Carrie received two Academy Award nominations: Costume Design (Edith Head), and Best Art Direction (Hal Pereira, Roland Anderson, Emile Kuri).

Around the turn of the century, Carrie Meeber (Jennifer Jones) leaves her family in a small rural town and heads to Chicago.

In South Chicago, Carrie stays with her sister and her husband Sven, but loses her sweatshop sewing job after injuring her hand.

While Hurstwood drifts further into poverty and ends up on the streets, Carrie's star in the theatre rises until she is a well-regarded actress on the cusp of fame.

She wants to make it up to Hurstwood but he won't take more than a quarter and disappears after toying with the gas burner in her dressing room.

The filming was plagued by a variety of troubles: Jones had not revealed that she was pregnant; Wyler was mourning the death of his year-old son; Olivier had a painful leg ailment that made him cranky, and he developed a dislike for Jones; and Hollywood was reeling under the effects of McCarthyism, and the studio was afraid to distribute a film that could be attacked as immoral.

Some critics accused the film of sentimentalizing the novel, box office was weak, and reviews were generally disappointing, although they praised Olivier, who received a BAFTA nomination.

Wyler eventually admitted that the film was too depressing during a time when American audiences wanted escapist entertainment to take their minds off the Cold War.