Oliver Twist

Oliver is born in a workhouse and his mother dies at once. Years later he is thrown out for asking for more food and walks to London. There he falls in with Fagin's gang of child thieves. A stolen locket will eventually reveal who the boy is and where he came from. David Lean directed, with much of the team from Great Expectations in 1946. Alec Guinness plays Fagin, Robert Newton plays Bill Sykes, Kay Walsh plays Nancy and John Howard Davies plays Oliver. The film carries a historical argument. Guinness's Fagin was built with heavy prosthetics modelled on George Cruikshank's original illustrations, and many saw it as sustaining an antisemitic stereotype. The Production Code Administration had warned against elements or inference that would be offensive to any specific racial group or religion; Lean went ahead, arguing that Fagin is not explicitly identified as Jewish in the screenplay. The reaction was severe. The New York Board of Rabbis and other Jewish organisations protested. The American release was postponed indefinitely in September 1948 and only happened in 1951, with twelve minutes cut. It was banned in Israel and in Egypt. Against that, the film was praised as one of the finest screen translations of a literary classic ever made. It placed fifth at the British box office in 1948 and Rotten Tomatoes sits at 100 percent. Who it is for: viewers who like Dickens adaptations and early Lean. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot get past the portrayal of Fagin. The objection has been legitimate since release and it still holds.