Carrie (1952)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Poor Baby

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Based on the novel "Sister Carrie" by TheodoreDreiser, this film by William Wyler takes the usual highly artistic approach toadapting a classic. It has many beautifully decorated sequences but no fluidityand no real emotion. A small town woman (Jennifer Jones) arrives in Chicago andmeets a respectable businessman (Eddie Albert) as well as a marriedrestaurateur (Laurence Olivier). She is expected to marry the former, but fallsillicitly in love with the latter. The film tracks her slow downfall as herlife with the middle-aged man is bludgeoned by one hardship after another. Onesequence that shows Olivier waking up in a flophouse was deleted from thefilm's original release. Wyler's crisp direction (in black-and-white) onlymakes the descent into squalor that much harder, and only Olivier's superb,deeply felt performance makes Carrieworthwhile. Not to be confused with Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film of thesame title.

DVD Details: Paramount's DVD beautifully handles the film's rich photography, and the flophouse sequence is edited back into the film. The disc has no other extras.