Olivier plays the one of the men she encounters in Chicago who manages a high class restaurant that Carrie is meeting a rather unscrupulous man Charles (Eddie Albert) who she is in a relationship with for mostly monetary reasons. Olivier in his first appearances as Hurstwood portrays him a rather unassuming but also rather charming man. In his usual Olivier fashion he has an adjusted accent which is a lowered Americanized voice that Olivier uses that actually is rather well done, and gives Hurstwood a natural warmth. He quickly makes Hurstwood just a likable and amiable face that works quite well in the contrast to Eddie Albert's portrayal of Charlie who always seems to be putting on his charm a little too much.
Hurstwood does not just stay as the nice manager of a restaurant though as he quickly becomes infatuated with Carrie. Olivier plays this quite well and he is a bit of the master of that face of longing. Olivier importantly builds this up quite well and honestly establishes the way Hurstwood's feelings toward her grow. Olivier always makes it rather clear in Hurstwood's glowing expression toward her that slowly build as he spends more time with it. He is very understated in his depiction of Hurstwood's interest in her, but very effective in the subtle fashion that he portrays the growing passion in Hurstwood which slowly becomes more and more pronounced.
Of course there is a reason why Hurstwood stays so understated about the whole thing, and the reason is that he himself is married to a wife who could care less about him. Again Olivier mainly internalizes the emotions within Hurstwood where they are quite evident in him and plays it as burning bitterness as well as a sadness in Hurstwood. Olivier is careful to put this right in his happier moments with Carrie that even when there is an expression of joy in Hurstwood he never forgets his terrible predicament with his own wife either. Olivier shows us a man trapped really in a difficult state of two kinds of repression one of the hate for his wife, and the other for his love of Carrie.
Hurstwood eventually does run right off with Carrie, but things do not improve for the man as he suffers financial difficulty with Carrie as well as his vengeful wife. The rest of Olivier portrayal is that of a man slowly decaying emotionally as the whole world seems to be against him. Olivier is quite moving in this depiction as just about everything goes wrong for the man, and Olivier manages to reflect what this is doing to him. What makes this never repetitive though is that Olivier has short little moments where there is the chance for something better to come from Hurstwood. There still is that genuine love for Carrie, and Olivier powerfully establishes a happiness that slowly fades from him.
I personally will never understand those who think Olivier could not attune himself for film, as this is a perfect example of exactly how well he did understand the medium. There is such a great attention Olivier pays to the close up here and that is where the strength of his performance is found. His characterization is always based on what is going on through the mind of this lonely man and throughout the film he calmly lets us into the man's great pains and his meager joys he has in his life. I would not put this up there with the all time great Olivier performances, but this is a very strong portrayal that made this film worth watching.
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