Oliver Twist. 1922. Directed by Frank Lloyd.

(4/18/00)

Could there have been a better Oliver Twist than Jackie Coogan? I can't think of a candidate. Oliver Twist seems like a perfect showcase for him. He is adorable, photogenic and boy, can he act. The scene where he asks for more food is a joy, as is the image of him as an undertaker's assistant, returning from a funeral dressed in solemn black.

The rest of the cast do their jobs skillfully, but do not take attention away from Coogan. They are a fine supporting cast. I was actually disappointed in Lon Chaney's Fagin--not because it wqasn't skillful, but because it was a nasty Jewish stereotype--I kept thinking of Shylock--and also because it didn't give Chaney any scope for developing a real character. That said, the scene in which he demonstrates the art of picking pockets to Oliver is memorable.

Oliver Twist is really a good story. I have never read it and found it quite absorbing. It is interesting as a depiction of Victorian England as a kind of Hell to which the characters respond with either meanness or kindness. On the one hand you have people like the staff of the workhouse. A woman supervisor beats a woman who collapses (and later steals a locket from her as she dies), but offers a drink from her flask to a guard with whom she is friendly. On the other hand there are the kind people such as Mr. Brownlow who takes Oliver home and cares for him, and Nancy who does the right thing even though it means betraying her boyfriend--and ultimately her death. The whole sequence when she goes to Brownlow's home to tell the truth and is killed by Bill is probably the most painful in the film. Especially pathetic is Brownlow's promise to her that she will not be involved when her conversation is being eavesdropped on by one of Fagin's spies.

Monks is easily the most despicable of all the characters--a man who would stop at nothing to keep his half-brother from having his inheritance.

I had a little trouble accepting the final shot in which Oliver turns from the door seemingly happy and contented now that his problems have been solved and his future secured. It didn't quite ring true for me. It is an assertion of living in the now and a borrowing from Charlie Chaplin's persona.