Take A Look At This! THIS Is Film Brilliance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                        I usually hate, in film adaptations of Broadway musicals, when the song placement is changed, but I have to confess there are times when it does work.  Two examples come from "The Sound Of Music," where "My Favorite Things" is used as a device for Maria to win over the children, rather than the duet between Maria and Mother Superior in the show, prior to her leaving for the Von Trapp villa.  Another is "The Lonely Goatherd," which is brilliantly staged as a puppet show, and becomes an extra special number.  In the stage show, it is used the same way "My Favorite Things" is in the film but does not work as well on stage.

                                            Another is "I Dreamed A Dream" in "Les Misérables."  The stage show has Fantine sing it immediately after she is tossed out on the street.  In the film, Anne Hathaway sang it after Fantine's first experience as a prostitute, which actually works better, since, at this point, she has actually come as low as she will go.

                                             But the greatest placement switch of all was accomplished in Sir Carol Reed's production of "Oliver!," 1968.  In the stage show, "Oom! Pah! Pah!" opens Act Two, simply as a music hall type number for Nancy, and to settle the audience down for the drama to follow.  There is nothing wrong with the song; it's great.  I have read that initially, Reed did not want to put it in the movie, unless he could find a way of doing so.  And he did.  Here, as part of the thrilling denouement, the song is used as a device for Nancy to get Oliver out of the tavern, and delivering him to Mr. Brownlow, on London Bridge, at midnight.  This can be seen within the first twenty-five seconds, as the camera goes, from Nancy, to Bet, to Sikes and Fagin, to Oliver and Bullseye, the dog, and Nancy looks around, wondering, with Bet, what she can do.  A distant male chorus strikes up the song, and you can see her mind working, planning this as an escape device for she and Oliver.  Shani Wallis plays it brilliantly, and, because of this, the song, marvelously staged, has a dramatic tension that adds to the story.  And even though Nancy was not killed at London Bridge, (she was bludgeoned by Bill Sikes in her residence in the novel) setting this tragedy at said locale gives it a heartbreaking theatricality, and aids in the downfall of Bill Sikes, betrayed even by his dog.  Nancy's death is more heartbreaking than Fantine's; not only because it is horribly violent, but, because, like Charlie Malloy (Rod Steiger) in 1954's "On The Waterfront," she knows it is coming.  Yet she does the right thing, knowing it will cost her.

                                   Here is that moment.  It is heartbreaking, not only because most know what is coming, but because, following this, Oliver returns to Nancy, and, with "Where Is Love?" underscored, the two have a heartfelt embrace, which I bet was as real to Mark Lester and Shani Wallis as Oliver and Nancy.  But then.... I have no doubt that, when Oliver grows up, if he has a daughter, he will name her after Nancy, the brave woman who saved him.  And Shani Wallis is magnificent throughout.

                                    I don't know how else to convey it, but--

                                     Here is "Oom! Pah! Pah!," and then Nancy's fleeing, and death.  Watch these chronologically and see what great film making is!

                                     Shani Wallis should have been Oscar nominated for her Nancy.  No one I have seen has done the role better!

                                       And that red dress, girls!  We all want to wear it!