CARRIE (1952)

This adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s SISTER CARRIE from helmer William Wyler & playwrights Ruth & Augutus Goetz is a companion piece to their earlier Henry James adaptation of WASHINGTON SQUARE, retitled THE HEIRESS.  Dreiser’s unwieldy novel assures a less 'well-made' script, not necessarily a bad thing, which makes this the less perfect but more dramatically enriched of the pair. As the respectable, middle-aged suitor who plummets in his love for Carrie, Laurence Olivier, rarely able to demonstrate his best form onscreen, is a revelation.  (He always claimed Wyler taught him screen acting in WUTHERING HEIGHTS/'39, and here’s proof in his finest nonclassical film role.  Even more so with the recent restoration of a crucial flophouse sequence.  As the young girl who uncomprehendingly leads him to his doom, Jennifer Jones never seems quite worth the fuss, though that may be the point.  Eddie Albert, as Carrie’s ambiguous protector, & Miriam Hopkins, as Olivier’s unsympathetic/unyielding wife make for superbly vivid archetypes.  But the film remains Olivier’s.  Note parallel scenes for Olivier & his then wife Vivien Leigh in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE when a bare light is dramatically thrown on their aging faces.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, THE HEIRESS.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-heiress-1949.html