The stage musical
- Accidental Innuendo: "Everything's clear/ Attack the rear"
- Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Good grief, Fagin. FAGIN. How do we properly trope him? He's cast in this adaption in a much lighter and comedical tone. But the lovable rogue's character bounces all over the place. One minute he's fun and endearing, the next mentally unhinged, if anyone stumbles upon his secret horde. He gives the orphaned children of London a home, and teaches them how to survive, whereas the alternative is begging on the streets or ending up in the Workhouse. But despite the wealth he's accumulated, doesn't do much to improve theirs (or indeed his own) squalid living conditions.
- Sikes can sometimes come under this too, particularly in his relationship with Nancy. It can be played as pretty much everything from him truly loving her and killing her more out of grief that she's betrayed him than outright anger, to being fairly disinterested in her and tolerating her presence for as long as she worships him. For that matter, the murder itself can be played as fully intentional, or it can come across as an accident, e.g. that he "only" meant to give her a brutal beating and didn't expect it to kill her.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The song "I Shall Scream". While it can be pretty funny, it has absolutely no bearing on the plot. Rather fittingly, it's left out of the 1968 movie version. It establishes a romance between Mr. Bumble and Ms. Corney, which is referenced later during one scene in the second act, and is thematically important: the Bumbles are evil, selfish people, and thus they make each other miserable rather than happy.
- Averted hard with the opening song of the Second Act: "Oom-Pah-Pah". It doesn't seem to have much impact on the story at first; it's a rowdy drinking song that Nancy leads at the Three Cripples pub. However, this is purely to get the audience to let down their guard because right after the song finishes, Bill Sikes makes his dramatic entrance with "My Name". It's effectively the moment of relief that comes before the Jump Scare.
- He's Just Hiding: Nancy has been known to receive lots of cheers when her actress comes out to take the final bows - most of it from children who think it means she survived.
- Love to Hate: The Bumbles are entertainingly horrid and get a fun song ("I Shall Scream") so they have a lot of fans, rather like the Thernardiers from Les Misérables.
- Moral Event Horizon: Sikes crosses this when he murders Nancy. You know you have done something utterly unforgivable when your dog, an animal which is famous for it's Undying Loyalty, turns against you.
- Nightmare Fuel: Two words: Bill. Sikes.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- Noah Claypool only gets one scene, as opposed to his long and loathsome presence in the book. However, he avoids being Demoted to Extra via making quite an impression during his brief time on stage.
- The unnamed Rose Seller who only appears in "Who Will Buy?", but the solo is considered very important and is always a remembered part of the arrangement.
- Retroactive Recognition: One of Dodger's understudies in the original cast was Tony Robinson
- And one of the originial stage actors for The Artful Dodger was Davy Jones.
- Signature Song: Even people who haven't seen the show or the film know "Consider Yourself" instantly. Eddie Redmayne joked that any theatre kid in the UK knows the song and the dance off by heart (he played one of the pickpocket children in a Sam Mendes production at the age of ten).
- Tough Act to Follow: The Musical was Lionel Bart's biggest hit alas, everything else he did wasn't. His other musicals that opened post-Oliver didn't have the same hype, Blitz! and Maggie May being modest at best but too British to do Broadway. Then Twang!! was an utter disaster, with Bart too drugged up to help. Also, nothing seemed to work and La Strada closed on its opening night on Broadway with Bart unwilling to travel to the States and most of his songs deleted. Bart ended up bankrupt from pumping money into the last two and sold the rights to Oliver and his other works.
- Vanilla Protagonist: When he's surrounded by memorable characters like Fagin, Dodger, Nancy, the Bumbles and Sikes - Oliver doesn't have much to offer. They just have more entertaining songs and character arcs.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Considered a family-friendly show, despite it adapting many of the darker parts that came from the very grim novel (it does treat some of them with a more comedic age, making it more accessible for children). This includes the shockingly violent climax involving Sikes beating Nancy to death and then dying himself - by hanging in the 1968 or sometimes being shot. The 1968 film was even G-rated!
The movie
- Award Snub:
- As time has gone by, people are left wondering why Shani Wallis wasn't even nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.
- Ron Moody's impeccable performance as Fagin was rightfully nominated, but he sadly didn't take home the trophy. He did win the Golden Globe though.
- Oliver Reed's chilling performance as Bill Sikes went unnoticed.
- Can't Un-Hear It: Ron Moody as Fagin, Oliver Reed as Bill Sikes, Jack Wild as the Artful Dodger to name a few.
- Fight Scene Failure: When Bill hits Nancy, Oliver Reed is showing visible restraint and the slap doesn't properly connect. The sound effect is also clearly dubbed in.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Fagin giving the children gin can be a little sad to watch with the knowledge of Jack Wild's alcohol problems as he grew older - resulting in throat surgery due to the damage.
- "Oom Pah Pah" becomes that much more of a Tear Jerker due to its placement in the film - as when seeing it, you know it's going to lead to Nancy's horrible death.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Casting Oliver Reed as the drunken lout Bill Sikes was incredibly meta, given his legendary status as a member of the hard drinking foursome of British actors (along with Peter O'Toole, Richard Harris and Richard Burton).
- Moe: Mark Lester is so adorably innocent as Oliver that he prompts this reaction.
- Nightmare Fuel: Bill Sikes alone is Nightmare Fuel for this movie, and Oliver Reed's performance really drove home just how much of a monster he was.
- Nancy being beaten to death by Sikes while Oliver is Forced to Watch. Also the fact that she was still twitching is very hard to watch.
- The very grim shot of Sikes' dead body hanging above the ground.
- One-Scene Wonder: Hugh Griffith takes the cake as the Magistrate in his one scene, where he's drunk throughout the whole hearing and keeps sneaking sips under his desk lid.
- Questionable Casting: Oliver's singing is clearly dubbed by a female voice, and it can result in an odd Vocal Dissonance during songs like "Where Is Love?" - where the voice sounds much older (Kathe Green was twenty-four when she dubbed the singing). They originally had two other boys to dub Mark Lester, but discovered in post production that their voices didn't match his look - and Kathe was a quick replacement.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- Nancy's friend Bet is played by Sheila White, who'd be more recognisable to fans of EastEnders and the Confessions of a... films.
- An extra is played by Jack Haig, who would later be best known for playing the first LeClerc in 'Allo 'Allo!.
- Also, as extras was Helen Platt, who plays Gail in Coronation Street and Elaine Paige.
- Tough Act to Follow: It's very telling that a film version of a musical didn't win the Best Picture Oscar until 34 years later (Chicago if you're curious). This is also considered one of the last truly great movie musicals before Hello, Dolly! killed the genre at the end of the decade.
- Unpopular Popular Character: Many lovers of the film feel Ron Moody's performance as the scoundrel Fagin, is the best adaptation of the character ever, and unmatched.
