Carrie (1952)

A respectable married man throws away everything for his love of a showgirl.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 18-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD Product Description

Carrie 1952

Based on Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie. Jennifer Jones plays Carrie Meeber, a young woman who moves to Chicago to better herself. Carrie learns the facts of life, that the big city is filled with selfish people. She goes through two lovers, a young Eddie Albert and an older man whom she ruins. Laurence Olivier plays Hurstwood, the man who risks all to recapture his youth. Carrie loves the attention, and Hurstwood has his moment. My favorite scene is where he gives her a new hat. The relationship runs its course. Carrie becomes an actress, and Hurstwood hits the skids. Dreiser's prose is clumsy.
February 22, 2008

Carrie

This is a superbly written, directed, and acted movie, based on the superbly written novel Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. The story remains timely and compelling. It will make you cry. December 12, 2007

Carrie with Laurence Olivier

I enjoyed this movie very much. Laurence Olivier is great, as usual along with Jennifer Jones and Eddie Albert. A great love story between Olivier and Jones. June 27, 2007

Olivier & Jones at their best

*** A bit of a spoiler, the package makes this look like a glossy romance, and it is much deeper and darker.***
This movie really should have been called "George,"as it is the story of a man (Laurence Oliver) who ruins his life for love. Olivier is essentially different here, a humble man who suffers silently, simply wonderful, and shows here in his youth moments of the great acting of his last years (important, because he was aged up for this role). It is a simply brilliant film for him.
Jennifer Jones, playing Carrie, also gives one of her best performances, and their chemistry is fantastic. She was in her 30s and still looks 18, which helps a film where she ages from about 18 to 36.
I did not know anything of this "girl comes to the big city, gets compromised, and rises above" story. It is far more than this trite outline. This wonderful script dips and turns with the complexities of life relationships, legal relationships, and the things we don't tell each other.
Miriam Hopkins, even in her perky youth, was always rather arch and tart. This is used to fantastic advantage here in a very dislikable role. Eddie Albert is also used to best advantage as a flirty traveling salesman and lady killer.
In black and white, the story is about the divisions of poverty and wealth, and how life can take us through levels. Edith Head's magnificent costuming takes the leads from highs to lows, tenements to townhouses to the glamour of the stage in the early 1900s.
The score is by David Raksin, who did such memorable scores as WHIRLPOOL, THE BIG COMBO, FALLEN ANGEL, and PAT AND MIKE. While heavy handed by today's standards, it is musically complex and eloquent, and truly augments the emotional journey of the action. It is some of the best of it's time, evocative of the dissonant soundtracks of ON THE WATERFRONT, and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.
The realeased film had a section removed set in poverty row/homeless men's housing. This section has been restored on the DVD, which reinstates yet another level of complexity, the mixture of poverty, humiliation and pride.
All this makes this film wrenching, memorable and complete. Do not miss this one, it is highly regarded for all the right reasons.
January 25, 2007

movie adaptation: 4-

we were disappointed in the movie version of the book "Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser.... acting was acceptable in fact: at times superb.... but the screen adaption lacked the drama of the different characters, especially the interpretation of Carrie as poor girl entering the life in the big city: would one show her as a squeeky-clean well dressed girl? the movie is fine if you have not read the book before.... read the book afterwards and experience the nuances of a psychological masterpiece.... November 5, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...