Un amour désespéré

Lawrence Olivier plays a man that's comfortably off in the high society of Chicago at the end of the 19th century. He'll risk everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) for the love of a young lady. Of course, if the young lady is Jennifer Jones then it really makes some sense. The family, the money, the social status... that's nothing compare with that angel face and the ingenuity of a country girl.

"Carrie" is a big time melodrama. If you think that Scarlett O'Hara had a rough time, wait and see the descent into hell of Olivier's character. The journey of Sir Laurence from the days of wine and roses to the misery and the wandering is just overwhelming... (what can you expect of one of the best actors ever??).

Don't you forget your handkerchief!

*My rate: 8/10

Not for nothing is Laurence Olivier heralded as one of the greatest actors of our time, and if ever a film proved it, it's "Carrie," an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie." Dreiser is the man who brought us "An American Tragedy," remade as "A Place in the Sun." Poor Dreiser - he must have been one miserable human being to write such stories of man's desolation.

"Carrie" is the story of a distinguished man, George Hurstwood (Olivier) who runs a large Chicago restaurant, and how his obsession with a beautiful young woman, Carrie (Jennifer Jones) destroys his social standing, his reputation, and his life.

Miserable in a loveless marriage to Julie (Miriam Hopkins), George meets Carrie while she is living with a salesman, Charlie (Eddie Albert). One thing that the film points out is that there were so very few opportunities for women in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th.

After losing her job due to injury at a shoe-making factory, Carrie drifts into friendship and then is seduced into a relationship with Charlie. She is never comfortable with the arrangement and wants to get married.

Very naive and inexperienced at life, when she falls in love with George, she expects him to marry her, not realizing that he's already married. An angry, vicious Julie goes to George's boss with the tale of her husband's immorality.

After a confrontation with his boss and Julie, George panics, takes money he intended to give to the restaurant owner, and runs away with Carrie. Thus, he becomes a fugitive. But his troubles are just beginning.

William Wyler skillfully directed this film, which has one of Olivier's best screen performances as George. "I want love!" he screams at his wife. "And I intend to have that before I die!"

Desperate, obsessed, weak, but proud, Olivier gives a fully fleshed-out portrayal of a man at the end of his rope whose great passion - in a more devastating way - will ruin his life almost as surely as his suppression of passion would have. How he wasn't nominated for an Oscar is a true mystery; it is one of the all-time great film portrayals. He will break your heart.

As Carrie, Jennifer Jones is excellent as an unhappy young woman who, because of poverty, innocence, and George's determination, is dragged into a downward spiral. She is dazzlingly beautiful and one can see her grow from a vapid, victimized girl into a woman who hides her resentment and has a strong resolve.

Jones has been criticized for being passive in this part - but it's a passive role. She's a young country girl in the big city at a time when society was totally male-oriented and most doors were closed to her. She is the cause of George's destruction, but not on purpose. George is such a weak man that the only type of person he could ever dominate would be someone like Carrie - and finally, he isn't even able to dominate her.

Hopkins was a master at playing a shrew, but more than that, she was a brilliant actress who knew the art of playing period pieces, as she demonstrated so admirably in "The Heiress." Eddie Albert is good in the familiar role of a likable salesman, but it had an added twist - this one had ulterior motives, but he was so smiley and gregarious, you almost couldn't believe it.

Well worth seeing but have a box of tissues nearby. You'll ask yourself, too, how Olivier and the film could have been overlooked at Oscar time.

This is a superb film, directed with great style by William Wyler. A tough film for romantics, it's about how following your heart will not always lead to living "happily ever after". A very mature film about becoming middle-aged but still yearning for romance - and a very uncompromising film in which love and forgiveness are sometimes just not enough. An unusual film to come out of Hollywood in the Fifties, it now emerges as one of the finest American films of that period.

Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert and Miriam Hopkins all deliver top-notch performances - subtle, believable, multi-dimensional and real. Hopkins remains one of the most under-rated of all Hollywood stars - her reputation sadly damaged by her real-life feud with Bette Davis. But she was a brilliant actress. Jones looks stunning, and portrays her character's development from naivety to worldliness with intelligence and strength. Albert is likeable, but also quite menacing, as her salesman lover.

But towering above all is the great Laurence Olivier, in what I venture to say is his best screen performance. As the ageing restauranter who finds true love too late, he gives an unbearably moving performance. His astonishing physical transformations match perfectly his character's downward fortunes - but there is also a complete truth to his emotion here. One wonders how much he was drawing on his own tragic marriage to Vivien Leigh to find that truth.

This is a ten star film.

This was a pretty powerful melodrama, thanks to the great performance of Sir Laurence Olivier.

Olivier plays an unhappily-married older man who falls for the young and beautiful Jennifer Jones (not hard to understand!).....and pays a huge price for his adultery. Olivier is near-mesmerizing in this film and Jones is absolutely gorgeous, as she was in "Portrait Of Jennie," made about five years prior to this film.

Eddie Albert was a bit annoying (but effective) in his role and Miriam Hopkins is downright brutal in her small part as Olivier's wife.

The shocking thing about this film was the subject matter, rare for its day. It was ahead of its day in one respect: it makes the adulterers into the sympathetic "good guys." I'm surprised that got by the censors of the day. Jones' character is oddly innocent for someone "shacking up" with Albert.

I am not a fan of soap operas, but this was highly involving, a tough story to put down once it started I didn't particularly like the ending, but are you gonna do? Note: One of the scenes near the end was inserted on the DVD. It had previously been cut out of the theatrical release. That "flophouse" scene was one that was not passed over by the censors.

This is a curious little sleeper from 1952, a grim, objective look at the upward mobility of a country girl who first adapts to the needs of the men around her, and then moves on to a successful stage career on her own, leaving one of the men in abject poverty.

Today Carrie succeeds not only because of it's splendid recreation of a time, but as one of the few American vehicles where the legendary Laurence Olivier, (who often walked through a character role for the paycheck) performs to his best advantage, evolving from an assured man of the world to a pathetic morsel at the bottom of the heap, a restrained and beautifully measured performance given 13 years later than his dynamic Heathcliff for the same directer in 1939's Wuthering Heights.

Jennifer Jones, too, is a good deal less hysterical and florid than usual; the music score by David Raksin underscores without bombast, and the supporting cast provide excellent contrast. This is definitely not a cheerer-upper, but a picture neatly tuning into it's original author's concerns. It deserves another look, and as time goes by, will be considered one of Wyler's significant contributions.