Oliver Twist (1948)

What’s it about?
The old saying ‘originals are the best’ says it all for this restoration of the 1948 version of the film from the BFI National archive.

From the off the scene is set, skeletal branches, crows in the distance, clatter of thunder and torrential rain – you know no good’s going to come to the pregnant woman hammering on the Parish Workhouse doors.

I have to say the David Lean Foundation’s money was put to good use, it’s as if you are watching the picture as it must have been at its original release – crystal clear sound and sharp edged imagery gives us another chance to appreciate classic acting from Alec Guinness’ self-serving thug Fagin to the comical antics of Mr Bumble and his lady wife.

Book or film?
This sticks as close to Dickens’ text as you’ll find in any film adaptation with the added advantage of not having to wade through pages of florid 19th Century text which like me I know many find a turn off these days. You’re carried through the major episodes of Twist’s first 10 years of life at a gallop, through 3 ‘professions’ and dodging jail as circumstances combine to wrong foot all those conspiring to rob him of his birthright. But unlike the various terrible musical versions there have been since, it also conveys some of the depressing grimness and squalor of living conditions of the time that Dickens was so good at describing in his book. However due to the nature of the medium, the complexity and depth of many of the characters are only hinted at in the film; and you’ll need to ignore the odd anomaly of Twist’s distinctly plumby accent against his contemporaries’ raw cockney.

Good quotes:
Prosecutor: ‘The law assumes the lady of the house acts under the master’s direction’
Mr Bumble: ‘If the law assumes that, then the law is an ass’

Is it any good?
4 out of 5 . If classic literature isn’t to your taste this is a first class alternative.