Oliver Twist – 2:30pm

Stars: Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, Kay Walsh, John Howard Davies

Presented on 35mm.

Marking 25 years since David Lean’s death, his biographer Kevin Brownlow joins us to introduce a favourite Lean film. This adaptation expertly retells Dickens’ enormous novel in little under two hours, and gave Lean another box office hit after the huge success of Great Expectations. In Lean’s hands, the tale of a young boy’s progress from the workhouse to London’s criminal underworld is, “A superb piece of motion picture art… One of the finest screen translations of a literary classic ever made” (New York Times).

Strange to say, internet links to contemporary reviews of a film which premiered 68 years ago are hard to come by…..

But here are links to:

John Hurt reminiscing on how the film influenced him – http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/09/oliver-twist-john-hurt

The BFI page on the film (may take a long time to load) – http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b2089e7

and (courtesy of a mega-film-buff on Youtube), the 1948 trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulKAAJWVFDc

David Lean Cinema, Croydon on Saturday 16 April 2016
Starts at 2:30PM Click on time to book tickets.
Ticket Price: £6.50 – £8.00