaller” roles may be flatter in nature,
simple representations of simpler characters played by the likes of Henry
Stephenson or Kay Walsh. Walsh, who portrays Sykes girlfriend Nancy, shares
compassion for Oliver in her simpleton way, and despite her rather short time
on screen appears as a well-rounded character in the film.
In the role of Oliver we have 9 year old child actor John
Howard Davies in his first motion picture role. His career on screen would
exist just a few short years, but he proves to be just innocent enough and just
aware enough to pull off the important performance needed of a child actor in a
story centered on a him. Personally I see similar qualities between Davies performance
with that of Ivan Jandl’s in The Search.
Both children were not trained actors by any means, which actually aided them in
delivering their natural performances in their respective roles. What makes Davies’
performance stand out from Jandl’s is that he actually spoke the language he
was performing in and conveys a performance that is believable as Oliver,
instead of a child looking to just hit his marks and speak his lines when told
to.
The most grand performance of the picture, and so happens to
be the most controversial element of the production, was the portrayal of Fagin
by Alec Guinness. Guinness, a stage actor who was introduced to the screen with
great acclaim in David Lean’s prior picture Great
Expectations, portrayed Fagin in the tradition that was beginning to be
seen as behind the times, or a stereotype. Complete with the exaggerated nose,
beard, and rag clothing stereotypical of an elder Jew who was written as a
greedy trickster the character and his portrayal was considerably politically
incorrect. For many viewers you may not even realize this actor was the great
Alec Guinness generations would come to admire in the cinema for he absolutely
transforms himself into the role. However this kind of portrayal of a Jew, especially
after World War II was a highly sensitive mockery of a race of people. This
critical result would cause great issue with many censors and would hold the
picture from being distributed in many counties for years, including the United
States where after some editing around Fagin in a few scenes it would finally
be released stateside three years later in 1951.
In any case Oliver
Twist would be the most popular British feature of 1948, greatly praised by
Dickens enthusiasts even with slight alterations to the plot, most notably
making Brownlow Oliver’s grandfather instead of a man simply connected to his
discovered family. In England the picture was so well loved it would in
nominated for the BAFTA for Best Picture. Today the film remains one of
Britain’s most praised cinematic works, nearly universally praised for its
filmmaking and acting even with its controversial elements. I would highly
recommend the film for David Lean’s wonderful cinematography, script, and
editing as this picture does a superlative job at delivering a classic work in
a style that is riveting and easy to watch.
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