Oliver Twist Backstage

 In response to a follower's comment, here's a rare pic of director Clive Donner allowing actor Richard Charles a director's eye view of the action:

James Goldman's Oliver Twist Screenplay, 2nd Draft

Today, I finished reading the Oliver Twist screenplay by James Goldman. This is the second draft, written in 1981. Filming with cast and crew began that fall, and you can see th fall leaves in some of the scenes. Nick Davies, the actor who played Dick, Oliver's fellow workhouse who tragically dies in the book, stated that there were several deleted scenes, including a long scene of dialogue between Dick and Oliver after being shut up in the cellar. Here are the deleted and scenes and major differences in the screenplay from what actually reached the screen:

1)The screenplay is more violent, as Bumble actually slaps Oliver for asking for more, knocking him to the floor. Later, Sowerberry also strikes Oliver after he breaks Claypole's nose.

2) After Oliver and Dick are thrown in the cellar, there is a long dialogue between them. They fear rats in the cellar, and Oliver swears he's get even with Bumble some day--as he does!

3) They pour a bucket over Oliver to wash him before he goes before the board.

4) Oliver says farewell to Mrs. Corney beofre he goes to live with the Sowerberrys. Mrs. Corney seems nicer here than in the book, where she's the one who becomes Mrs. Bumble.

5) Noah Claypole argues with Sowerberry about giving the part of silent mourner to Oliver instead of him (same as the Scope magazine teleplay for junior high).

6) Before running off to London, Oliver meets Dick a final time at the workhouse. The two children embrace, and say farewell to each other, just like in the book.

7) Oliver shows sOliver is seen rumaging through a garbage heap for food. He flees when a dog scres him off; in the later Detroit Times version, Oliver scrambles through fence first of an inn, then scrambles back to get away. THis was definitely a deleted scene, as you can see from the picture.

8)The script states outright that Oliver considers waking up the family before the burglary (again, like the book), before Sykes warns him not to even think of it.

9 In the final movie cut, Rose is teaching Oliver arithmetic in the scene before Oliver sees Fagin and Monks at the window. )In Goldman's script, Rose and Oliver are reading the Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable. Oliver asks her what a "liege" and she departs to fetch a dictionary. Oliver then continues reading by the garden window. Lancelot and Merlin casting spells on dragons are mentioned before Oliver notices the two stalkers and screams.

10) In the movie, Mrs. Bumble notes that Monks does not look like Oliver's mother, even though he claims she was his sister (he's lying). In the script she notes that while Monks is dark, Agnes is a ash-blonde as Oliver. This shows Richard Hill had already been cast as Oliver when he wrote this.

11)In the final movie cut, Rose is teaching Oliver arithmetic in the scene before Oliver sees Fagin and Monks at the window. )In Goldman's script, Rose and Oliver are reading the Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable. Oliver asks her what a "liege" and she departs to fetch a dictionary. Oliver then continues reading by the garden window. Lancelot and Merlin casting spells on dragons are mentioned before Oliver notices the two stalkers and scream.

12) At the very end, the script contiains this line of dialogue: :"You have given me my father and my mother. I'm not an orphan anymore. I have a name." Rose and Mr. Brownlow

each take him by the hand. They walk to their carraige togather.

There is no sign of the scene in which Brownlow and Rose are talking over Oliver's head on the lawn, or the one that shows Oliver and his new family gathered outside their estate.

According to Nick Davies on Youtube, there was deleted dialogue where it's brought out that Dick had died. There is none such in the script, at least this version.

James Goldman's script is very very beautifully written, and also brings out the suffering Oliver has to go through even more than the movie.

 

Like

Comment

Share

James Goldman's Oliver Twist movie script

A couple years back, I did locate an actual copy of a bound script by James Goldman for 1982's Oliver Twist on a prop store site. It turned it had been setting on there for some time, but someone had just purchased it. This copy was apparently owned by a carpenter who worked on the sets. I believe it to be an earlier draft than the onbe that appeared in the CBS readering program. The top of one page hints at a scene that might have been cut, where Oliver says to Fagin: "I hope so, sir. Last time she came, she-"
This line of dialogue is missing from the film. Is he talking about Nancy?

A Rare Behind the Scenes Scarlet Pimpernel Moment

This has been on youtube for a while, but...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ_YJdGniew

Oliver Twist Reading Program on CBS

 

Oliver Twist Party

     It's almost the anniversary for 1982's Oliver Twist. Back then, this article was published in Screen International ,a British publication, at the time the movie was released on American television. The producers and actors threw this party in honor of the film's release. 

     Richard Charles, the boy who brought the definitive version of Oliver to life, is caught in a rare moment off-screen. He apparently attended the party in-character, wearing the aristocratic get-up he wore in the film after Oliver's rescue, when he accepted a charity award for his performance, from Ward Thomas, chairman of Trident Television. I'd never heard of him, though I know of Norton Romsey, Twist's co-producer, but I didn't know he had a title until now. 

     Cherie Lunghi who played Nancy, and Eileen Atkins (Mrs. Bumble), and Oliver Cotton (Monks/Edward Leeford) are also in attendance. An actress who was uncredited (I do remember her scene) also came in character as a Victorian street flower girl. Ted Child's the film's other co-producer is there. Absent, at least in the photos, are the others, including Tim Curry, and George C. Scott, who had top billing as Fagin. I'm guessing Scott was in America at the time. The same might have been true with Curry. Even though he's British, Curry spent a lot of time in America, as I recall, and was working on (or maybe had finished) playing another villain in a screen version of Annie at the time. "Timothy Corrie" is someone entirely different.

      

     One other thing: I wonder why the heck Clive Donner isn't here. He directed, he's British, so he'd surely be in attendance.

Scarlet Pimpernel Ad

This is an ad from TV guide, from way back in November 1982. This is before I even saw it; I first saw it as repeat in '86.