Parents Guide for
Oliver! (1968)

Bill Sykes and Nancy live together out of wedlock. There is obviously a sexual relationship between them, but no sex or nudity is shown. Bill and Nancy are never even seen kissing.

Near the end of the film, Bill Sykes beats Nancy to death with a cane. Only the cane is seen above a wall, whilst Nancy is heard to cry out as Oliver looks on. After Bill steps back from the spot where Nancy lies, a small amount of blood is shown on his hands, and he wipes them off on his coat. All we see of the dead Nancy are her feet. (This scene is possibly even more frightening than the later one in which Sykes is shot dead.)

Earlier, when Nancy refuses to help kidnap Oliver, Sykes slaps her across the face so hard that she falls off the chair on which she is sitting.

At one point, Bill grabs Fagin by the throat menacingly, as if he were going to strangle him.

After Oliver is kidnapped, he suddenly slaps Bill across the face and breaks free, but Bill grabs him and is about to whip him with his belt, when Nancy intervenes.

At one point, the Artful Dodger is seen mouthing the sentence "Go to hell!" at a woman, but the sound of his voice is completely drowned out by a train whistle (this is probably how the filmmakers got around having to get a PG rating for the film - its violence was not considered PG at the time).

The boy pickpockets drink gin.

The murder scene mentioned above.

Bill Sykes forces Oliver to climb out on a high beam to attach a rope, before himself attempting to use the rope to swing to another building. As he reaches the other building he is shot, falls off the parapet and dies, and swings dangling limply from the rope as Oliver holds on to the beam above him.