Carrie is a 1952 feature film based on the novel Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser.
Directed by William Wyler, the film stars Jennifer Jones in the title role and Laurence Olivier as Hurstwood. Carrie received two Academy Award Nominations: Costume Design, (Edith Head) and Best Art Direction (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Emile Kuri). Additionally, Laurence Olivier received a BAFTA nomination for his performance.
The movie should not be confused with Stephen King's novel of the same name, nor with Brian De Palma's 1976 film version Carrie, which is not a remake of Wyler's movie.
Principal cast
Plot summary
Carrie Meeber (Jennifer Jones) leaves her family in a small rural town and heads to Chicago to make a better life for herself. Carrie is young and absolutely lovely, which doesn't go unnoticed. On the train to Chicago, Charles Drouet (Eddie Albert) approaches her. Although Carrie is reluctant to speak to him, the salesman persists and the two chat until they reach Chicago. Carrie gets off in South Chicago, the slums as Charles Drouet points out, after taking Drouet's business card.
In South Chicago, Carrie stays with her sister, who is married and has one child. Her sister's husband takes $5 from her for room and board and Carrie works at a factory sewing shoes. The factory owner, in order to save money, keeps the lights very low and the women can barely see their fingers. When she gets her finger caught in the sewing machine she is fired. She is desperate. He brother-in-law is quite clear, if she doesn't pay for room & board she can't stay.
After an exhausting and fruitless day of job hunting Carrie looks up Charles Drouet. He not only talks her into having dinner with him at Fitzgerald's, an upscale restaurant, but also gives her $10. Carrie knows that this is more than "compromising" but she doesn't see any other possibilities.
Her sister and brother-in-law won't take "that kind of money." So Carrie, in order to stay with her sister, heads to Fitzgerald's to return the money to Drouet. While there she meets George Hurstwood (Laurence Olivier), the manager of the restaurant, who is immediately smitten with her. Instead of taking the money and returning it on her behalf to Drouet, he brings the two together, seats them himself and sends them a fancy bottle of champagne on the house.
Carrie ends up moving in with Drouet. He is a big talker but basically harmless. Carrie, although clearly not in love with Drouet, is relieved to be safe, to have a roof over her head, to have food on the table. She pressures Drouet to marry her because the neighbors are talking about them. Drouet tries to skirt the issue but it is becoming more and more difficult to do so. He tries to distract her and invites Hurstwood, whom he had run into by sheer coincidence, into their home. They are having a lovely evening playing cards but it is obvious that Hurstwood is falling madly in love with Carrie.
With Drouet's permission, Hurstwood takes Carrie to the theater while Drouet is on one of his many business trips. But Hurstwood and Carrie end up spending every free minute together and Carrie falls in love with Hurstwood, too. When Drouet gets back, just before she is about to run off with Hurstwood, she finds out that Hurstwood is married. It never had occurred to Carrie that Hurstwood might be married. She is distraught and confronts Hurstwood, who admits that he is married although terribly unhappy, but Carrie doesn't want to hear it.
Hurstwood's wife, who is absolutely evil, reminds her husband that every penny that he made, and he provided well for family, is in her name and that he would never see a nickel if he left her.
At the restaurant Hurstwood cashes up for the night and through a set of contrivances finds himself stuck with $10,000 of his boss's money. He goes home with the money and is initially pleased to find his boss there. He tries to give the money to his boss but when he learns that his boss intends to give his salary directly to his wife because of his relationship with Carrie he decides to take the money to run away with Carrie. He leaves an I-O-U intent on paying his boss back as soon as he made it on his own feet.
He coaxes Carrie, who initially refuses to see him, out of the house by telling her that Drouet had injured himself and that he would take her to see him. On the train to Drouet, Hurstwood tells her that he loves her and that the wants to be with her, asking her to leave Drouet. Carrie is torn, she does love Hurstwood and so she decides to stay with him.
The first few days are bliss but then reality catches up with them. Hurstwood's boss sends a tough guy from the bond company after Hurstwood to collect the money Hurstwood took. Hurstwood who has already been looking for work finds out quickly that his boss has gotten to every restaurant owner and everyone knows that he stole money. Unable to find a job, Hurstwood and Carrie soon find themselves in poverty. But they are still madly in love and when Carrie finds out that she is pregnant the two think that things might take a turn for the better. But Hurstwood's wife shows up, wanting Hurstwood's signature allowing her to sell the house they own jointly. Hurstwood wants his share of the proceeds but she says she will press charges against him for bigamy if he insists. Carrie is devastated. They had gotten married and she was sure he had gotten a divorce but that wasn't true. Hurstwood's wife refused to get a divorce and Hurstwood didn't know how to tell Carrie.
Hurstwood tells his wife, he will sign and won't ask for money if she'll grant him a divorce. She does but it is too late. Carrie loses the baby and decides to make a go of it at the theatre. Hurstwood reads in the newspaper that his son is due in New York after his honeymoon and decides to see him at the docks. While he is there, Carrie leaves him (even though she still loves him) because she thinks he will take this opportunity to re-enter his family's life.
While Hurstwood drifts further and further into poverty and ends up in a homeless shelter, Carrie's star in the theatre rises until she is a well-regarded supporting actress on the cusp of fame.
Hurstwood, entirely starved, visits her at the theatre stage door, and she wants to take him back. She had found out from Drouet that Hurstwood had taken the money to start a life with her and blames herself for his predicament. She wants to make it up to Hurstwood but he won't take more than a quarter and disappears after toying with the gas burner in her dressing room.
External links
Carrie at the Internet Movie Database
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Films directed by William Wyler |
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| 1920s |
The Crook Buster (1925) • The Gunless Bad Man (1926) • Ridin' for Love (1926) • The Fire Barrier (1926) • Don't Shoot (1926) • The Pinnacle Rider (1926) • Martin of the Mounted (1926) • Lazy Lightning (1926) • The Stolen Ranch (1926) • The Two Fister (1927) • Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) • Tenderfoot Courage (1927) • The Silent Partner (1927) • Blazing Days (1927) • Shooting Straight (1927) • Galloping Justice (1927) • The Haunted Homestead (1927) • Hard Fists (1927) • The Lone Star (1927) • The Home Trail (1927) • Gun Justice (1927) • The Phantom Outlaw (1927) • The Square Shooter (1927) • The Horse Trader (1927) • Daze of the West (1927) • The Border Cavalier (1927) • Desert Dust (1927) • Thunder Riders (1928) • Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1928) • The Shakedown (1929) • The Love Trap (1929)
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| 1930s |
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| 1940s |
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| 1950s |
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| 1960s |
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