THE ASTOR REVIEW

Inspired by Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, Lionel Bart’s 1961 London and Broadway musical hit glossed over some of Dickens’ more graphic passages but managed to retain a strong subtext to what was essentially light entertainment. For its first half-hour or so, Carol Reed’s Oscar-winning 1968 film version does a masterful job of telling its story almost exclusively through song and dance. PN

IMDB SYNOPSIS

Musical adaptation of Charles Dickens's classic tale of an orphan who runs away from the orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.