Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the pickpocket ... See full summary »
Henry Hobson runs a successful bootmaker's shop in nineteenth-century Salford. A widower with a weakness for the pub opposite, he tries forcefully to run the lives of his three unruly ... See full summary »
Director:
David Lean
Stars:
Charles Laughton,
John Mills,
Brenda de Banzie
The middle-class family of a young woman cannot understand why she delays in marrying a respectable young man. They know nothing about her long-standing affair with a Frenchman.
Adapted from a play by Noel Coward, Charles and his second wife Ruth, are haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira. Medium Madame Arcati tries to help things out by contacting the ghost.
Director:
David Lean
Stars:
Rex Harrison,
Constance Cummings,
Kay Hammond
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.
Director:
David Lean
Stars:
Judy Davis,
Victor Banerjee,
Peggy Ashcroft
The Passionate Friends were in love when young, but separated, and she married an older man. Then Mary Justin meets Steven Stratton again and they have one last fling together in the Alps.
Noel Coward's attempt to show how the ordinary people lived between the wars. Just after WWI the Gibbons family moves to a nice house in the suburbs. An ordinary sort of life is led by the ... See full summary »
An adaptation of the classic Dickens tale, where an orphan meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. From there, he joins a household of boys who are trained to steal for their master.
Based on the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist is about an orphan boy who runs away from a workhouse and meets a pickpocket on the streets of London. Oliver is taken in by the pickpocket and he joins a household of young boys who are trained to steal for their master. This version of Oliver Twist is topped by Alec Guinness's masterly performance of arch-thug Fagin. Written by
Jenny Evans <J.Evans@uts.edu.au>
The film's release in the US was delayed until 1951 because of protests from Jewish pressure groups, who judged Alec Guinness's portrayal of Fagin to be anti-Semitic See more »
Goofs
When Oliver is in dock being tried for pick-pocketing, after the judge says "Oh stand away" the camera becomes an Oliver POV shot. Just before Oliver totally collapses he looks up to the ceiling, (and therefore so does the camera) briefly showing the full studio rafters, complete with lights, and the set microphone, and part of the "set ceiling". See more »
Quotes
Mr. Bumble:
Cry your hardest now, it opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes and softens down the temper. So cry away.
See more »
Charles Dickens and David Lean. What a combination; a novel by one of the greats of 19th century literature brought to film by one of the 20th century's best directors. Can't miss? You're right; David Lean's "Oliver Twist" is a great movie. The casting and acting is superb, every role a standout. I'd read "Oliver Twist" years ago, and watching the movie transported me back to the Victorian London of the novel. Alec Guinness is the perfect Fagin, after seeing this version I can't think of any other actor ever playing him. Bill Sikes, Nancy, Artful Dodger, Mr. Bumble, and of course Oliver. All perfect. The direction is without peer. The sets and cinematography resemble the best of German Expressionist work from the previous generation. Buildings at odd angles, light playing havoc with the dark shadows. I'm blathering....
My recommendation is to dig this up in the classics section of the video store and treat yourself to an oldie but a goodie.
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Charles Dickens and David Lean. What a combination; a novel by one of the greats of 19th century literature brought to film by one of the 20th century's best directors. Can't miss? You're right; David Lean's "Oliver Twist" is a great movie. The casting and acting is superb, every role a standout. I'd read "Oliver Twist" years ago, and watching the movie transported me back to the Victorian London of the novel. Alec Guinness is the perfect Fagin, after seeing this version I can't think of any other actor ever playing him. Bill Sikes, Nancy, Artful Dodger, Mr. Bumble, and of course Oliver. All perfect. The direction is without peer. The sets and cinematography resemble the best of German Expressionist work from the previous generation. Buildings at odd angles, light playing havoc with the dark shadows. I'm blathering....
My recommendation is to dig this up in the classics section of the video store and treat yourself to an oldie but a goodie.