Carrie (1952)

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Movie
German title Carrie
Original title Carrie
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1952
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director William Wyler
script Ruth Goetz
Augustus Goetz based
on the novel Sister Carrie (1900) by Theodore Dreiser
production William Wyler
music David Raksin
camera Victor Milner
cut Robert Swink
occupation

Carrie is an American drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Jennifer Jones and Laurence Olivier as her partner.

action

Carrie Meeber, a farmer's daughter and factory worker, one day leaves her small, rural hometown to seek her fortune in Chicago. During the train ride, she meets Charles Drouet, a businessman who draws her into a lively conversation. When she gets out of the car in a poor area in southern Chicago, Drouet hands Carrie his business card so that one doesn't lose sight of each other. Carrie is staying with her sister, who lives there with her husband and child. After an arduous day of unsuccessful job hunting, she decides to call Drouet in the hope of distraction. He is very pleased and invites Carrie to a chic restaurant. Seeing how poor she is financially, he slips Carrie ten dollars. When Carrie later notices this, she rushes back to the restaurant, where she only meets the manager, George Hurstwood. He is instantly fascinated by Carrie. The young woman then meets Drouet again. After several encounters with Drouet, she seriously begins to urge him to marry her, especially since her neighbors are already starting to whisper about them. Drouet is a jack of all trades, he doesn't care about a serious relationship. To distract her, he invites her to his home with Hurstwood. The restaurant manager and Carrie get closer, and when one day Drouet has to go on a business trip again, George invites Carrie to go to the theater with him. This is the beginning of a deep love, but when Carrie is about to "run away" with Hurstwood, she learns that he is married. Unhappily married, of course, as George Hurstwood honestly assures her.

When Hurstwood was doing the cash register at the end of a long evening in the restaurant, he accidentally closed the safe with a time lock and was no longer able to deposit the daily income. He therefore takes the large sum of $ 10,000 with him to hand it over personally to the restaurant owner the next morning. Surprisingly, he meets his boss at home. He heard about the affair between George and Carrie, and he is indignant. Hurstwood's boss announces that George’s salary will be handed over directly to his wife. George then decides not to hand over the $ 10,000 to his supervisor. Rather, Hurstwood now wants to make things clear, separate from his wife, and build a new existence with Carrie and the money as basic capital. George, who does not want to be a thief, leaves his boss a bond for the amount of 10,000 dollars that is intended as a "loan" and promises him on this letter to repay the money as soon as possible. Hurstwood is so fascinated by Carrie that he even lures the girl out of her house with a lie by telling her that Drouet was injured and that he wanted to bring her to him. Both get on the train, and during the journey - supposedly to Drouet, Carrie believes - Hurstwood implores her to leave Drouet because only he, Hurstwood, would really love her. Torn between reason and feeling, Carrie finally chooses George.

At first the sky was still full of violins for both of them, but reality soon caught up with Carrie and George again. Hurstwood's former employer sends someone down on him to get back the $ 10,000 that he sees withheld. Meanwhile, George is desperately trying to find work, but word has got around that he has apparently stolen from his last employer. So he remains unemployed. George and Carrie sink more and more into poverty and misery. To make matters worse, Carrie is now pregnant and George's wife has tracked him down. She demands a signature from him so that she can sell the house they share. However, she does not want to share the proceeds with him, because if George does not forego his share, the vengeful wife announces that she will report him for bigamy . George urges a divorce, but his angry wife refuses to accept this. Finally, Mrs. Hurstwood gets involved in a horse trade: She agrees to an amicable separation, but he waives his share in the house sale. All this turmoil is just too much for Carrie, she is losing her baby. This last blow anticipates the separation of the two, their happiness seems to be broken.

Carrie now wants to take her life into her own hands and decides to become an actress. Meanwhile, Hurstwood tries in vain to contact his son, who has just returned from a trip to Europe with his young wife. Carrie, who still loves George, interprets George's last step as an attempt to return to his family and his old life. Things are going from bad to catastrophic for George, no one hires him because of the Chicago embezzlement. He falls into poverty and lives on the street, while Carrie can actually achieve her dream and build a brilliant career as an artist. Sick, emaciated and slutty, George tries to get in touch with Carrie again and waits for her at the stage entrance of her theater. Carrie is appalled by his condition and wants to take him back. Only now does she find out from Drouet that George took the money back then to start a new life with her. Carrie blames himself for George's predicament he has been in ever since, for his complete downfall and fall. She wants to make up with him, but he only takes a quarter of a dollar from her, leaves her dressing room and disappears into the darkness of the night.

Production notes

Carrie was filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood and premiered in New York on July 17, 1952. The following month the film was presented at the Venice International Film Festival. The German premiere took place in early 1953.

Hal Pereira and Roland Anderson were responsible for the film construction, Emile Kuri for the equipment, Edith Head in turn for the costumes. All four received an Oscar nomination for their achievements . Farciot Edouart took care of the special photography, Wally Westmore took care of the makeup.

Reviews

“The love for a beautiful, almost innocent girl (Jennifer Jones) brings about the successive descent of a better older man (Laurence Olivier) into the unshaven misery of Gorkian provenance. The epic sluggish flow of emotions from the sources of the American writer Theodore Dreiser has been channeled by director William Wyler in a film-friendly manner. "

- Der Spiegel , No. 5 from January 28, 1953

“Dark, melodramatic film adaptation of the important socially critical novel by Theodore Dreiser; quality entertainment, even if the conflicts are almost exclusively limited to the private sphere. "

"... inconsistent soap opera from the turn of the century ... David Raksin's score is a plus."

- Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 202

"A famous satirical novel has been toned down to a clumsy narrative, with barely enough dramatic force to keep interest going despite excellent production conditions."

- Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 177

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carrie in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used

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