"This contains some of the most luminescent black-and-white cinematography ever seen. Fagin, as portrayed by Alec Guinness, will have you squirming with repulsion, yet unable to take your eyes off his balding pate."

"Alec Guinness’s stunning versatility, playing a whole cast’s worth of characters, combined with his comic genius makes this a movie that should be enshrined. Funny how Guinness gets credit in many people’s faulty memories for Dennis Price’s high style performance. Can there be people who’ve never seen this treasure? Even once? How sad."

"A perfect black comedy with one of the most underappreciated central performances in film history, by Dennis Price (and a handful of genius ones by Alec Guinness). Truly funny and as dark as sin, this is a film that still feels ahead of its time. The attached “American” ending helps remind us just how annoyingly safe and predictable American tastes can be—did we really need to be reminded?#"