Friday, November 24, 2006
A LITTLE DICKENS
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was David Lean's version of Charles Dickens'
I counted no less than 26 versions of this story on IMDb not including the musical!
This is considered the very definitive version.
Starring Alec Guiness as Fagin and Robert Newton as Bill Sykes, this film is so incredible to watch that the actors have to be good to stand out from the fine, often abstract, cinematography.
Sykes' dog is great too. A pit bull; he is the key to the resolution at the end and he does his job heroically.
I enjoyed this throughout. Lean underlines the humor of the characters to help ward off the tedium and banality of evil and also to give this sad tale momentum and purpose.
The villains more than get their just deserts and we can relish in the misfortune of their ends. The crowd scenes at their demise are incredibly well done.
It was also good to see old favorites like Peter Bull (the future Russian ambassador in Stangelove and the enormous Frances L. Sullivan as Mr. Bumble the Beadle.
The beautiful score is by Sir Arnold Bax; another long time favorite. I had not known of it.
I will be giving this a 5 out of Netflix5.
