“OLIVER TWIST”

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 38, 7 January 1949, Page 3

“OLIVER TWIST”

The novel “Oliver Twist,” proved ideal , film material, as it contains adventure and excitement. Director David Lean and Producer Ronald Neame, who were also responsible for the very successful screen version of “Great found that their biggest problem in making the film was to find characters as described by Dickens. It took months to find a suitable boy to play Oliver. John Howard Davies, the final choice, has great acting ability and conforms to Dickens’ description of “a pale, thin child, mininutive in stature and decidedly small in circumference . . . but with a good sturdy spirit in his breast.” Weeks of exhaustive and. careful research lie behind the detail and accuracy of every aspect of life in early nineteenth century London, described in the film. Although Dickens does not mention a date anywhere in his novel, his accounts leave no doubt that he was writing of his own times, particularly the 1830’s. The County Hall Library at Westminster yielded informative watercolours of London’s underworld, and admission and discharge registers for many English work-houses. Ancient newspapers and magazines provided an invaluable guide to London life at that time. This extensive research work was a tiring and, at .times, a little disheartening, but those who undertook the job have the satisfaction of seeing the result «f their labours in the faultless accuracy and intensity of atmosphere with which Dickens’s outstanding novel has been brought to the screen. The story tells of Oliver’s birth at the workhouse; of his life there; of how, after he runs away, he falls in with a gang of pickpockets; of how he meets the kindly Mr Brownlow, who takes him into his home; of how Qliver is brought back to the gang by Sikes and Nancy, and the treatment he receives while there; of how Nancy, disgusted with the actions of Sikes and Fagin, tells Mr Brownlow where Oliver is, and promises to bring him back; of Nancy’s death, and the round-up of the pickpocket gang and the capture of Fagin by the police; and finally, of Oliver’s re-union with Mr Brownlow, who turns out to be his grandfather.

“Oliver Twist” is at present being screened in New Zealand.