Following his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his adaptation of Dickens' 1838 novel, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan, cinematographer Guy Green, designer John Bryan and editor Jack Harris.

To escape the torture, Oliver travels a seven day journey to London, where he befriends the Artful Dodger, a young pickpocket who introduces him to Fagin, an elderly criminal who trains boys how to steal.

Sometime later, whilst at the Three Criples pub, Nancy overhears a conversation between Fagin and Monks and learns of the latter’s true intentions towards Oliver.

Although critically acclaimed, Alec Guinness's portrayal of Fagin and his make-up was considered antisemitic by some as it was felt to perpetuate Jewish racial stereotypes.

[3] Guinness wore heavy make-up, including a large prosthetic nose, to make him look like the character as he appeared in George Cruikshank's illustrations in the first edition of the novel.

Deutsch wrote that even Dickens "'could not make Fagin half so horrible,' and warned that the film would fan the flames of anti-Semitism."

The New York Board of Rabbis appealed to Eric Johnston, head of the Production Code Administration, to keep the film out of the U.S. Other Jewish groups also objected, and the Rank Organization announced in September 1948, that U.S. release was "indefinitely postponed.

[11][12] According to Kinematograph Weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1948 Britain was The Best Years of Our Lives with Spring in Park Lane being the best British film and "runners up" being It Always Rains on Sunday, My Brother Jonathan, Road to Rio, Miranda, An Ideal Husband, Naked City, The Red Shoes, Green Dolphin Street, Forever Amber, Life with Father, The Weaker Sex, Oliver Twist, The Fallen Idol and The Winslow Boy.

The site's critics' consensus reads: Author Marc Napolitano noted that Lean's version of Oliver Twist had an impact on almost every subsequent adaptation of Dickens's novel.

[17] Of the opening scene, an idea that originated from Kay Walsh,[18] Napolitano wrote: Songwriter Lionel Bart acknowledged that Lean's film "played a role in his conception" of the musical Oliver!

Katharyn Crabbe wrote:[19]: 50  "One common complaint about the form of Dickens' Oliver Twist has been that the author fell so in love with his young hero that he could not bear to make him suffer falling into Fagin's hands a third time and so made him an idle spectator in the final half of the book.

"Author Edward LeComte credited Lean for resolving the issue in his film version,[19]: 50  where Oliver remains "at the center of the action" and has a "far more heroic" role.