Trailer
Plot summary
Born in a parish workhouse, Oliver Twist grows up on gruel under the beadle Mr. Bumble and the matron Mrs. Corney. When he asks the master for more, Mr. Bumble sells the boy to the undertaker Abel Sowerberry, where the apprentice Noah Claypole torments him. Oliver runs away and walks seven days to London, and there the young pickpocket the Artful Dodger brings him to Fagin, who trains boys to steal. Sent out with Dodger and Charlie Bates, Oliver is seized for a handkerchief he did not take, and the gentleman who lost it, Mr. Brownlow, brings the sick boy home.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Oliver Twist (1948)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Make-up artist Stuart Freeborn suggested to David Lean that Fagin's exaggerated profile be toned down for fear of causing offense, but Lean rejected the idea. A screen test in toned-down make-up made Guinness resemble Jesus Christ, so Lean kept a faithful reproduction of Cruikshank's Fagin.
- After Jewish groups objected, the Rank Organization announced in September 1948 that the film's U.S. release was "indefinitely postponed"; it was not released in the United States until 1951, with 12 minutes of footage removed.
- The film was banned in Israel for antisemitism, and British Occupation censoring authorities in Egypt banned it for portraying Fagin too sympathetically.
- The film's March 1949 release in Germany drew protests from Jewish objectors, and the Mayor of Berlin, Ernst Reuter, was a signatory to their petition calling for its withdrawal.
