Oliver Twist

1948, David Lean
This is that other, younger, leaner, Lean, that  painter in black and white before noire was invented. Here we are immersed in 19th century London, with smoking chimneys, labyrinthine buildings, squalor, crime, fellowship, music--all in all, bursting with human energy--a quintessence of Dickens and Lean. A marvelous film, to be nursed and turned over in one's soul.
Quoting Bosley Crowther:

"And it is this extraordinary canvas, this vast picture of the poverty and greed which oppressed nineteenth-century England, that has been magnificently reproduced in this film....its striking photography have the rare characteristics of fine painting...in the scenes of London, to which the youngster flees, and in the whole visual elaboration of the underworld in which he is caught—there is an extraordinary richness of flavor, suggestion and atmosphere."

CLIP