I really like Dickens, but Oliver Twist was not my favorite novel. I'd put it in about the middle. The musical version , Oliver!, though I did not care for at all. It definitely smooths out the hard edges and social injustice message of the book. I almost expected the film to end with the entire cast, including a miraculously returned to the living Nancy, performing a song and dance finale. The 1948 film Oliver Twist is a much better adaption of the book.