The film of ╥Oliver Twist,╙ which is shown at the Oxford Picture House this week, gives us the best and almost the worst of what the kinema can do. Even ardent admirers of Dickens will probably admit that there is in his story a good deal of crude sensationalism. Upon this the kinema seizes with avidity. It presents to us with exaggerated emphasis the horrible personalities and incidents associated with Fagin╒s gang of criminals. There is Fagin himself, hideous and repulsive, and only held back from bloodshed by fears for his own skin. There is the infamous Bill Sikes, shuffling through the story with an ugly bludgeon and an uglier face. There is the ╥Artful Dodger╙ and the lesser lights in this underworld of vice. There are incidents in the film far more painful and terrible than anything that the kinema has shown us of the war. Even the murder of Nancy, which Dickens suggested rather than described, is made an open exhibition, and after seeing the death-blows we are shown the corpse lying on the floor and the scarcely-awed murderer backing out of the door. The needlessly painful end of Sikes is also exhibited with some ingenuity and great gusto.
There are scenes in this film which nobody who is not morbid or unhealthy in his tastes would care to see. But it must be admitted that all this horror and villainy is presented with considerable dramatic skill and force. There is only one pleasant member of the criminal gang, and that is Sikes╒s dog. He is a bull terrier of incurable amiability. He wags his tail with the most friendly emphasis when terrible struggles are going forward. Having said so much about the faults of the film, it is a pleasure to acknowledge that it has great artistic qualities as well. There is some really beautiful acting by Miss Marie Doro, as Oliver. It is chiefly in her presentation of this pathetic character that the spirit of Dickens is felt. Some of the more peaceful pictures are beautifully conceived and photographed, and in spite of many defects this film does give some hope of the kinema as a dramatic medium. It is spoiled by the producer╒s ╥nose╙ for sensationalism.
