Laurence Olivier accepted the part of George Hurstwood so he could be in Hollywood at the same time that his emotionally troubled wife Vivien Leigh was making A Streetcar Named Desire so that he could look after her.
In 1937, Warner Brothers owned the movie rights to Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie", but Joseph Breen at the Hays Office prohibited the studio from producing a faithful version of the novel. A copy of the letter is available on the University of Pennsylvania's website.
Though based on Theodore Dreiser's novel "Sister Carrie," the movie was released simply as "Carrie" because the studio feared audiences would think "Sister Carrie" was the story of a nun.