Great Britain

Charles Dickens' monumental novel comes brilliantly to life in this definitive screen version directed by perfectionist David Lean. Oliver Twist, (John Howard Davies), orphaned at birth, raised in the workhouse, fed on stale bread and gruel, is expelled for daring to ask the Beadle (Francis L Sullivan) for more food. Unhappily apprenticed to an undertaker, Oliver escapes to London, where he meets the cheeky Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley), the villainous Fagin (Alec Guinness), the agressive [sic] Bill Sykes (Robert Newton) and the kindly but doomed Nancy (Kay Walsh). Torn constantly the forces of good and evil, Oliver eventually seals his fate by picking the pocket of a rich gentleman (Henry Stephenson) who turns out to be his grandfather. And so, as Fagin and Sykes get their respective come-uppances, Oliver, his true identity at last revealed, settles to his new-found fortune and prepares to live happily ever after.