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Oliver Twist (1948) A Visually Stylistic Noir Dickens

"Noir Happens!"

Director David Lean (Hobson's Choice, The Bridge Over The River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia) . 

Witten by David Lean, Stanley Haynes, and Eric Ambler with contributions by Kay Walsh, and based on Charles Dicken's novel Oliver Twist. 

Cinematography was by Guy Green (Great Expectations), Music by Arnold Bax, and great Set Design by John Bryan

The film's cast has quite a few Brit Noir stars. Robert Newton (21 Days, Gaslight (Angel Street), Kiss The Blood Off My Hands, Odd Man Out, Temptation Harbor, The Hidden Room, Waterfront Women, Treasure Island) as Bill Sykes, Alec Guinness (The Lavender Hill Mob, The Ladykillers, Our Man in Havana) as Fagin, Kay Walsh (The October Man, The Stranger In Between, Cast a Dark Shadow) as Nancy, Francis L. Sullivan (Night And The City, Hell's Island) as Mr. Bumble and of course .John Howard Davies (The Rocking Horse Winner) as Oliver Twist. 

With Kathleen Harrison (Gaslight (Angel Street), Wanted For Murder, Temptation Harbor, Waterfront Women, Turn The Key Softly) as Mrs. Sowerberry, Gibb McLaughlin (No Orchids for Miss Blandish, Queen of Spades, Night And The City) as Mr. Sowerberry,  Henry Stephenson as Mr. Brownlow, Mary Clare as Mrs. Corney, Anthony Newley (The Small World of Sammy Lee) as Artful Dodger, Josephine Stuart as Oliver's Mother, Diana Dors (Tread Softly Stranger, Passport to Shame, The Long Haul, The Deep End) as Charlotte. 

A nice surprise, a Visually Stylistic Noir hiding in plain sight in one of Dickens's most popular works, and you could call it a Kids Noir too.

Story

The classic Dark night, Stormy night. Roughly 70 miles outside of 1830s London.

Dark clouds are rapidly closing off the small patch of sky. Wind gusts blow the last leaves of autumn off trees, and ripples the surface of a pond. An unwed pregnant woman, escaping from somewhere appears upon a rutted road at the crest of a hill. 

The young woman spots in the distance, the light from the parish workhouse, just as the skies open up and the rain pours down. She makes the gate and pulls the bell cord. 

A gate keeper comes out and helps her inside. 

We cut to a view of the exterior of the workhouse where the storm cloud passes revealing a full moon. Another cut brings us to a room where the young mother is laying upon a bed. her newborn baby on blankets on the floor beside her bed. 

Josephine Stuart as Oliver's Mother

She awakes long enough to be able to see her baby, have Old Sally, one of the workhouse matrons lift the baby up to her and kiss the boys cheek before dying. Old Sally can't help but notice a medallion around the mothers neck.

Old Sally grabs the locket and the baby and whisks both into the bowels of the workhouse.

Nine years later Mr. Bumble, the parish Beadle who manages the workhouse, collects the boy who Mr. Bumble has named Oliver Twist, and brings him to the parish council board members on his birthday for inspection.  

   Mary Clare as Mrs. Comey the Matron and Francis L. Sullivan as Mr. Bumble the         Beadle

John Howard Davies as Oliver Twist

One member hopes that Oliver prays every night for the board members who provide for his food and clothing. The Chairman insists he "be educated and taught a useful trade. 

They put Oliver to work picking oakum, its old tarred rigging rope that is repurposed as oakum caulking. 

We watch as Oliver and the other boys are fed a thin watery gruel, juxtaposed with shots of the boys watching through a barred window the council members feast on roast meats, potatoes, vegetables, and cake. 

The boys take straws and Oliver has drawn the unlucky short one. 

A the next meal, all the workhouse children watch silently when Oliver brings his empty bowl back to the porter and asks if he can have some more? 

"Please, sir, I want some more." 

"What?"

 Here we get the classic sequence where the porter bends down in Oliver's face and asks "What? with a quick cut to Mr. Bumble saying "What?," and then to the head of the parish council repeating "What." The outcome is that they decide to sell Oliver for £5 to apprentice. 

"What?"

Gibb McLaughlin as Mr. Sowerberry rt.

The buyer is Mr. Sowerberry a local undertaker.

Dianna Dors as Charlotte

Oliver goes to live with the Sowerberry's getting better food and sleeping in the coffin room under a bench. Also in the employ of the Sowerberry's are Charlotte and Noah Claypool.

Kathleen Harrison as Mrs Sowerberry

Michael Dear as Noah Claypool

Mr. Sowerberry decides that Oliver would make a good "mute" to lead a funereal processions for deceased children. 

Oliver as a Mute

It starts going Noirsville when after Noah taunts Oliver about his dead mother, Oliver jumps on Noah and starts beating on him, he also swings on Mrs Sowerberry and Charlotte but they manage to push Oliver in to a kitchen coal hole and latch the door. He starts up a loud pounding. 

They have Noah summon Mr, Bumble. 

Mr. Bumble approaches the latch door and announces himself, "Do you know who I am." Oliver shouts defiantly Yes, and  that he is not afraid.

When Mr Sowerberry returns, he pulls Oliver out of the coal hole, lays him over the edge of the table and gives Oliver a whipping, but he doesn't cry. 

That night Oliver packs some food in a scarf and escapes and heads for London.

We are at the 30 minute mark at this point. Enjoy the shadows below.

Noirsville

Anthony Newley as Artful Dodger

Alec Guinness as Fagin

Robert Newton as Bill Sykes

Kay Walsh as Nancy

Lean, Green, and Bryan combine their talents creating a heavily Visual Noir adaptation of Dickens. John Howard Davies is excellent as Oliver, Robert Newton a maniacally villainous Bill Sykes, and Alec Guinness is a hoot as Fagan with a gigantic beak for a nose. 10/10