All the right ingredients come together for Oliver! It’s an exceptional story and score with the ideal director and cast, a visionary choreographer, and a taut screenplay that elevates the source material in several key instances. Although it was a great success on stage in London, playing 2,618 performances, it became a more modest hit by comparison on Broadway where it ran 774 performances and lost the Tony Award for Best Musical to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. A major movie with a healthy budget was commissioned, nevertheless, by Romulus Films (The African Queen, Moulin Rouge) and distributed worldwide by Columbia Pictures.

Over 5,000 boys auditioned for the leading role of Oliver Twist. In the end, the part went to eight-year-old Mark Lester, who turned nine during the initial days of production. Lester has the perfect look for the role, with a mixture of sadness and wonder in his eyes, a thick mop of golden hair, and a natural-born sincerity that is hard to come by for an actor of any age. He carries this film on his tiny shoulders as its protagonist and chief witness to the iconic characters and familiar goings-on. The plot is one of Dickens’ best—a rags-to-riches tale of an illegitimate orphan who dares to ask for “more” than his lot in life. As a result of this insolence, he unwillingly embarks upon a journey that takes him from an abysmal workhouse to the darkest corners of London to the exhilarating, upper-class, terrace houses of Bloomsbury Square. On the way, he meets his own “White Rabbit” of sorts who leads him into the shadowy, backstreet netherworld. This pint-sized partner in crime is the Artful Dodger, played by the multi-talented and Oscar-nominated Jack Wild.

“Consider Yourself,” with Jack Wild and Mark Lester.

Not enough praise or credit can be given to Onna White, a veteran choreographer of Broadway and film. Her musical staging is seamlessly intertwined with the narrative here. There isn’t a step or movement that doesn’t define character, communicate emotion, or advance the action. Past choreographers, such as the pioneering genius Agnes de Mille, blended their work into the plot, but never with such unyielding commitment to storytelling as with this film. You won’t see a gratuitous leap or pirouette or combat-like drill-team move that looks impressive on a dancer but says nothing about the story. If people strut across the screen, they’re carrying baskets or chopping meat or policing their precincts or supervising schoolchildren or selling milk—or perhaps expressing thoughts, attitudes, or feelings with tipped hats and pointed toes. If the parlor maids in the tree-lined square each raise one leg in unison and rest it on a balcony railing like a ballet barre, it’s to steady themselves while beating rugs. This is the stylized synchronization of a heightened reality. As a result, Onna White’s work deepens and enriches scenes, rather than embellishes them. Her staging is woven into the very fabric of this tale as much as the dialogue and songs. Because of her unique contribution, White received a special Academy Award “for her outstanding choreography achievement.”

Ron Moody as Fagin.

In addition to the younger leads, the rest of the cast is superior in every way. Ron Moody, a holdover from the original London stage production, conveys all the humor and pathos of Fagin while toning down the more sinister aspects of his persona. Dodger and Fagin are bad eggs, but true villainy is funneled almost exclusively to the character of Bill Sykes, which works well in this adaptation and focuses the dramatic impact overall. Moody also downplays Fagin’s ethnicity, something that detracted from both the novel and the 1948 film by David Lean, the latter of which was banned here in the United States for three years, due to Alec Guinness’s grotesque, antisemitic depiction. Dickens himself was even forced to address public concern about the blatant racist overtones of his book back in the 1830s, eventually removing over 180 instances of Fagin referred to as “the Jew.” For the musical, however, it’s clear that Fagin is Jewish without turning him into a derogatory caricature. It’s not an essential aspect of the story to begin with. We can hear it reflected in Moody’s cockney-meets-Eastern-European inflection, as well as in the Klezmer-style accompaniment for his solo “Reviewing the Situation.” It adds flavor and backstory without defining or labeling him.

Casting Oliver Reed as Bill Sykes might be the best argument in favor of nepotism that I can think of. He happens to be the director’s nephew. He’s also frightening and unforgettable in the part. It’s hard to imagine anyone playing it better. Then there’s Harry Secombe as the workhouse’s caretaker Mr. Bumble, who is pompous and malevolent with the singing voice of an angel. The movie starts with a trio of back-to-back songs and little if any dialogue between them. Secombe sings two of them—the title tune and “Boy for Sale”—and his soaring tenor is a highlight.

Shani Wallis as Nancy.

Shani Wallis was overlooked by Oscar voters, but her performance as the ill-fated Nancy is award-worthy. Originally, Carol Reed had Shirley Bassey in mind, however Columbia Pictures made it clear that audiences weren’t ready to embrace multiracial casting like that when interracial marriages were illegal in 16 American states until 1967. Some fans still bemoan that Georgia Brown, who originated the part in London and on Broadway, wasn’t hired. She did audition, and Onna White remarked in a Q&A years later that Brown’s screen test “wasn’t good.” I’m glad Reed considered musical performers and singers, rather than movie stars who could carry a tune. Wallis was best known for her West End theatre roles and nightclubs at the time, praised by several critics as the “British Judy Garland.” It’s little wonder when she opens up, full-throated, and belts some of these memorable melodies. She’s right for it, as well, with alert, shifting eyes, a warm, winning smile that curls into tight-lipped determination, and an attractive face that’s hardened a bit around edges. Her Nancy has had to charm and fight her way through the dark streets and back alleys to stay alive. It helps that her bodyguard-boyfriend is the toughest bloke in town.

The highest praise must go to Carol Reed, known as a director of suspense films like The Third Man, perhaps second only to Hitchcock in that genre. He started his journey as a young actor, the illegitimate son of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, the impresario-founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. At a glance, Reed might seem like an odd choice for Oliver! but ends up the perfect fit. Together with screenwriter Vernon Harris, they reimagine and heighten the tension, bringing out the story’s more thrilling aspects. A great example of their genius is the transposition and reworking of a throwaway bar-song called “Oom-Pah-Pah.” On stage, it opens Act II and serves no relevance to the plot other than to lift the mood. This number was shifted to the last position in the movie and given a weighty purpose. Nancy’s goal is to create a disturbance in the tavern, so she can sneak Oliver back to his life with Mr. Brownlow, who is waiting for them on a footbridge. This is my favorite number in Oliver! and one of my favorite musical moments in any film, because everything comes together at once. Brilliant storytelling, direction, staging, song, performance, and cinematography. Truly powerful stuff.

Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Shani Wallis, and Mark Lester, during “Oom-Pah-Pah.”

I should give special mention to the outstanding cinematography by Oswald Morris. His camera is always in the right place, whether it’s capturing Onna White’s choreography or adding depth to a dramatic moment, such as Nancy’s heartbreaking rendition of “As Long As He Needs Me.” Toward the end of that song, he photographs her through the cracked glass of a window pane, fracturing her image as she passes in and out of the shadows. Once the melody arrives at the crescendo for Nancy’s final notes, instead of shooting her head-on, he observes her from behind, at a distance, while she shrinks away into the night. These elements bring out the lonely and lost emotions of a woman who has decided to remain with a man abusing her as long as she’s able to serve a useful purpose in his life. This is where the camera can comment on the action, not just capture it.

Every time I watch Oliver!, I marvel at just how good it is. Lionel Bart’s adaptation of the Dickens material is utterly brilliant, and it hasn’t lost a bit of magic in over 50 years. More than three decades passed before another musical would take the top prize—a sign of shifting tastes and times. I’m glad and grateful this one did, despite the heavy and diverse competition. To this day, it still deserves the honor.

Oliver!