Oliver! 1968

The Film:
This is going to be our last musical for quite some time. It's a film I know pretty well and have seen several times over the years (including relatively recently). I've also seen a live production - with Neil Morrissey as a pretty impressive Fagin - and we followed the rise of Jodie Prenger (and Samantha Barks) in the Lloyd Webber "you could be Nancy" thing a few years back as well. So we're more than a little familiar with the music.

Having said this, Oliver! is not a particular favourite of mine and I know that there are a lot of things about it as a musical and as a film that just don't quite work. I think its probably the thigh-slapping cock-er-ney-ness of the whole thing, which grates on me a bit whenever it crops up on something. Ironically, that's probably one of the key things that the Academy found endearing!

Despite it having a big budget, a (patchy but) impressive cast and a top-end director, I don't really see it as being any higher in artistic merit or entertainment value than several other similar films of the era. But it was a big box office smash and an Oscar winner - and, I'm sure, it will still be a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

The Ceremony:

There were a few changes to this ceremony from previous years. The date was similar - 14th April 1969 - but the venue changed to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion where it then stayed for well over a decade. The evening was hosted by......no one! (for the first time since 1939).

There were a few interesting controversies that year. Firstly, the original Best Documentary winner (Young Americans) was disqualified a few weeks later when it was discovered to have had a limited release in 1967. It is the only film to date to have had its award revoked. (It was eventually given to a film called Journey Into Self - all about group therapy.)

Price Waterhouse got into trouble this year as well - though not quite to the extent they did over La-La-Land and, it turns out, probably unfairly. On the Tonight Show that night, which was recorded three hours before the ceremony, Johnny Carson and Buddy Hackett correctly "guessed" the Best Picture winner and Best Supporting Actor. People were fired over it, but it was later proven to be just a lucky guess - and broadcasters have been more careful about the way they predict such things since!

Other Notable Winners That Night:

Sparkly Babs!

It was a year for headlines and potential controversies! Best Actor went to Chris Robertson for "Charly" (a film based on "Flowers for Algernon" which is probably far too cringy for modern audiences in its portrayal of what was then still referred to as "mental retardation"). There was much mumbling about all the other nominees being far more deserving, with suggestions that aggressive and inappropriate marketing led to his win.

In the Best Actress category there was also an unusual result - a tie, between Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn. Kate won for a second year running (as her dear departed Spencer had done previously) and for a record-breaking third time. But she had to share it with Babs. Unfortunately Kate didn't attend the ceremony so there are no photos of the two of them together - but it did mean that all the attention was on Babs and her very fashion-forward sparkly sheer trouser suit!

The other winner worthy of a mention is Stanley Kubrick - he got his only ever Oscar for Visual Effects for 2001:A Space Odyssey.

Best Song:

It could have been Chitty Chitty Bang Bang but, thankfully, it's not. This one is an absolute classic and a beautiful song - although it does always remind me of Hannah Gordon being blown away on Morecambe and Wise!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

*insert inappropriate Fanny joke here*

I've never seen Rachel, Rachel or (shockingly) A Lion in Winter - so I can't really comment on them.
Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet was a bit of a big thing in its day but it already felt dated when I first watched it in the 1980s and we've since had Lurmann's version to compare it to as well.

That leaves us with another musical that I find overlong, overproduced and a bit underwhelming - but with some great moments, including one of my favourite over-the-top camp musical songs "Don't Rain On My Parade". I'm not a massive fan of Streisand but she is perfectly cast as Fanny Brice (last seen on this blog wiping the floor with everyone in The Great Ziegfeld!). So I'm sort of conceding that Oliver! probably deserved its win, with a runner-up prize for Funny Girl.

Many critics would say, in hindsight, that Stanley Kubrick deserved more than just Visual Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey. (He was nominated for Best Director but not for Best Picture) I, however, am not one of those critics. I'm not a big fan of Kubrick and I find 2001 very difficult to like. I'll stick with the singing urchins....

Dubbing Alert:

The voice, but not the face, of Oliver

Mark Lester was (according to Carol Reed) visually perfect for the part of Oliver, and he could act the part convincingly as well. However, he would be the first to admit that he was definitely not a singer. (Apparently he was absolutely awful!)

However, this is still the sixties, so that was not a deal breaker. Aspiring actress Kathe Green happened to be the daughter of Music Director Johnny Green and happened to be on set at the time.

She had a go at dubbing for Oliver, trying specifically to sound like a small, sweet and frail little boy - and she manages to pull it off pretty well. And so, that sweet and tragic voice singing "Where Is Love?" is actually the voice of a twenty three year old woman!

(As for Kathe, she picked up a few more IMDb credits in her twenties and thirties, but she now seems to mainly spend her time turning up on different shows talking about dubbing for Oliver!)

Our Verdict:

No caption really required for this one.....

I'm not really sure what there is to say about watching Oliver! again - partly because I've seen it lots but don't love it, and partly because I've seen it fairly recently. I tried to look at it a bit differently this time - but I didn't really succeed!

I started off deliberately getting annoyed by the cute, sweet, wholesome cleanness of Oliver himself. And the posh voice he spoke in is not one he would ever have picked up in a workhouse 70 miles north of London (it would have been some sort of working class cockney/brummie hybrid!). He was frail and sickly, not cute and wide-eyed. (These things matter!)

The dark underbelly of London Town

But I know that's not the point and there are many things to give credit for in this film. Firstly, even though it's a family musical, it tackles some serious issues about crime, poverty and violence without sugar-coating them too much. By the time Oliver is in London most of the characters are morally dubious - including the ones we root for, like Nancy and Dodger. And even Fagin - he's a thoroughly nasty piece of work, a child abuser to at least some extent (quite how far that goes is open to interpretation, even in the film), and yet it actually is satisfying that they changed the ending for him from that of the book and (possibly) saved him from hanging.

Poor Jack Wild.....

A fair bit of that is down to Ron Moody who is by far the best thing in the film. He is superb in the role - playing for laughs only when appropriate, only showing Fagin's softer side when he really has to, and still allowing the character to be grotesque whilst keeping just enough of the audience's sympathy. His rendition of Reviewing The Situation is a masterclass in not just singing a song but acting every word of it - and it's probably my favourite part of the film.

Jack Wild as Dodger is the other stand out. The part he was born to play - and for which he was rightly nominated as Best Supporting Actor! (He struggled with life, as do many child stars - but apparently Ron Moody stayed in touch and became a strong support for him during difficult times.)

If you look closely you might spot Elaine Paige, Jason Donovan's
Dad and Gail off Coronation Street!

The other real strength of the film is the big, slickly choreographed street-dance (in a literal sense) scenes. There's Consider Yourself through the bustle of London Town (during which I get slightly distracted trying to spot a teenaged Elaine Paige and Gail off Corrie!) and then there's the clever staging of Who Will Buy taking over Bloomsbury Square (which actually still looks quite similar today, though much noisier and without milkmaids!)

In conclusion - Oliver! is by no means a bad film. It's actually rather good. It's just not a personal favourite of mine. It probably deserved its Oscar, particularly when you look at what it was up against. And it's the last musical we're going to be watching for several decades-worth of winners.....