Robert Donat was desperate to play Sikes and did a screen test.
Alfie Bass was considered for the the Artful Dodger, until Kay Walsh, David Lean's wife at the time, recommended Anthony Newley who was with her in Vice Versa.
Banned on inital release in both Israel and Egypt; in Israel for being anti-Semitic, and in Egypt for making Fagin too sympathetic.
In the original novel, Mr. Brownlow is neither Oliver's grandfather nor his uncle: he was the guardian of a girl who turned out to be Oliver's aunt, and at one time the fiancé of his father's younger sister before she died.
The film's release in the US was delayed until 1951 because of protests from Jewish pressure groups, who judged Alec Guinness's portrayal of Fagin to be anti-Semitic
The wordless opening sequence, in which Oliver's mother staggers over the rain-swept moors to give birth on the steps of the workhouse, was devised by Kay Walsh
When Nancy is bludgeoned to death, Sikes's dog was tricked into scratching at the door by a stuffed cat placed on the other side.