{"title":"\"In Elf Land Disporting\": Sister Carrie in Hollywood","authors":"R. E. Morsberger","doi":"10.1353/RMR.1973.0022","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In the early 1950s, Hollywood showed a sudden interest in filming Dreiser. Paramount made an impressive 1951 movie from An American Tragedy, modernized, greatly shortened, and retitled A Place in the Sun. In the same year, Universal produced Dreiser's short story, \"The Prince Who Was a Thief,\" as an Arabian Nights extravaganza with Tony Curtis in his first starring role. Meanwhile, Sister Carrie was in production at Paramount. William Wyler was to direct the screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, who had recently adapted Henry James's Washington Square into The Heiress, a successful stage play even more effective as a 1949 Academy Award-winning film directed by Wyler. For Sister Carrie, Wyler persuaded Laurence Olivier, whom he had directed twelve years before in the celebrated movie of Wuthering Heights, to come from Britain to play Hurstwood. The film was released in 1952 as Carrie, presumably because audiences would be puzzled by \"Sister\" and perhaps think it was about a nun. Olivier gave a brilliant performance; and Jennifer Jones as Carrie, Eddie Albert as Drouet, and Miriam Hopkins as Mrs. Hurstwood were effective. With such a combination of talent, the film should have been great or at least distinguished. It was superior to run-ofthe-mill movie fare; but despite some memorable scenes, it fell far short of greatness and not only lost much of the impact of Dreiser's relentless story but turned a grimly naturalistic novel into a romantic soap opera. An examination of how this happened is revealing both as a study of Dreiser and of Hollywood. The basic flaw is in the scenario, and it seems to be the joint responsibility of the Goetzes and of William Wyler. The movie keeps Dreiser's basic story intact, but a number of minor yet significant alterations throughout, plus a falsification of the ending, results in a crucial distortion. This distortion is particularly interesting because the second draft of the scenario is much closer to Dreiser's original. This draft makes some small but radical departures from the book, but the last third of the final version departs even farther from the details as well as from the spirit of Dreiser's naturalism. Essentially, the screenplay, combined with Wyler's direction and the presence of gushy background music drenching many key scenes, romanticizes the story throughout, ennobling both Hurstwood and Carrie and inserting extenuating circumstances for both of them. Wyler's previous credits included such competently slick and genteel movies as Mrs. Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); later he was to direct Roman Holiday, Friendly Persuasion, Ben-Hitr, and Funny Girl. Perhaps the success of their","PeriodicalId":344945,"journal":{"name":"Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"1973-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/RMR.1973.0022","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In the early 1950s, Hollywood showed a sudden interest in filming Dreiser. Paramount made an impressive 1951 movie from An American Tragedy, modernized, greatly shortened, and retitled A Place in the Sun. In the same year, Universal produced Dreiser's short story, "The Prince Who Was a Thief," as an Arabian Nights extravaganza with Tony Curtis in his first starring role. Meanwhile, Sister Carrie was in production at Paramount. William Wyler was to direct the screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, who had recently adapted Henry James's Washington Square into The Heiress, a successful stage play even more effective as a 1949 Academy Award-winning film directed by Wyler. For Sister Carrie, Wyler persuaded Laurence Olivier, whom he had directed twelve years before in the celebrated movie of Wuthering Heights, to come from Britain to play Hurstwood. The film was released in 1952 as Carrie, presumably because audiences would be puzzled by "Sister" and perhaps think it was about a nun. Olivier gave a brilliant performance; and Jennifer Jones as Carrie, Eddie Albert as Drouet, and Miriam Hopkins as Mrs. Hurstwood were effective. With such a combination of talent, the film should have been great or at least distinguished. It was superior to run-ofthe-mill movie fare; but despite some memorable scenes, it fell far short of greatness and not only lost much of the impact of Dreiser's relentless story but turned a grimly naturalistic novel into a romantic soap opera. An examination of how this happened is revealing both as a study of Dreiser and of Hollywood. The basic flaw is in the scenario, and it seems to be the joint responsibility of the Goetzes and of William Wyler. The movie keeps Dreiser's basic story intact, but a number of minor yet significant alterations throughout, plus a falsification of the ending, results in a crucial distortion. This distortion is particularly interesting because the second draft of the scenario is much closer to Dreiser's original. This draft makes some small but radical departures from the book, but the last third of the final version departs even farther from the details as well as from the spirit of Dreiser's naturalism. Essentially, the screenplay, combined with Wyler's direction and the presence of gushy background music drenching many key scenes, romanticizes the story throughout, ennobling both Hurstwood and Carrie and inserting extenuating circumstances for both of them. Wyler's previous credits included such competently slick and genteel movies as Mrs. Miniver (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); later he was to direct Roman Holiday, Friendly Persuasion, Ben-Hitr, and Funny Girl. Perhaps the success of their
20世纪50年代初,好莱坞突然对拍摄德莱塞产生了兴趣。1951年,派拉蒙公司制作了一部令人印象深刻的电影《美国悲剧》,经过现代化改造,大大缩短,并更名为《阳光下的地方》。同年,环球影业制作了德莱塞的短篇小说《小偷王子》(the Prince Who Was a Thief),由托尼·柯蒂斯(Tony Curtis)首次主演。与此同时,派拉蒙公司正在制作《嘉莉妹妹》。威廉·威勒将由露丝·格茨和奥古斯都·格茨执导剧本,他们刚刚将亨利·詹姆斯的《华盛顿广场》改编成《女继承人》,这是一部成功的舞台剧,作为威勒导演的1949年奥斯卡获奖影片,这部舞台剧更有影响力。为了嘉莉妹妹,惠勒说服了劳伦斯·奥利弗从英国来演赫斯渥。十二年前,他曾执导过著名的电影《呼啸山庄》。这部电影于1952年上映,片名为《嘉莉》(Carrie),大概是因为观众会对《姐姐》(Sister)感到困惑,可能会认为这是一部关于修女的电影。奥利维尔的表演很精彩;詹妮弗·琼斯饰演嘉莉,埃迪·艾伯特饰演杜洛埃,米里亚姆·霍普金斯饰演赫斯渥太太。有这样的天才组合,这部电影应该是伟大的,或者至少是杰出的。它比普通的电影票价要好;但是,尽管有一些令人难忘的场景,它远远不够伟大,不仅失去了德莱塞无情故事的冲击力,而且把一部冷酷的自然主义小说变成了一部浪漫的肥皂剧。研究这一切是如何发生的,既是对德莱塞的研究,也是对好莱坞的研究。最基本的缺陷在于情节,这似乎是格茨夫妇和威廉·惠勒的共同责任。这部电影保留了德莱塞的基本故事,但在整个过程中进行了一些微小但重要的改变,再加上结局的伪造,导致了一个关键的扭曲。这种扭曲特别有趣,因为这个场景的第二稿更接近德莱塞的原始版本。这个初稿与原著有一些小的但激进的背离,但最终版本的最后三分之一与细节和德莱塞自然主义精神的背离更远。从本质上讲,电影剧本加上威勒的指导和充满激情的背景音乐浸透了许多关键场景,使整个故事浪漫化,使赫斯渥和嘉莉都变得高尚,并为他们两人都加入了减轻情节的情节。惠勒之前的作品包括《米尼弗夫人》(1942年)和《我们生命中最美好的时光》(1946年)等出色而优雅的电影;后来他执导了《罗马假日》、《友好劝说》、《本·希特》和《妙女郎》。也许是他们的成功