In adapting Lionel Bart's lavish musical for the screen, director Carol Reed tempered the sticky sentimentality with suitably Dickensian scenes of squalor and gave nephew Oliver Reed one of the juiciest roles of his career as the murderous Bill Sykes.
DVD Extras:
Trailer, behind-the-scenes featurette, vintage advertising and production photos.Only DVD can do justice to one of the last big budget musicals shot in Britain, and the restored print is crammed with incidental detail. A new digital mix has also opened out the soundtrack which used to sound heavily compressed on standard VHS. Unfortunately, some Artful Dodger has pocketed the extras. A seven-minute featurette from 1968 and a handful of stills makes Fagin look like a Good Samaritan by comparison. For 20 quid we shouldn't have to ask: "Please sir, can we have some more?"
