Word: fagin
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...pressure groups and evil authorities is now in Boston. It is the movie "Oliver Twist," at the Metropolitan. You may have read that this movie was kept out of motion picture theatres in America for more than two years because of the protests of Jewish groups against the character Fagin. Now it is evident that there is little in the film likely to stir up bigotry of any kind...
Dickens did not create all of his characters with the depth he gave Oliver, and from this may have arson the protests about Fagin is a caricature, admittedly; but it is a caricature of a type of person, not (as those who would ban the movie have assumed) a race. Also Guinness plays Fagin in the only way the old crook can be played--with exaggeration, as an amusing old man of guile and evil. Guinness never leaves this interpretation. His acting is not a triumph of subtle shading, but it is wonderfully lucid...
Bill Sikes is more an outright blackguard than Fagin, and this exactly how Robert Newton portrays him. The top-hatted, unshaven bully terrifies Fagin's crew of pickpurses; he terrifies his lover, Nancy; and the chances are that he will terrify you in the climatic scene. Kay Walsh, an extremely lovely and disheveled creature in this film, plays Nancy with lustiness and compassion. Miss Walsh, with her face streaked, her hair flying, and her dress torn, retains a beauty that might even surprise and delight Charles Dickens...
This is the world that J. Arthur Rank has put down in celluloid for us, and we would be losing far more than we would gain by suppressing it. Those who wanted to prevent Fagin from appearing on the American screen should go see him as he instructs his band of youthful thieves in the art of cutting purses. They might not find the old man so bad after...
...Dallas, a theater chain called off its plans to show the British film version of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, which has been awaiting U.S. release for two years (TIME, Dec. 4). On protests from Jewish groups that the movie's faithful portrayal of Fagin was a slur on Jews, Joseph Breen, Hollywood's own unofficial censor, had denied the picture a seal of approval. The film's U.S. distributor, Eagle Lion Classics, appealed for a reversal by the Motion Picture Association of America...