Oliver Twist (1916)

Little Oliver Twist, of uncertain antecedents, born in a workhouse, grows up in environments of squalor and penury. The fare of the workhouse for the children is very thin, consisting of a diet of weak gruel, with an onion twice a week and half a roll on Sunday. Finally the outcast plucks up courage enough to ask for more. Immediately the building tumbles about him. Bumble calls in the Supervising Board and Oliver is condemned to the cellar. He finally manages to escape by climbing out of the window. He starts on a long walk to London, meets in with the Artful Dodger and is taken to Fagin's garret, where he is taught the art of thievery. In the meantime Brownlow, a friend of Oliver's dead father, has been commissioned to find him. Monks, a former servant of Oliver's father, finally traces the boy to the workhouse, but finds that he has fled. Oliver, out on a pocket picking expedition with the Artful Dodger, is captured by Brownlow. After taking him to the police station, Brownlow decides to take him home. The Dodger rushes back and tells Fagin, Sikes and Nancy that Oliver has been arrested, but at the police station Nancy cannot find where he has gone. Monks finally traces the boy to Fagin's, and all of them, anxious for the fortune, search for him. Oliver has improved under Brownlow's loving hands, but when sent on an errand he is captured by Sikes and made to assist in a burglary. But once in the house, he notifies the inmates and Sikes and his men have to flee. Mr. Brownlow finds him and later meets Monks, whom he forces to confess that Oliver is the young man for whom he is in search. Oliver is kidnapped again and hidden in a cellar, but Nancy informs Brownlow of his whereabouts. Fagin and the Dodger are arrested, but Sikes flees, and just after he kills Nancy for telling of Oliver's whereabouts, he falls from the roof while dodging the police. Oliver is returned to Mr. Brownlow and learns that his real name is Master George Laeford, and Oliver, after all of his troubles, comes into his own.