Carrie

Carrie is based on Sister Carrie, a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Dreiser’s clumsy, unwieldy prose is streamlined into a neat and precise screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. Jennifer Jones stars as Carrie, who leaves her go-nowhere small town for the wicked metropolis of Chicago. Here she becomes the mistress of brash traveling salesman Charles Drouet (Eddie Albert), then throws him over in favor of erudite restaurant manager George Hurstwood (Laurence Olivier). Obsessed by Carrie, George steals money from his boss to support her in the manner to which he thinks she is accustomed. Left broke and disgraced by the ensuing scandal, Carrie deserts George to become an actress. Years later, the conscience-stricken Carrie tries to regenerate George, who has fallen into bum-hood. If Laurence Olivier seems a surprising casting choice in Carrie, try to imagine what the film would have been like had Cary Grant, Paramount’s first choice, accepted the role., Drama about a young woman who leaves the country and heads for the bright lights of Chicago, only to discover that life in the big city is more complicated than she expected., William Wyler’s production of Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie” with Jennifer Jones and Laurence Olivier as ill-fated lovers in turn-of-the-century Chicago. Julie: Miriam Hopkins. Drouet: Eddie Albert. Allan: Ray Teal. Fitzgerald: Basil Ruysdael.