The movie is a film version of the 1960 musical stage play of the same name, and both the movie and musical versions are based on Dickens’ 1838 novel “Orphan of the Mist”.
The film tells the story of an orphan’s tragic life and encounters. The main character, Oliver, grows up in an orphanage, undergoes an apprenticeship, escapes to London with great difficulty, is tricked by a gang of thieves into a den of thieves, and undergoes countless hardships, but finally finds out his origins and obtains happiness with the help of kind-hearted people.
Ang Lee once used this film as an analogy for Escape from Tehran, in defense of Boyhood’s Bizarre Adventure not winning the Best Picture Oscar, saying, “Who remembers Orphan of the Mist now?”.
1968 / UK / Drama Dance Family Crime / Carol Reed / Ron Moody Shanny Wallis
Plot Synopsis:
Oliver (Mark Lester) is an orphan who grew up in the church.
At the age of nine, Oliver is sent to work as a factory laborer and then to a funeral home as an apprentice.
Oliver’s intelligence and resourcefulness soon help him gain a foothold in the funeral parlor, but at the same time, he is envied by his peers, who deliberately provoke Oliver to anger him, and eventually Oliver leaves the funeral parlor.
After a long journey, he arrives in London, where he lives a homeless life.
A pickpocket named Dodge (Jack Wild) brings Oliver to the gang leader Fagin (Ron Moody), and just like that, Oliver becomes one of them.
In an accident, Oliver is arrested by the police, but then, he is proven innocent, and the man in question, Mr. Brownlow (Joseph O’Conor), feels so guilty about Oliver that he takes him in… Can Oliver’s life be put on the right track from here on out?
