OLIVER TWIST-1922-After starring with
the legendary Charlie Chaplin in THE KID one year before little
Jackie Coogan co-stars with the equally legendary Lon Chaney
(although he wasn't a star yet) in this early adaptation of the
Dickens classic. The future Uncle Fester is the title character born
and raised in a workhouse overseen by the tyrannical Mr. Bumble
(James A. Marcus) where at the age of 9 he asks for more. He becomes
an undertaker's apprentice but runs away to London and meets the
Artful Dodger (Edward Trebaol) who in turn introduces him to the evil
Fagin (Chaney) who oversees a gang of pickpockets. He and meanie Bill
Sykes (George Siegmann) want Oliver for another scam though but
before that happens Oliver is arrested and later taken in by a kindly
bookseller Mr. Brownlow (Lionel Belmore). Fagin (who answers to a
mysterious guy named Monks) kidnaps the boy when he finds out that
Oliver is heir to a large inheritance. Still he and Bill need
Oliver's diminutive size to pull off a robbery. When Oliver rebels
Bill shoots him! He's only wounded and nursed back to health by a
rich dowager and her niece who reunite him with Brownlow. After
Bill's wife Nancy (Gladys Brockwell) spills the beans to the
bookseller, Bill finds out about her betrayal and kills her. In the
end everyone is arrested except for Bill who accidentally hangs
himself. Oliver gets his birthright and inheritance.
Director Frank Lloyd was no stranger to
adapting Dickens to the screen as a few years earlier he'd made a
version of A TALE OF TWO CITIES. He packs a lot of story into the
short running time (about 75 minutes) and keeps the tale interesting
and exciting. Child star Coogan was at the apex of his career and is
very good (and funny) in the lead. Naturally Lon Chaney steals every
scene he's in.
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