Amazon.com video review:
Jackie Coogan had made his name as the spunky waif in Chaplin's
The Kid when he took on the role of Charles Dickens's plucky orphan
hero in Oliver Twist. It's dream casting: wide-eyed Coogan is an
innocent with a heart of gold dropped into a den of thieves, notably Lon
Chaney's Fagin, a heartless conniver with long whiskers, a hook nose, rotten
teeth and skeletal fingers. The entire production is peopled with perfect
types--a rotund bulldog of a Mr. Brumble, a barrel-chested bully of a Bill
Sykes, a ragged dandy of an Artful Dodger--but it rather misses the point of
Dickens. "I know of two kinds of boys: good and bad," sniffs one high-society
gentleman, and sure enough, director Frank Lloyd gives us heroes and villains
without the energetic, colorful portrayals of the Dodger (who has little
dramatic presence) and Fagin that enrich later versions of the novel. The
entire novel is packed into 74 breakneck minutes, but the lavish production
is richly atmospheric and beautiful to look at, and Coogan's cute, sprightly
performance keeps the story bouncing along. The print is well worn and in
places quite damaged, but it's presentable, nicely tinted, and accompanied by
an organ score by John Muri.
This disc also includes Lon Chaney in The Light of Faith (an abridged
version of Clarence Brown's The Light in the Dark). Chaney plays a
thief who, inspired by the story of the Holy Grail, risks his life to rob a
rich man of his ancient goblet in the hopes that it may save a sick girl.
There's little room for dramatic resonance in such a digest-sized version,
but Chaney shines as a reformed roughneck, and the lavish production is well
preserved in this excellent restoration, which has been tinted and set to an
organ score by Hank Troy. --Sean Axmaker
