Carrie (1952)

Set at the turn of the 19th century, a young naive girl (Jennifer Jones) moves from a provincial small town to Chicago to live with her married sister (Jacqueline DeWit). She is seduced by a traveling salesman (Eddie Albert) and they live as a married couple. But when a married man (Laurence Olivier) falls in love with her, it will prove his downfall. Based on the novel SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser and directed by William Wyler (ROMAN HOLIDAY). Paramount had a critical success with a film version of Dreiser's AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY the year before (A PLACE IN THE SUN) so I suppose they thought to try it again. The movie is a sanitized version of the Dreiser novel. The Carrie of the novel is more ambitious and calculating than the sweet young thing we see here and while the novel's ending is darker, I found the film's ending devastating. Initial reviews were dismissive of Jones's performance but I thought her quite touching. But the film's piece de resistance is Olivier's performance, easily his best non-Shakespearean performance on film. To watch this dignified and educated man descend into his own private hell is shattering and if his last scene with Jones doesn't wreck you, you have no heart! With Miriam Hopkins, Ray Teal, William Reynolds, Mary Murphy and Barry Kelley.