{"id":828,"date":"2025-08-01T03:44:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=828"},"modified":"2026-08-25T15:19:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:19:46","slug":"oliver-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=828","title":{"rendered":"Oliver!-1968"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oliver! -1968<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Carol Reed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Mark Lester, Ron Moody<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #38<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #203<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"822391\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed December 10, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oliver! is a 1968 film based on Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, which was later adapted into a successful stage musical. Surprisingly, the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year.<\/p>\n

This is not because Oliver! is poor; it is magnificent, but no one predicted it would take home the honor.<\/p>\n

Telling the tale of the woeful orphan Oliver, the film comes across as a dark musical with a wholesome, happy-ending feel, largely because its musical compositions lend a cheerier tone.<\/p>\n

When the film begins, Oliver lives in a despicable orphanage outside of London. A drawing of straws forces meek Oliver to ask for more gruel.<\/p>\n

After being deemed a problem child, he is sold for cheap to an undertaker, where he is bullied. Defeated, Oliver makes his way towards the big city in hopes of finding his fortune.<\/p>\n

He then meets sinister characters such as Fagin, the Artful Dodger, and Bill Sikes, as well as the sympathetic Nancy and Mr. Brownlow.<\/p>\n

I love the musical numbers in the film, and for me, they are the film’s strongest aspect. The film would have been much darker without the musical numbers.<\/p>\n

Numbers such as “Consider Yourself”, “Food, Glorious Food”, and “As Long As He Needs Me” stick with audiences for days.<\/p>\n

The entertaining songs lighten the somber moments- as noted earlier, when meek Oliver dares to ask for more gruel, the enchanting “Food, Glorious Food” cannot help but be hummed along to, which lightens the mood of the scene.<\/p>\n

I also enjoy how the film contains the long-ago popular trend of containing two acts with an intermission in between- very grand and classy, and an aspect of the film I wish would return in today’s movies.<\/p>\n

The London art direction is magnificent, revealing a cold, industrial feel, mixed in with a warm, sunny atmosphere when Oliver stays at the palatial estate of Mr. Brownlow.<\/p>\n

The bright and enchanting musical number “Who Will Buy?” is the perfect backdrop for this setting and my favorite number.<\/p>\n

Nancy (Wallis) is one of the most complex characters- a prostitute, she happily sings, in denial about her life, in “It’s a Fine Life”, secretly wishing her life was better than it is.<\/p>\n

Later, conflicted over helping Oliver or standing by her man, she sings a melancholy number, “As Long As He Needs Me”, which cements her role as a tragic, sad character.<\/p>\n

However, as she leads a drunken barroom in a dance of “Oom-Pah-Pah”, the drama is thick when she attempts to help Oliver at the risk of putting her own life in severe jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Shani Wallis fills the character with heart and feeling.<\/p>\n

Oliver! is a much darker film than one might imagine.<\/p>\n

Curiously rated G, the film should have at least been rated PG. The film’s heart is that of a children’s movie- to me personally, a turn-off- but the film is much stronger than that.<\/p>\n

Some subject matters (like pedophilia) are toned down from Dickens’ novel, but not completely toned down.<\/p>\n

Examples: the novel made clear overtones of child abuse by the thieves led by Fagin, yet there is none of that in the film.<\/p>\n

Contrasting this, the film blatantly shows the brutal death of Nancy, albeit out of camera range, but the audience gets enough of a glimpse to ascertain what is happening.<\/p>\n

The shooting and swinging death of Bill Sikes borders on brutality.<\/p>\n

A glaring flaw is that Oliver’s voice is dubbed by a female singer rather than actor Mark Lester. To me, it’s pretty clear the voice isn’t male.<\/p>\n

Oliver Reed, nephew of director Carol Reed, convincingly plays Bill Sikes.<\/p>\n

Perfect around holiday time, Oliver! (1968) is a terrific musical drama to be enjoyed for eons to come.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: 5 wins<\/strong>-Best Picture (won)<\/strong>, Best Director-Carol Reed (won)<\/strong>, Best Actor-Ron Moody, Best Supporting Actor-Jack Wild, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Score of a Musical Picture-Original or Adaptation (won)<\/strong>, Best Sound (won)<\/strong>, Best Costume Design, Best Art Direction (won)<\/strong>, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing<\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations: 2 wins-<\/strong>Best Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical (won),\u00a0<\/strong>Best Director-Carol Reed, Best Actor-Comedy or Musical-Ron Moody (won),\u00a0<\/strong>Best Supporting Actor-Hugh Griffith, Best Original Score, New Star of the Year-Actor-Jack Wild<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oliver! -1968 Director Carol Reed Starring Mark Lester, Ron Moody Top 250 Films #38 Scott’s Review #203 Reviewed December 10, 2014 Grade: A Oliver! is a 1968 film based on Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, which was later adapted into a successful stage musical. Surprisingly, the film won the Academy Award for Best Picture that … Continue reading Oliver!-1968<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,42,12087,192,199,47,188,261,7530,7464,7465],"tags":[8073,489,8625,4907,2712,2715,9860,2711,5270,680,8967,2710,2713],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1968-films","category-bestpictureoscar","category-best-picture-musical-or-comedy-golden-globe-winners","category-dramas","category-childrensfilms","category-musicals","category-musicdramas","category-period-dramas","category-top-100-films","category-top-250-films","category-top-50-films","tag-38-favorite-films","tag-carol-reed","tag-harry-secombe","tag-hugh-griffith","tag-jack-wild","tag-joseph-oconor","tag-leonard-rossiter","tag-mark-lester","tag-megs-jenkins","tag-oliver-reed","tag-peggy-mount","tag-ron-moody","tag-shani-wallis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24216,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions\/24216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}