Product: Oliver Twist [VHS] (1922)
Rating: 4.0
Oliver Twist
They sure get some adorable kids to play Oliver Twist. "Despised by all and pitied by none." Hooey. In 1922 Jackie Coogan owned Hollywood, and the hearts of Americans all over the world.Well, the Kid could act, and don't let the cover art or p.r. department fool you. This is Coogan's movie, and Lon Chaney is definitely a secondary character. This 1922 silent movie is well done, and doesn't feel much more dated than the story it tells. Lon Chaney, who must have been wearing some (probably terribly uncomfortable) contraption plays Fagin as a bent, wizened, sharp-nosed wheedler.I enjoyed LIGHT OF FAITH, the 32-minute add-on movie, more than OLIVER TWIST. Chaney stars in this one, sans cumbersome make-up, playing a street tough who falls for a young woman who moves into his tenement building. The woman, as they were wont to do back then, is failing from a broken heart. The distant object of her affection found the Grail Tennyson wrote of in his Arthurian tales. The Grail, she tells the impressionable Chaney, glows with an inner light and has remarkable curative powers.So, the girl's dangerously declining, her old beau has the Grail, and Chaney has a larcenous inspiration. Director Clarence Brown delicately handles the material, and Chaney gives a subtle and nuanced performance.