Oliver! (1968)

The musical opens in the workhouse, as the half-starved orphan boys are entering the enormous lunchroom for dinner. Nine year old Oliver Twist gathers up the courage to ask for more. He is immediately apprehended and is promptly sold and apprenticed to an undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry.

The next morning bully Noah Claypole, who oversees Oliver's work, badmouths Oliver's dead mother, whereupon Oliver begins pummeling him. Mr. Bumble is sent for, and he and the Sowerberrys lock Oliver in a coffin, but during all the commotion Oliver escapes and runs away to London. On his first day there, he meets the Artful Dodger, a boy wearing an oversize coat and a top hat. Dodger is, unknown to Oliver, a boy pickpocket, and he invites Oliver to come and live in Fagin's lair. Fagin is a criminal, and he is in the business of teaching young boys to pick pockets. Oliver, however, is completely unaware of any criminality, and believes that the boys make handkerchiefs rather than steal them.

The next day, Oliver meets Nancy, the live-in girlfriend of the evil, terrifying Bill Sikes, a burglar whose abuse she endures because she loves him. Nancy and Oliver take an instant liking to each other, and Nancy shows motherly affection toward him. Bet, Nancy's best friend, is also with her. Nancy and Bet leave and Oliver is sent out with the other boys on his first pickpocketing job, though he still believes that they are going to teach him how to make handkerchiefs. When Dodger and Charley rob Mr. Brownlow, a wealthy old man, they run off, leaving the shocked Oliver, who now realizes that his new friends are pickpockets, to be blamed for looking guilty. Brownlow thinks that Oliver is the thief, but Oliver is cleared in court. To make up for his error, the wealthy Brownlow takes Oliver to live with him, noticing something vaguely familiar about him.

In the evening the bar is full of people, Bill Sikes enters and gets the crowd to leave. Dodger runs in and tells Fagin about Oliver being captured. Fagin and Bill decide that they have to kidnap Oliver to keep him from revealing their whereabouts and secrets.

Meanwhile the next morning, at Mr. Brownlow's house, Mr. Brownlow and Dr. Grimwig discuss Oliver's condition. They come to the conclusion that he is fine and that he can return some books to the bookseller for Mr. Brownlow. Nancy and Bill show up and grab Oliver. They bring him back to Fagin's, where Nancy saves Oliver from a beating from Sikes after the boy tries to flee but is stopped.

Back at the workhouse, Mr. Bumble and the Widow Corney, now unhappily married, meet up with the dying pauper Old Sally and another old lady, who tell them of how Oliver's mother came to the workhouse to have her baby and gave her a gold locket after the birth, inferring she came from a rich family. The mother then died. Mr Bumble and Widow Corney, realizing that Oliver may have wealthy relatives, visit Mr. Brownlow in order to profit from any reward given out for information of him. He throws them out, knowing that they have suppressed evidence until they could get a reward for it. Brownlow looks at the picture inside the locket, a picture of his friend's daughter, and realizes that Oliver, is actually his friend's grandson.

Nancy, terrified for Oliver and feeling guilty, visits Brownlow and promises to deliver Oliver to him safely that night at midnight on London Bridge. Bill suspects that Nancy is up to something. That night, he follows her as she sneaks Oliver out. At London Bridge, he confronts them, knocks Oliver temporarily unconscious, and brutally clubs Nancy to death. He then grabs Oliver, back to the hideout to ask Fagin for getaway money. Mr. Brownlow, who had been late keeping the appointment, arrives and discovers Nancy's body. A large crowd soon forms, among them the distraught Bet. Fagin and his boys, terrified at the idea of being apprehended, leave their hideout in panic. Not finding Bill at the hideout, the anxious crowd, now whipped up into a thirst for justice, returns to the Thames Embankment, when suddenly Bill appears at the top of the bridge, holding Oliver as hostage and threatening to kill him if the crowd tries to take him. Unseen by Bill, two policemen sneak up on him. One of them shoots Bill to death and the other grabs Oliver as Bill releases him. Oliver is then reunited with Mr. Brownlow.

Famous Quotations :

[about Oliver]
Mr. Bumble: Mother came to us destitute. Brings a child into the world, takes one look at him and promptly dies - -without leaving so much as a forwarding name and address!

Oliver Twist: [singing] Where is love?

source : wikipedia | imdb