Oliver Twist (1933) [Drama]



“Oliver Twist” is a 1933 American film directed by William J. Cowen. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’s popular novel with the same name and was the first sound version of the classic. It stars Irving Pichel as Fagin, Dickie Moore as Oliver, Doris Lloyd as Nancy, and William “Stage” Boyd as Bill Sikes. Pichel played Fagin without resorting to any mannerisms which could be construed as offensive.

An orphan boy in 1830’s London is abused in a workhouse, then falls into the clutches of a gang of thieves.

Despite the fact that the Sowerberrys and Noah Claypole appear in the cast list, the entire Sowerberry sequence is omitted from this film, as is Monks, Oliver’s half-brother. Rose Maylie becomes Brownlow’s daughter in this version, and it is Brownlow’s house that Skes attempts to rob. It is possible that early releases of this film did include Noah Claypole and the Sowerberrys.

Directed by William J. Cowen, produced by I.E. Chadwick, written by Charles Dickens (novel Oliver Twist) and Elizabeth Meehan (writer), starring Irving Pichel, Dickie Moore, Doris Lloyd and William “Stage” Boyd.

Source: “Oliver Twist (1933 film)” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 16 March 2012. Web. 2 August 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Twist_(1933_film).

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30 Replies to “Oliver Twist (1933) [Drama]”

  1. The youtube video series, “Nine US presidents assassinated by Globalists,” is being censored so you cannot get certain
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  2. I have the DVD of this film and it was a VHS transfer which I taped off of WNET-TV (channel 13) back in the late 90's during an overnight block of movies. It does have the British Board of Film Censors screen at the very beginning and goes straight to the opening credits with a different title card, and right towards the end of the film, it has a rare end title with the words "A Monogram Picture", this version plastered a different end title since it was spliced and missing the original. I still have a copy with original Monogram end title along with the different intro with the British Board of Film Censors screen at the start, but I will upload it on my other channel soon.

  3. Having read the book at least twice and seen several film adaptations (none of the long BBC ones, so far) I enjoyed this one. Some are over-long, but it's a shame this one's so short — too much happens in the novel to fit into 110 minutes. So many Dickensian side streams and canals are cut off, and we only get to float the main river : ) But I liked the small, bare, anonymous workhouse dining room — workhouses in small towns probably were small — and I loved how that table mirrored Fagin's table with the same crowd of hungry, lonely, ragged boys around i. I'd never picked up on that before. I also like The Dodger being definitely older than Oliver. It just makes more sense, even though there's more cuteness factor and more shock value in a Dodger who's tragcally young, and I can easily believe a bright twelve-year-old could be that worldly and wicked, given a mean & wicked enough world.

  4. As old as it is this movie, at the very end it had a lot of different kind of feelings. Yourself sad happy cure depress test a hopeful future4 Oliver with his new family. But you think about the woman that died of the drunk that beat her with the handle of that gun and then the old man in prison they gave all of that ring which I think was a piece of jewelry from that girl's aunt and his new family Agnes.
    Or maybe I just put too much thought into movies, I guess getting older as I am now I look at life a lot differently and today's world we live in with child abuse and murder and deceit it's hard to find a good happy thought. But then again maybe I'll look into the movies too deeply like I said.
    Well I hope everyone enjoyed the movie as I did Chaz.

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