Oliver! (film)
Oliver! is a
1968 musical film directed by
Carol Reed and based on the stage musical
Oliver!. Both the film and play are based on the famous
Charles Dickens novel
Oliver Twist.
The film used a mixture of young unknowns and 'big names':
Ron Moody (
Fagin),
Oliver Reed (
Bill Sikes),
Harry Secombe (Mr Bumble),
Mark Lester (Oliver),
Jack Wild (
Dodger),
Shani Wallis (
Nancy) and
Joseph O'Conor as Mr Brownlow. There was a minor outcry when Shani Wallis was given the role of Nancy in preference to
Georgia Brown.
The movie was adapted by Lionel Bart and
Vernon Harris, and directed by Sir
Carol Reed, who was also Oliver Reed's uncle. A few of the songs from the stage production were not used in the movie, but most of them were included. The film also included extended choreography sequences not found in the original show, and some additional dialogue scenes which expanded the role of
Bill Sikes, who, in the stage version, did not even make his entrance until the second act. The songs that Sikes sang in the play were omitted, so that actor
Oliver Reed had an opportunity to play the frightening Sikes as Dickens created him, and not as played in the watered-down characterization of the stage version.
Oliver! won the 1968
Academy Award for
Best Picture. It was the last
G-rated film to be so honored, though if the film were released today it would probably receive a
PG rating because of the violence that Bill shows toward Nancy - it was much easier in 1968 for films with no foul language or on-screen sex to receive G-ratings, despite having some violence. (Ironically, the following year saw the first and only
X-rated film to win a Best Picture Oscar:
Midnight Cowboy, though today, the once-controversial
Midnight Cowboy would probably be rated R.)
Oliver! also won Oscars for
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration,
Best Director,
Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation), and
Best Sound. It was nominated for
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Ron Moody),
Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jack Wild),
Best Cinematography,
Best Costume Design,
Best Film Editing and
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
The film was the last musical to win the
Best Picture Oscar until
Chicago was named Best Picture - more than thirty years after
Oliver!
