Oliver Twist

Even better than Lean's take on Great Expectations. It's an extremely bleak story, most of it taking place in dingy and unpleasant locations that (with the help of Guy Green's brilliant cinematography) impart an unceasing atmosphere of despair. The acting is uniformly excellent. The weakest point is the score, which really gets shoved down your throat.

A superb adaptation. The visuals are the cornerstone here; the combination of the stunning B&W photography and the dingy sets is perfect for the material, kind of like bringing Cruikshank's illustrations to life. Davies is a bit boring as Oliver, but Oliver is kind of a boring character so it's fine. Guinness' controversial performance can be hard to take, but he is compelling to watch and it is honest to the character as written.

Fantastic adaptation of the Dickens classic by David Lean. Beautiful cinematography and top-notch acting, especially from Sir Alec Guinness, who is completely unrecognizable as Fagin.

Another Lean/Dickens collab with a god awful ending. I really dug it up until that sappy crap happens. It's Lean so its obviously beautiful to watch. Also, I can't believe that Fagin was Alec Guinness, awesome performance and totally unrecognizable.

Mr. Lean was The Man. He knew how to get the most of this old, oft-filmed story