Oliver!

It’s hard to believe that Oliver! was the last time a musical won the Best Picture Oscar until 2002’s Chicago took the world by storm, but that is indeed the case. Oliver!, the lavish and sometimes overly indulgent production, based on a stage musical that was in turn based on a Charles Dickens novel, stole the show and was crowned the best movie for the year 1968. Looking at the other nominations for that year, one could easily make the case that the competition was not the strongest, but the case can also be made that Oliver! would have won even against stronger films. Looking back on it, it is big in scale, lavish in its production, and a near-perfect reflection on what the movies can be when nearly everything is firing at full capacity. The one major weak point, and it is a big one, is shot around quite deftly to minimize the negative effects, but there is only so much that can be done when one of the performers is not up to the task. I will elaborate more about that later. 

Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress, was only the second novel by Charles Dickens. Like much of his work, it was published monthly and then later compiled into a full-length novel. When reading it nowadays, you can see how critical response shaped some of the narrative. The character of Fagen, for instance, is a very racist depiction of a Jewish man and is almost entirely referred to as The Jew for much of the early chapters. This was softened later in the book where he begins to be referred to by his actual name. Dickens, himself, claims there was no racial intent in the writing of the character, but that is hard to believe with the way it is written. With the negative reception that character was receiving at the time, it would be hard not to believe that Dickens didn’t make changes mid-story to appease the masses. 

Like many of Dickens’ novels, Oliver Twist was adapted for the cinemas early on in motion picture history. The first such adaptation was in 1909 as a silent production that ran less than 14 minutes. It was adapted twice in 1912, once in America and once in Britain, then again in 1916, 1919, and in 1922; all of these adaptations as silent films. Once sound entered the picture, a new version was produced in 1933, followed by a David Lean version fifteen years later starring Alec Guinness, bringing all the negative Jewish stereotypes back into the character of Fagin. After all of these adaptations, and a few more in other media formats, Lionel Bart, an English writer and composer, created his own version, this time for the stage. 

Bart was instrumental in the 1960s for helping give birth to the British musical theatre scene after an era where American musicals had been dominating the West End. Not enough credit can be given to his work in this endeavor, including his sole writing and composing credits for Oliver!. It would be his biggest success, earning him a small fortune. With that success on the stage, it wasn’t long before movie studios became interested in adapting it for the big screen.

Casting calls were sent out, with Peter Sellers originally cast as Fagen. This would fall through though over a disagreement behind the scenes saw Sellers walk off the project. Mark Lester took on the role of Oliver Twist, but this would prove to be a bit of a head-scratching choice as he had no musical experience, couldn’t hold a tune and had to be dubbed, and struggled heavily with the choreography. It seems inconceivable that he was the best choice for the role out of all the kids with more experience in musical theater. Jack Wild joined the cast from the stage, in a different role and Oliver Reed, who was related to the director, was cast in spite of that and without the director’s advance knowledge. With the exception of Lester, every one of the main cast is simply perfect for their roles.

When the film opens up, it becomes instantly obvious that what we are seeing is a filmed stage musical. This is not meant to be a slight by any means. The film opens with a musical overture over a black screen, much like you would get in live theater leading up to the raising of the curtain. The same will happen during the intermission, but, like the best stage musicals translated for the screen, everything is opened up well beyond the limitations of the stage while at the same time evoking the feel of that self-same stage. Everything is bigger and grander, especially the streets of the city, which was an elaborate stage so vast it makes you forget this isn’t really the streets of Dunstable, and later London. 

We open on a workhouse where orphan children are put to work grinding up grain, being fed gruel while their masters enjoy lavish feasts. When the boys draw straws to see who will approach their master, Mr. Brumble (Harry Secombe), and ask for more food, Oliver Twist (Mark Lester) gets the task. This does not go over well, and he ends up being taken out of the workhouse and sold to a mortician as a laborer. When that doesn’t work out, Oliver escapes and makes his way to London. There he meets Artful Dodger (Jack Wild), who introduces him to Fagen (Ron Moody) and his little gang of young pickpockets. He also meets Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed), a young man who was once one of Fagen’s boys but has grown up and moved on to breaking and entering. Sikes’ girlfriend, Nancy (Shani Wallis), is beloved by the young boys, but her life with Bill is a hard one full of abuse and possibly even prostitution.

On his first day out with the boys, Oliver is caught, suspected of trying to pickpocket a rich man, and is caught by the police. Sikes and Fagen assume the boy will squeal to the police, and a plan is put in place to snatch him back. But Oliver is instead found innocent of the crime and taken in by the man whose wallet was taken. This man, Brownlow (Joseph O’Conor), wants to do right by the boy and suspects that he may be the biological child of his long-lost niece, Emily. This is later confirmed by Mr. Brumble and his wife, but not before Oliver is kidnapped away again by Sikes. 

Oliver! The play was an immense hit. Even so, it was a huge gamble to invest as much money as Columbia Pictures did into moving it to the big screen. $10 million was a massive investment for a single picture in the late 1960s. All of that money is on-screen, though. It can be seen in the elaborate street sets of London, a depth of realism that couldn’t be achieved through conventional set dressings on the real streets of the city. The musical numbers are also equally impressive, with some of the songs incorporating hundreds of extras, so many that the camera cannot help but pull back just to impress you with the sheer scope of it all. This is one of the rare musicals that truly earned the exclamation point applied to most filmed musicals of the time. 

Through all of this, though, the weak link is Mark Lester in the title role. He’s not terrible, but the lead role in a musical, whether it be on stage or in a movie theater, needs to be able to sell the vocals. It becomes painfully obvious that Lester does not have a singing voice and that he had to be dubbed by Kathe Green, the daughter of the music director. On top of that, Mark is not a compelling actor in this, being completely overshadowed by those around him, especially Jack Wild, who steals the stage from everyone, especially Lester. There are whole scenes where director Carol Reed is having to employ every trick in the book to get a performance out of him, including the use of freshly chopped onions to induce tears. It never ruins the film, but it calls attention to itself far too often. For such a pivotal role as this, this is simply inexcusable. 

Ron Moody played Fagen on stage initially. When he took over the role for the screen from Peter Sellers, he softened some of the anti-Semitic edges the play had, making his character much more sympathetic than he was in the original book. Ron was reluctant to reprise his role from the stage, viewing the character as far too sinister for his liking. The final results speak for themselves. This Fagen is far more concerned for the well-being of his boys than the original character was. He sees them as fellow humans struggling to make a go at it in the world, and he takes care of them however he can. Moody looks the part, too, hiding underneath a lot of make-up to make him look much older, betrayed only by how spry on his feet he is in some of his musical numbers.

The film has more than its fair share of show-stopper productions, as is common with big, bombastic stage musicals. You can almost feel the need to applaud at the end of each of these as the film takes just a second to pause after each of these. On top of that, most of the songs here can stand up on their own without the benefit of the film proper. Many of today’s musicals feature songs that falls flat without the atmosphere of the live theater; not so with Oliver! These songs have stood the test of time and carry the film rather than slow it down. 

Oliver! is one of the best stage-to-screen adaptations ever made. It never hides the fact that it is a stage musical, but it also doesn’t allow that to limit the scope of the production. So many of these kinds of movies feel they either need to reinvent the wheel or cannot figure out how to properly open up the production to the larger canvas. Oliver! manages to stay true to its roots while also giving audiences visuals and spectacle that couldn’t exist on the stage. True, it’s not the same experience as going to a live production, but no film can properly replicate that. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: John Woolf (won)

Best Director: Carol Reed (won)

Best Actor: Ron Moody

Best Supporting Actor: Jack Wild

Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Vernon Harris

Best Art Direction: John Box, Terrence Marsh, Vernon Dixon, and Ken Muggleston (won)

Best Cinematography: Oswald Morris

Best Costume Design: Phyllis Dalton

Best Film Editing: Ralph Kemplen

Best Score of a Musical Picture - Original or Adaptation: Johnny Green (won)

Best Sound: Buster Ambler, John Cox, Jim Groom, Bob Jones, and Tony Dawe (won)

Honorary Academy Award: Onna White (Honored)

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Release Date: September 26, 1968

Runtime: 153 Minutes

Rated G

Starring: Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Harry Secombe, Shani Wallis, Mark Lester, and Jack Wild

Directed by: Carol Reed