by MGM (Video & DVD)
Sales Rank: 13084
Price: $14.95
David Lean's 1948 version of Charles Dickens' classic novel begins with a bang: the young hero's pregnant mother fighting her way through a storm, a perfect metaphor for Oliver's difficult road ahead. Set in a world of slums in the shadow of Victorian England, the story traces the boy's life in a workhouse and then with a gang of little pickpockets. A stark but good-looking film shot around some impressive sets, Lean's immortal adaptation is perhaps best known for Alec Guinness's remarkable (and slightly controversial) performance as Fagin, the old mentor to the gang of boy thieves. <i>--Tom Keogh</i>
Viewer Reviews It's three must-see lessons in character-acting:
Anyone who thinks Alec Guiness can only play nice hasn't seen this. (Also must see KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS where he plays eight characters including an active guy in his early twenties, an old man frozen by Parkinsons' Disease and a woman.)
Robert Newton. Known for saying "Arrrrrrgh, Matey!" To see how incredibly versatile he was, compare this terrifying Sikes to his performance in Hitchcock's JAMAICA INN, where he plays what should be a flashy good-guy as a crashing bore.
Francis Sullivan uses fat comedically as well as anyone like Jackie Gleason or John Goodman. In fact the only better demonstration of the fat-guys' craft I can think of is Sydney Greenstreet. OK, Robert Morley too.
