OLIVER! (1968) C widescreen 153m dir: Carol Reed

w/Ron Moody, Shani Wallace, Oliver Reed, Harry Secombe, Mark Lester, Jack Wild, Hugh Griffith, Joseph O'Connor, Peggy Mount, Leonard Rossiter

Adapted from the novel, Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens and the the smash hit theatrical musical by Lionel Bart, this is the classic tale of the luckless orphan and his adventures.

From The Movie Guide: "Sweetened Dickens, a contradiction in kind. If the works of Charles Dickens have their moments of sentiment, they're well-earned, thanks to the savagry [sic] and deprivation abundant in the master storyteller's plots. Here, Carol Reed tries to balance the story elements by rendering the story as a fable; the moments of tenderness are intellectualized. Given that Oliver! could easily get that perfunctory cuteness that packs the matinees with old ladies, it's a wise move. But being English himself and probably knowing Dickens better than we do, why didn't Carol Reed restore the Dickensian flavor that could give OLIVER! some bite? ...

"OLIVER! is better than most screen musicals of the 1960s, a period when oversized, poorly rendered songfests virtually killed the genre. The score, while hardly immortal, is well served by the actors and Oliver Reed for once found a character he could sink his loathsome self into."

OLIVER! won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Art Direction, Sound, Scoring of a Musical Picture, and an Honorary Award to Onna White for her choreography. The film was also nominated for Best Actor (Moody), Supporting Actor (Wild), Adapted Screenplay (Vernon Harris), Cinematography (Oswald Morris), Costume Design, and Editing.