84
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherA superb piece of motion picture art and, beyond doubt, one of the finest screen translations of a literary classic ever made.
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe sets are as much a part of the story as the dialogue, and set designer John Bryan's work is effectively photographed by Guy Green. All the acting is first-rate, and there is not a false note from the cast.
- 80EmpireDavid ParkinsonEmpireDavid ParkinsonEvocative and endearing - a worthy string to the Lean bow.
- 80Time OutTime OutPerhaps marginally less beguiling than Great Expectations, but still a moving and enjoyable account of Dickens' masterpiece, which gets off to a memorable start with Oliver's pregnant mother battling through the storm to reach the safety of the workhouse.
- 75Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderAlec Guinness as the master pickpocket Fagin is the high point of David Lean's 1948 version of the Dickens classic.
- 75LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenLarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenIt’s less impressionistic than Great Expectations and more starkly insistent—fitting for a work that doubles as a social tract about the mistreatment of children in England in the early 1800s. John Howard Davies, as Oliver, has a heartbreakingly fresh face, one that’s increasingly bewildered by the cruelty continually visited upon him.
- 70The New YorkerPauline KaelThe New YorkerPauline KaelIn the person of Alec Guinness, Fagin the Viper, the corrupter of youth, has a sly, depraved charm.