The most faithful film of Charles Dickens’ classic novel, William J. Cowen’s version of Oliver Twist is as heartwarming today as it was in the early nineteen thirties. An orphaned boy named Oliver Twist, played by the adorable Dickie Moore, struggles on the London streets in the early 19th century. Weakened by starvation and backbreaking labor, the young lad learns to pick pockets in order to survive. By a great stroke of good fortune, he picks the pocket of a wealthy and compassionate man who takes him in. But from there, his past ever tries to intrude and the boy must rely on courage and grit to get him through. Oliver Twist is a tale all too easily understood, and thus more beloved for its humane universality: the struggle by a young man to survive in a harsh world, beset by poverty and criminals, only to find love in the most unlikely places.
