1968 Oliver!

1968 Oliver!

Consider yourself at home!

As we all know, the best adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist was the musical production put on by my sister's junior high drama class, starring the lovely and talented Amanda Martin Sandino as the housekeeper.  The second best adaptation is Oliver & Company, the animated Disney version with cats and dogs and music by Billy Joel.
 

I don't really feel like this version deserved an Oscar.  It was okay -the stage production is great, and I love the music -but it wasn't an excellent film translation.  The camera work was kind of shoddy.  The Pick a Pocket number wasn't as good as at the Hey Mr. Producer concert.  The girl voice they dubbed in for Oliver's singing sounded, well, like a GIRL.  Just not up to the caliber of other musical winners like Sound of Music and My Fair Lady.

Nancy, Fagin and Sikes.

Story: Oliver is an orphan who ends up on the streets and is taken in by Fagin and his gang of pickpockets.  He gets arrested and is taken in by a wealthy gentleman who turns out to be his Great Uncle.  Unfortunately, one of Fagin's former proteges, the malicious and cruel Bill Sikes, doesn't trust Oliver not to blab about the gang, and forces his reluctant girlfriend, Nancy, to trap him into returning to them.  Nancy is treated like crap by Bill, but thinks that he "needs" her, and is unable to bring herself to leave him.  Her conscience finally gets the better of her, and she returns Oliver to the old gentleman only to be murdered by Sikes.  All ends well for Oliver.

The guy that plays Sikes in this version was definitely scary, and the best scene was probably the tense ending when Nancy helps Oliver escapes and Sikes chases Oliver through the city with the police right behind him.