Oliver! (1968)
Too gruel for school
Oy, ‘ello, and pip pip, dear readers! If you’ve ever found yourself saying “please, may I have some more [ILTBTA]?”, well then, consider yourself in luck! Unlike those tightwads at the workhouses, we’re here to give you the what for about our latest movie: Oliver! Hang onto your wallets and read on!
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: When I was a kid, I did this theatre camp focused on musicals. It wasn’t
particularly intense, just a day camp, but one of the songs we learned was “Consider Yourself” from Oliver!
Tyler: Meanwhile when I was a kid I watched Oliver & Company, so I’ve basically seen this, right? I do know that this is where the “Please sir I want some more?” meme comes from, though.
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): After being sold to the mortician Sowerberry, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by their elderly mentor Fagin in 1830s London in this musical based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
At a workhouse in Dunstable, England, orphans are served their daily gruel. They hate the gruel as much as they need it. They even sing a song about how much they’d like real food. It’s bleak out here, folks! Some boys draw lots, and our boy Oliver Twist draws the tangled string. He thus approaches the stern Mr. Bumble and the Widow Corney to ask for more. These horrible adults have never heard something so outrageous, and Bumble takes Oliver to the governors for punishment and then parades him through the streets to sell him as an apprentice.
As Oliver’s grim march continues through the town, Bumble’s price for him gets lower and lower. Eventually, Oliver is sold for a mere seven guineas1 to Mr. Stowerberry, an undertaker specializing in “cheap funerals.” Things go okay for a little while until the other apprentice insults Oliver’s mother! Oliver loses it and retaliates, and he’s locked in the cellar as a result. Luckily, a window grate is unlocked, and Oliver escapes and starts hitchhiking, walking, and old-timey skitching his way to London.
The wide-eyed Oliver reaches London and is like “wowow, look at this place … uh, where do I sleep?” Lucky (?) for Oliver, he comes across an older kid named Jack, aka Artful Dodger. Dodger takes to the wide-eyed Oliver immediately for not entirely noble reasons. He goes to great pains to assure Oliver that he’s basically family now, and he takes the innocent transplant to his hideout for young pickpockets. The leader and instructor of the pack is an older gentleman named Fagin. The crew seems initially unsure if Oliver is a mark or compatriot, leading to some confusing double talk about “making wallets” and “laundry” even after they’ve clearly been singing about stealing for the past four minutes2.
Ellen: I could almost physically feel Tyler’s patience draining the longer “Consider Yourself” went on. It’s a fun song, but perhaps the radio edit could have done us some good here.
Tyler: You would be correct. Literally every single song seems about 20% too long and too “much,” which I’ve learned is the true hallmark of a stage adaptation that’s a bit too faithful to the text.
Bill Sikes has been name-dropped several times as a king among thieves, and Fagin meets up with him after the boys are asleep. Bill and his faithful pup Bullseye bring their ill-gotten gains for Fagin to fence. The vibes between the men are cordial enough, but neither fully trusts the other. Meanwhile there’s Bill’s girlfriend Nancy, who’s basically mayor of the bar and totally in love with the thief. He … tolerates her. Fagin brings the loot back to the hideout and squirrels a little bit away in a hideyhole for insurance in his old age, which Oliver clocks but assures Fagin he didn’t.
Ellen: Nancy is out here fully looking like Redd from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
In the morning, Nancy arrives at the hideout to collect Bill’s money, and Fagin cheerfully sends the boys out for a day of pickpocketing. Oliver is sent out with Dodger and Charley Bates. He observes as Dodger yoinks a wallet from the wealthy Mr. Brownlow, who mistakes Oliver as the culprit! A merry chase ensues, and Oliver is nabbed on his very first outing, and he didn’t even do it. Bill freaks out, thinking Oliver will rat out their whole operation, and he sends Nancy to the trial to see if the kid squeals. Oliver does not, and the marginally drunk magistrate allows Brownlow to take Oliver in. Dodger follows!
Ellen: Between this and Witness For the Prosecution, I’m now convinced British courtrooms are fairly gin-soaked.
This leads us to the film’s Intermission …
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
This installment of ILTBTA is brought to you by … child labor!
Do you often find yourself complaining about rising labor costs here in the 1800s? Wish you could instead hire an army of cheaper, younger, and maybe even smaller workers who have even less negotiating power because they don’t understand the concept of leverage in the workplace? Well look no further than child labor!
Whether you’re managing a generic “workhouse” or a small army of pickpocketing youths, child labor is the perfect contractor workforce to outsource your Industrial Revolution workplace needs. Why exploit adult workers when you can instead exploit younger and more impressionable children? The only downside is that they sometimes break into song, but you’ll get used to it.
Mention ILTBTA at your local childcare staffing agency and receive two free children who will sing you a song about how sadly cruel this entire concept is! You might even sing along!
Coming out of the Intermission, Oliver has been living with Mr. Brownlow for several days on a posh square right out of Mary Poppins, and life basically rules for him now. Bill (and to a lesser extent Fagin) are determined to get him back as they believe Oliver may tell on them. Oliver volunteers to do an errand for Brownlow, and while he’s out, Bill forces Nancy to sidetrack the kid for long enough for Bill to kidnap him! Bill is quite violent with Oliver when they get back to the hideout, causing the barest modicum of introspection from Fagin and Nancy.
Ellen: At some point in this, Nancy sings about how Bill doesn’t love her, but he needs her, and that’s enough. And girl!!! No it’s not!!! Needing you isn’t even a good baseline!!
Tyler: I know the “girl who falls for the bad boy even though she secretly knows better” is a tale as old as time, but also Nancy girl what is you doing, he’s obviously
trashrubbish! What is the appeal?!Tyler: Also, Bill’s logic for wanting to kidnap Oliver makes no sense: Oliver isn’t incentivized in the slightest to rat them out now that he’s living the good life. Ya know what might make him pissed enough to rat you out? KIDNAPPING HIM. Chalk this up as another movie that could’ve been easily dealt with with a brief conversation.
While Oliver is gone, Brownlow notices a striking resemblance between Oliver and a portrait of his long-lost niece Emily. He begins searching into Oliver’s origins, which results in Bumble and Corney visiting. The idiot pair gives Brownlow a locket that belonged to Oliver’s mother, confirming that Oliver is his great-nephew! He satisfyingly kicks these goons to the curb for keeping the trinket and information until they could collect a reward for it.
Bill punishes Oliver … by entrusting him to his most daring heist yet. He has the young kid sneak in through the window of a posh house, but wouldn’t you know it - this rando with literally zero experience wakes up the whole house! The pair still manages to get away, along with Bullseye, of course. The pup guards Oliver when they return to the tavern. Unbeknownst to them, Nancy (whose conscience finally woke up) came to see Brownlow to arrange a secret dropoff of Oliver at midnight on London Bridge. She whips up the whole bar into a rousing chorus of “Oom-Pah-Pah,” and while everyone is dancing, Nancy whisks Oliver away!
Ellen: Nancy whipping up the bar into a polka is the exact same energy as Candiace’s conga line from the last season of Traitors
Nancy and Oliver almost make it, but Bill finds them! He bludgeons Nancy to death. I’m sorry, he MURDERS HER??? Because Oliver MIGHT one day tell on them, even though he’s shown absolutely ZERO indications of doing so??? Bill flees the scene with Oliver, but even Bullseye was like “that was f’ed up, dude” and leads Brownlow and an angry mob after them. The pickpocket gang disbands as the chase is on, and Fagin’s secret hoard sinks into the mud.
Tyler: I was already annoyed at this movie by this point, but it at least won some points with me by making the dog the secret MVP of the story.
Despite Bill’s best efforts to use an orphan child as a human shield, he’s shot dead by police. Fagin considers abandoning his thieving ways, but then Dodger appears at his side with a stolen wallet, like “ehhh???” They dance off into the sunrise together, happily determined to live out the rest of their days as thieves. Oliver returns to live with Mr. Brownlow for good!
Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
Oliver!’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
Oliver! (the movie) is an adaptation of Oliver! (the stage musical) which is an adaptation of Oliver Twist (the novel). The book, music, and lyrics of the show, which debuted in London in 1960, were all done by writer and composer Lionel Bart. His songwriting credits include the theme song from the second James Bond movie, From Russia With Love.
Oliver! (the movie) was directed by Carol Reed, who won the Oscar for Best Director for the film. (Before you get too excited thinking The Academy was woke back then, Carol was male. A female Carol Reed, however, was the first female weather presenter in a major American city and prompted the trend of hiring attractive yet uncredentialed women to tell the weather.)
In 1952, Reed (the director) became only the second British film director to be knighted. The first was Sir Alexander Korda ten years prior.
While Reed opted to use mostly unknowns in the film’s cast, including Mark Lester who played the titular character, he cast well-known actor Hugh Griffith to play The Magistrate. Griffith won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the Sheik in Ben-Hur.
Another well-known actor that Reed cast: his own nephew Oliver Reed (who played Bill Sikes). Producer John Woolf suggested Oliver for the role without realizing that the two were related.
Lester, meanwhile, was a child actor but couldn’t sing, so his singing was dubbed by the daughter of the film’s music arranger, Johnny Green. Green went on to win the Oscar for Best Score.
Ellen: I knew it seemed like there was something off about his singing! I feel validated.
Tyler: No shade to young Mark, but I do feel like he was cast solely for his puppy-dog eyes in the “I want some more” scene. Then they heard his singing voice and were like “Eh we can work around that.”
Lester was also a close friend of Michael Jackson and is a godfather to Jackson’s three children. Lester even claimed that he could be the biological father of one of them and was one of twenty sperm donors for Jackson.
Some Oscars-specific fun facts:
Oliver! was the last G-rated movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture.3
It was also the last musical to win until Chicago won in 2002.
Jack Wild (who played Artful Dodger) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at just 16 years old and is the fourth-youngest to ever to receive a nomination.
Choreographer Onna White was awarded an honorary Oscar for her work on Oliver! This is even more rare because honorary Oscars are otherwise given for an artist’s career achievements, as opposed to their work on just one film.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role.4 And the nomnomnominees are:
One heaping of gruel that tastes so horrid that you break into song about eating literally anything else
That’s it. Oh you wanted MORE?! MORE?! You get nothing! No Oscar NomNomNomz for you!
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to pick the voting ballot out of The Academy’s pocket and make some changes. I was definitely more predisposed to enjoy this than Tyler was, and even I struggled a bit. There’s some really fun choreography and musical numbers (though as Tyler says below, they do go on), but I struggled to actively root for Oliver. He’s the least interesting thing in the movie, and the plot just happens to him again5 and again6 and again7 and again8. Perhaps I’ll actually read Oliver Twist and gain some interest in the character, but this is a pass for me.
Tyler: I’d like to ask The Academy to pass the remote so I can turn down this entire movie. As I touched on in Plots & Feelings, this movie was all just a bit too much for me. Similar to my complaint about West Side Story, Oliver! felt (for better or worse) too much like someone just put the play on screen just with larger set pieces. Everything was just turned up to 12, most notably the length of the songs, which in an otherwise 2.5-hour movie feels like an obvious place to trim some fat to tighten things up. I’ve had several of these songs stuck in my head since we watched this, and yes that’s partly because they’re earworms, but it’s also because they repeated everything a trillion times! There was some very fun choreography and the production design was great, but I’m still shocked that this was not only nominated for but won Best Picture9 (though I shouldn’t be given The Academy’s penchant for musicals during this era).
2.5/5 ⭐on Letterboxd
Let The Credits Roll
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Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
For our next post, we’ll be continuing our unplanned string of “movie titles that are a person’s name”10 with Lenny. The 1974 biopic stars Dustin Hoffman as the famous stand-up Lenny Bruce and was directed by choreographer/dancer/actor/director Bob Fosse. It is available to stream for free on Tubi or Prime Video or can be rented elsewhere if you don’t like ads or Jeff Bezos.
Until then, consider yourself a friend of ILTBTA!
That’s £700 in today’s HIGHLY ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS, GRACIOUS.
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Your periodic reminder that they were really loose with G ratings back in the day. A woman is bludgeoned to death.
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
The iconic moment of asking for more gruel was only because he drew the tangled string.
Oliver’s first time out picking pockets, all he does is watch and then get caught.
Mr. Brownlow gets Oliver out of the charge and into the good life, and Oliver just kind of goes with it.
Most of the second act is whether Bill or Nancy has control of Oliver at the moment and who is shuttling him along to the next scene.
I find it fun to look at what other movies Best Picture winners beat out, particularly ones that didn’t even get nominated. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Once Upon a Time in the West, Rosemary’s Baby, The Producers, and Planet of the Apes, and The Thomas Crown Affair are all arguably just as “good” and influential as Oliver! (if not more so), but The Academy acts as a sort of microcosm of society in that it chose to nominate safer musicals and stage adaptations like Oliver!, Romeo and Juliet, The Lion in Winter, and Funny Girl instead. Given everything else going on in the world at that time, were they looking for a very specific kind of escapism?
We’re not hinting at anything, we promise.
I’ve never seen this movie, and am not enticed by your review, so I’ll pass. I do know the music through, and aside from ‘Where is Love’, find all of it annoying!
I don’t always get all of your hip/cool cultural references, but having just binged 5 episodes of Traitors while flying home from London, I actually understand the conga line reference!