Bill and Nancy obviously live together, and at one point, they seem about to make love. (This is a pre-Production Code era film, and censorship was not as strict then. True censorship in films began the following year, in 1934.) But no sex or nudity is actually shown in the film.

Fagin's boys drink and smoke.

Oliver's mother dies after giving birth at the beginning, but the actual death is not shown, and the scene in this early talking film is so overacted it is unintentionally funny.

At one point, Oliver sees Fagin, Sikes, Nancy, and the Artful Dodger grinning in a faintly sinister way.