Oliver! (1968)
Directed by Carol Reed

Cast: Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed, Harry Secombe,Mark Lester,J ack Wild, Leonard Rossiter, Hylda Baker,
Kenneth Cranham, Megs Jenkins .....

Won Oscar
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration,Best Director,Best Music, Score of a Musical Picture (Original or Adaptation).
Best Picture,Best Sound

Yes... Hylda Baker was in Oliver!
Most people don' realise our Hylda was this wonderful film, she plays the funeral directors wife, the first place young Oliver is sold to, and then escapes from.

Oliver Trivia
In conjunction with the release of this film (c. 1968-1969), Random House published a hardcover novelization of the film's screenplay for younger audiences, illustrated with stills from the film. Among the stills featured were scenes showing the arrival at the workhouse and the death of Oliver's mother, who, at least in U.S. prints, never appears in the film.

Early rumors regarding casting included Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as Bill and Nancy, and either Laurence Harvey or Peter Sellers as Fagin; though eventually Ron Moody was asked to reprise his stage role. Jack Wild had played one of Fagin's boys in the London production, but was now old enough to play the Artful Dodger. Shani Wallis finally won the role of Nancy nearly a year after first auditioning when she demonstrated an acceptable Cockney accent - the one she grew up with.

The London sets covered six sound stages and a huge studio backlot - with rich and poor sections. The sets were adaptable overnight in spite of their sturdy look, due to the fact that single dance numbers sometimes required changing sets up to a dozen times.

"Boy For Sale" was shot in July despite the required snow setting; exterior shots depended on adequate cloud cover due to the erratic weather in London. The snowballs were made of polystyrene, salt, crazy foam and mashed potatoes.

The cast included 84 boys between 8 and 15 years of age, and one member of Parliament suggested they were being exploited just as the depicted orphans had been. The filmmakers replied that they needed protection more than the boys did, due to the rowdy nature of the production during the summer.

As of 2005, this is the last G-rated film to win the Best Picture Academy Award.

Amazingly, the composer of this highly respected score, Lionel Bart, could not read music himself. From his earliest days in theater, he would sing his melodies to a trained pianist, who would then set the tunes down on sheet music and orchestrate them.

While filming the scene where Oliver gets a peek at Fagin's treasure, director Carol Reed was not satisfied with the reaction on Mark Lester's face. Later, while re-shooting the scene, he hid a small white rabbit in his pocket and stood behind the camera. As Ron Moody opened the box of treasures, Reed pulled the rabbit out of his pocket. Lester's reaction to the sight of the rabbit was then used in the final film.