The David Lean film is superb. American film censors cut some close ups of Guinness because they thought it verged on the anti-semitic. What is left is not. And he was only in his late 20s! What an actor.
Ron Moody is very good - I saw him in a revival in the late 70s in London. In his last years, he seemed to go off the rails and claimed HE wrote the musical and Lionel Bart simply stood by as a stenographer, lol. He also wrote that the great Georgia Brown was a monster. She may have been but, Good Lord! What a voice. I still cry at her torchy rendition of As Long as He Needs Me.
I’m off to dinner now! I could talk about this stuff forever.
I'll have to check, but I think we saw Ron Moody on stage, in the production we saw.
Oh dear...didn't know he said those things, later in life. Poor man....
Georgia Brown was an out of this world actress and her singing voice/style....WOW; leaves one in tears and breathless.
I first heard the original cast recording, of Oliver, in '61, IIRC. I was, needless to say, blown away by it!
I could talk about this stuff forever, too...and we should do! :-)