A child star as Oliver Twist, he became a key figure in epoch-making TV comedy
'Please, sir – I want some more." Rationing was still in force when, under the eye of David Lean's camera, a thin, pale eight-year-old boy named John Howard Davies raised his gruel bowl and dared to request a second serving. That image of Davies in Oliver Twist (1948) spoke to the mood of the moment – suggesting the sort of deprivation that postwar Britain was attempting to legislate out of existence. One scene called for Davies, who has died of cancer aged 72, and his fellow child actors to look on enviously as the bigwigs of the workhouse devoured a great pile of pastries, hams and chicken. The astonished expressions are genuine. None of these boys had ever seen food like it.
The film's production company, Cineguild, had launched a national campaign to secure a talented unknown for the title role.
'Please, sir – I want some more." Rationing was still in force when, under the eye of David Lean's camera, a thin, pale eight-year-old boy named John Howard Davies raised his gruel bowl and dared to request a second serving. That image of Davies in Oliver Twist (1948) spoke to the mood of the moment – suggesting the sort of deprivation that postwar Britain was attempting to legislate out of existence. One scene called for Davies, who has died of cancer aged 72, and his fellow child actors to look on enviously as the bigwigs of the workhouse devoured a great pile of pastries, hams and chicken. The astonished expressions are genuine. None of these boys had ever seen food like it.
The film's production company, Cineguild, had launched a national campaign to secure a talented unknown for the title role.
- 8/25/2011
- by Matthew Sweet
- The Guardian - Film News
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