Well Deserved Praise

Instant Favorite.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

"Oliver" a musical based on Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" is a truly wonderful movie. Even if you took away the words & music by Lionel Bart you would still have a very entertaining movie well worth watching but Mr. Bart's music turns this into something extraordinary. Mark Lester must know what a lucky boy he was to get the lead role but I am sure all of the cast have looked back on this movie with the fondest memories. Some of the musical numbers are just fabulous including my favourites "Who Will Buy", "Consider Yourself" & "You Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two", but every song is memorable. Worth mentioning, too, is Ron Moody as Fagin who is utterly magnificent & Shani Wallis as Nancy is also marvellous. Like Mark Lester, Jack Wild never got a better role in his life than the Artful Dodger & Oliver Reed was also memorably good as a very sinister Bill Sykes. This is just a fantastically entertaining movie.

Olive Twist (Mark Lester) is one of the many orphans working in the Dickensian workhouse. He asks for more gruel angering Bumble who sells him into servitude to Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker. Facing more punishment, he escapes to London where he meets the Artful Dodger. He's brought to old criminal Fagin, the leader of the gang of pickpocketing kids.It's a grand production with some great songs. The translation to the big screen worked out for this movie. It's a bit dark for a kids movie unlike 'Annie' or 'Wizard of Oz'. There is a darker moodiness in the story and music. It's still one of the great movie musicals and needs to be seen by lovers of the genre.

Going to today's movies feels like attending a barbaric assault on ones senses. There's the foul rotten language, the pervasive sex (heter, bi, trans and homo), the messages that 1) all humans are evil 2) the human condition is one of desperation and 3) the means justify the end. Oliver! transcends all of this with superb acting, script, direction and production. Oliver! is a masterpiece that will never die because its the epitome of quality. I went on line after seeing Oliver! and bought the Blu Ray disc off Amazon. It will now take a prominent position in my DVD collection. Thank you actors, directors, writers and producers for bringing the viewing public a reminder of how good movies can truly be, even when its this rare.

O.K., you could make it darker. You could "Sweeney Todd" it up and have Bill Sikes be exactly like that throat slicer who had the victims then turned into meat pies. But what they did with the film version of the 1960 London musical (brought to Broadway in 1963) is keep it faithful to that source, if not the original Charles Dickens novel with all the controversy of so-called anti-Semitism.Sweet little orphan Oliver (Mark Lester) wins the dare to ask for "more!" and when he does, he is throunced, bounced, and sold to a flustered undertaker named Sowerberry. Too sauced to save his purchase, Sowerberry sleeps it off in a coffin while Oliver beats up the older assistant Noah. Oliver escapes to London, meets up with the Artful Dodger (Jack Wild), and is soon off to see the Wizard of Pickpocketing, the hawk-nosed Fagin (Ron Moody), a lovable old codger of thievery with a few tricks up his sleeve. Fagin's co-horts, Bill and Nancy Sikes (Oliver Reed and Shani Wallis) both have different ideas of what to do with Oliver, but first they must get him back from the rich man who saved Oliver from being accused of picking his pocket.Musically, this is exciting, from the pleading "Food, Glorious, Food!" to the touching "Where is Love?" in the beginning, exploding into big city joy in the London-set "Consider Yourself", and then music hall glory with Wallis's loving Nancy singing such showstoppers as "It's a Fine Life!" and "Oom-Pah-Pah!".Title character Oliver is visually perfectly cast with the diminutive Mark Lester who has the right innocence for him with a touch of toughness when he needs to bring that out. Lester, seemingly dubbed with a high-pitched singing voice, does what he can to make the character not pitiable, but oh, that singing voice. Harry Secombe is an unforgettable Mr. Bumble, Moody a joy as that rascal Fagin who teaches his boys "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two!". Wild and Wallis shine with "I'd Do Anything", and the ensemble of "Who Will Buy?" is a huge production number that keeps the joy coming.All in all, there is nothing to complain about in this production, the right songs cut from the original and even the smallest parts perfectly cast with perfect visuals from the book. Once you see this (again and again) you will also see the similarities to another big stage musical, the Manhattan set "Annie", which also deals with an orphan trying to find her legacy and dealing with crooks in the meantime. Both shows have dogs, but Bill Sikes' pooch in "Oliver!" is a lot more nefarious looking than Sandy from "Annie".