When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist (John Howard Davies) dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble (Francis L. Sullivan), for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice.
Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin Artful Dodger (Anthony Newley) and his criminal mentor, Fagin (Alec Guinness). When kindly Mr. Brownlow (Henry Stephenson) takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes (Robert Newton) plots to kidnap the boy.
This masterly adaptation of the Dickens novel by director David Lean brims with unforgettable scenes and performances, especially Guinness's Fagin and Newton's genuinely frightening Bill Sikes.