Consider Yourself a Fan of “Oliver!”

The Sixties were big yearsfor BIG musicals. In an era when television was on the rise, these costlyextravaganzas showed off the pleasures of large-scale spectacle that only amovie screen could accommodate. Winners of the Best Picture Oscar during theSixties included such dazzling and ambitious entertainments as West SideStory (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Sound of Music (1965).And other nominees included Mary Poppins and Funny Girl.

  But wait! Wasn’t thereanother Broadway musical smash that ended up nabbing the Best Picture Oscarafter the film version was released in 1968? Yes, indeed, but Oliver! wassomething of a horse of a different color. That is to say, Lionel Bart’s stagemusical version of the Charles Dickens novel originated not in New York but inLondon. Musical theatre has always been considered an intensely American artform. But Oliver! showed, long before Andrew Lloyd Webber, that theforces behind British theatre could triumphantly learn from their Americancousins.

 In adapting Oliver Twist,set among pickpockets and thieves on the loose in Victorian London, Bart (thetalented son of Jewish immigrants from Galicia) toned down the casualanti-semitism of Dickens’ original story. He cut back on but did not eliminatethe gruesome aspects of Oliver’s milieu, while making sure to keep intact thealmost cloying Dickensian sweetness that shows itself in such highly sentimentalsongs as “Where is Love?” Though Bart’s plot contains the grimmest of murders,as well as a heart-tugging reunion, what audiences remember best is theliveliness of Fagin and his gang of young hoodlums, who certainly seem to enjoytheir work snatching the  plump purses  of London’s well-heeled citizenry.

 I understand the originalstage production made good use of a stylized unit set that didn’t pretend to depicta genuine London street scene. But film, of course, is a far more realistic medium,and the film’s producers aimed for a visually arresting canvas, crammed full ofVictorian detail. When the Artful Dodger encourages shy young Oliver Twist to“Consider Yourself One of Us,” he leads the boy on a romp through crowdedCovent Garden streets where grocers and other vendors ply their wares. (In awarehouse full of hanging sides of beef, the pair even romp straight through alarge carcass that a butcher with a large cleaver has just divided in two.)

 The director in charge of allthis on-screen activity is Britain’s Carol Reed, much admired for such grittyurban dramas as The Third Man and Odd Man Out. I don’t pretend tobe an expert, but I believe this was his only musical. Still, he knows a thingor three about teeming cities, and there’s no one better at ratcheting upsuspense. In portraying London’s seedy underbelly, he gives this Oliver! agenuine sense of looming terror that’s rare for musical entertainments.  On the flip-side, when Oliver enjoys a briefrespite in the home of a wealthy man, we see (to the strains of “Who WillBuy?”) the street filled with a whole magical parade of bandsmen, milkmaids,and other handsome, healthy folk.

In the where-are-they-now?department, the adorable boy who plays Oliver is now happily retired fromshowbiz and working as an osteopath. Jack Wild, the impish scalawag who earnedan Oscar nom as the Artful Dodger, remained an actor, but succumbed at age 53 todrink and drugs. Oliver Reed, who played the murderous Bill Sikes, similarlycut his life short through reckless behavior. But hurrah for Ron Moody, adeliciously nimble and mischievous Fagin, who survived to the ripe old age of91.