Easy Stages

Two years ago, while setting up U.S. engagements for Director David (Great Expectations) Lean's version of Oliver Twist, British Cinemogul J. Arthur Rank ran into a clamor of protest. Jewish groups protested Dickens' "villainous and repulsive" Fagin, as played in the movie by Alec (The Cocktail Party) Guinness in exaggerated make-up modeled on the famed Cruikshank drawings. Was the movie Fagin a public demonstration of antiSemitism? Rank bowed to the outcry, postponed the U.S. opening "indefinitely" (TIME, Oct. 4, 1948).

Last week, though apparently not quite ready for a full-scale U.S. release, Oliver Twist was heading for exhibition in the neighboring and friendly state of Texas. The film's U.S. distributor, Eagle Lion Classics, announced that a first-run booking had been set for Jan. 19 in seven Texas cities (plus Albuquerque, N.M.). The prospect: moviegoers throughout the U.S. may eventually get a chance to see the picture.

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