If you like big, splashy musicals, "Oliver!" is for you. Well acted (with a young Oliver Reed as the heavy and Ron Moody reviving his stage role as Fagin), well-designed (with David Lean art director John Box recreating mid-nineteenth century London--as it should have been), and chock full of wonderful songs ("Consider Yourself"; "Who Will Buy?"; "Oliver", etc.). SPOILER (for parents): It's solid family entertainment. Orphan flees Undertaker to whom he is sold, is enlisted by gang of thieves who exploit boys as pickpockets, only to escape the thug who abuses him when he accidentally hangs himself after bludgeoning to death his live-in prostitute girlfriend. Okay, the plot ain't "Mary Poppins" but it works . . . the first couple of times you see it. After that, the bigness and splashyness begin to pall.Some of the songs run too long. Oh, sure, back in the thirties they were able to do thirty repeats of "I Only Have Eyes for You" in a Ruby Keeler movie; but these days, when a song only has a verse or two, it gets boring however big it's played. "Consider Yourself" and "Who Will Buy" are amazingly staged, but eventually they're simply SO big you begin to wonder if director Carol Reed (Oliver Reed's uncle, nudge-nudge; that's how you get in the movies) is making fun of the genre.While some great English actors (both serious and comic) enliven the whole shebang, it revolves around the character Oliver Twist, cloyingly played by the altogether too-pretty Mark Lester. Here's why Walt Disney's better movies are better for you. In "Mary Poppins" the kids aren't cute. In fact, they're both kind of strange-looking. In this non-Disney production, Mark Lester is so impossibly cute those of us who used to be boys don't blame the kid who (SPOILER) threw a snowball at him. Fortunately Jack Wild, as the Artful Dodger, makes up for the cuteness factor by being good (and watchable) without being the least bit attractive. Or maybe I can't take my eyes off his hat, wondering how he manages to keep it on as it's too small for his enormous head.Simply by being gorgeous (thanks to John Box and Director Reed) and tuneful "Oliver!" is love at first sight to the splashy-musical lover, and for that it deserves (at least) the seven stars I give it. But after seeing it two or three times one wonders if it's really entertaining or it's simply sensory overload, like the "high" one gets from gorging one's self too many sweet confections at once.WARNING: Dickens is one of those great authors adults shove off on kids, while never cracking his books themselves. I was one of the few who genuinely loved Dickens as a kid (I first read OLIVER TWIST in the sixth grade; it made me a life-long Dickens lover, and I'm fifty-seven now). But while palmed off on children as good for them like spinach and broccoli, Dickens wrote for adults! I tend to think this movie is the sort of show it's makers thought children should like. However, don't expect it to keep today's youth (whose parents grew up on quick-cutting MTV, so you know their children's attention spans are nil) to be anything but bored by the whole ordeal.

"Oliver" a musical based on Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" is a truly wonderful movie. Even if you took away the words & music by Lionel Bart you would still have a very entertaining movie well worth watching but Mr. Bart's music turns this into something extraordinary. Mark Lester must know what a lucky boy he was to get the lead role but I am sure all of the cast have looked back on this movie with the fondest memories. Some of the musical numbers are just fabulous including my favourites "Who Will Buy", "Consider Yourself" & "You Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two", but every song is memorable. Worth mentioning, too, is Ron Moody as Fagin who is utterly magnificent & Shani Wallis as Nancy is also marvellous. Like Mark Lester, Jack Wild never got a better role in his life than the Artful Dodger & Oliver Reed was also memorably good as a very sinister Bill Sykes. This is just a fantastically entertaining movie.

Carol Reed was a genius, he was the man who conceived The Third Man and The Fallen Idol, great movie thrillers. So the director who made one of the biggest noir movies in film history, decides to adapt, the "classic" by Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, book that I do not particularly like. The film is full of mistakes, starting with the idea of ​​transforming Dickens' work into a musical full of light and color with hectic choreography, in order to soften the tone of the work, deserves a seal of ridicule. The villainy of Fagins is another factor that has gone bad in the film, even the character itself is misunderstood by Ron Moody. Mark Lester, the protagonist of the film is very annoying. There is no memorable song (even Chicago has memorable music). And Carol Reed seems to have made the movie just to get some money to renovate the bathroom, it's obvious his bad luck. The pace is too much (I almost slept). At least the set design and costumes save the film. I did not understand the Oscars that this movie won, okay, Carol Reed's even I understand, it was more of his work, but, he won in place of Kubrick with 2001: A Space Odyssey was a gross slut from the academy. The other five Oscars should be why the year's voters were drugged. Anyway, ridiculous.

Olive Twist (Mark Lester) is one of the many orphans working in the Dickensian workhouse. He asks for more gruel angering Bumble who sells him into servitude to Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker. Facing more punishment, he escapes to London where he meets the Artful Dodger. He's brought to old criminal Fagin, the leader of the gang of pickpocketing kids.It's a grand production with some great songs. The translation to the big screen worked out for this movie. It's a bit dark for a kids movie unlike 'Annie' or 'Wizard of Oz'. There is a darker moodiness in the story and music. It's still one of the great movie musicals and needs to be seen by lovers of the genre.