Carrie (1952)

Director:

William Wyler

Writers:

Theodore Dreiser (novel)
Ruth Goetz (writer) ...

Release Date:

31 October 1952 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Carrie boards the train to Chicago with big ambitions. She gets a job stitching shoes and her sister's...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Restaurant | Salesman | Manager | Factory

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 3 nominations

Cast

Laurence Olivier	...	George Hurstwood
Jennifer Jones	...	Carrie Meeber
Miriam Hopkins	...	Julie Hurstwood
Eddie Albert	...	Charles Drouet
Basil Ruysdael	...	Mr. Fitzgerald
Ray Teal	...	Allen - Bondsman
Barry Kelley	...	Slawson
Sara Berner	...	Mrs. Oransky
William Reynolds	...	George Hurstwood, Jr. (as William Regnolds)
Mary Murphy	...	Jessica Hurstwood
Harry Hayden	...	O'Brien
Charles Halton	...	Factory foreman
Walter Baldwin	...	Mr. Meeber - Carrie's Father
Dorothy Adams	...	Mrs. Meeber - Carrie's Mother
Jacqueline deWit	...	Carrie's Sister Minnie (as Jacqueline de Witt)

Runtime:

118 min | Germany:117 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (nf) | USA:Not Rated (extended version) | Australia:PG | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (2005)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Laurence Olivier accepted the part of George Hurstwood so he could be in Hollywood at the same time that his emotionally troubled wife Vivien Leigh was making A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) so that he could look after her.

Quotes:

Carrie Meeber: When you're poor, it gets all mixed up. You like the people who are good to you.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Jennifer Jones: Portrait of a Lady" (2001)

Magnificent film featuring Laurence Olivier's best film performance.

This is a superb film, directed with great style by William Wyler. A tough film for romantics, it's about how following your heart will not always lead to living "happily ever after". A very mature film about becoming middle-aged but still yearning for romance - and a very uncompromising film in which love and forgiveness are sometimes just not enough. An unusual film to come out of Hollywood in the Fifties, it now emerges as one of the finest American films of that period.

Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert and Miriam Hopkins all deliver top-notch performances - subtle, believable, multi-dimensional and real. Hopkins remains one of the most under-rated of all Hollywood stars - her reputation sadly damaged by her real-life feud with Bette Davis. But she was a brilliant actress. Jones looks stunning, and portrays her character's development from naivety to worldliness with intelligence and strength. Albert is likeable, but also quite menacing, as her salesman lover.

But towering above all is the great Laurence Olivier, in what I venture to say is his best screen performance. As the ageing restauranter who finds true love too late, he gives an unbearably moving performance. His astonishing physical transformations match perfectly his character's downward fortunes - but there is also a complete truth to his emotion here. One wonders how much he was drawing on his own tragic marriage to Vivien Leigh to find that truth.

This is a ten star film.