Oliver Reed really makes the movie work, because he brings genuine menance and sexuality to his role, which serves as a counterpoint for the sweetness of the musical as a whole. Sikes is dangerous he has no code but survival for himself, and he'll throw anyone else to the wolves without pausing to think about it if it serves him to do so. You look at him and you see what the Artful Dodger would turn into if he had malice in his soul. I love Oliver Reed, always have, and he dominates every scene he has in this movie. She is who she is and she doesn't apologize for it, she's key to saving young Oliver. Shani Wallis as Nancy: tender and tough, tough and tender, she has the virtues of loyalty and honesty even as those values become hindrances to survival. Matter-of-factly and without malice, and leaping to grab joy when the opportunity presents itself. He makes us accept the character as someone basically good-hearted who is just adapting to the life he has to live. He's just superb, audacious and sassy and swaggering, and you can't help but like him even as you see him cheerfully taking up a life of crime. He doesn't just act the role, he doesn't just sing it and dance it, he slips into the character's skin and he IS Fagin, in a way that makes it impossible to imagine anyone else in this role. Here we have Ron Moody in the role of Fagin, and he is INDELIBLE. Anyway, suffice it to say: 'Oliver!' is the musical at its best.

This is a lost art now, I'm convinced, although maybe with the TV series 'Glee!' now riding a wave of popularity, there will be some talented musicians and lyricists who will revive this art-form. These are wonderfully singable, indelibly memorable, and they move the plot and action along the way musical numbers in a film should.

The songs: 'Food, Glorious Food,' 'Consider Yourself,' 'You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two,' just for starters. So: if you find the musical genre contrived or unnatural or kitschy, if it's just not your thing, then don't bother with this movie because it is unabashedly and outstandingly a MUSICAL. But I know that not everyone loves musicals.

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