Plot
In the classic play by Tennessee Williams, brought to the screen by Elia Kazan, faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to visit her pregnant sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), in a seedy section of New Orleans. Stella's boorish husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), not only regards Blanche's aristocratic affectations as a royal pain but also thinks she's holding out on inheritance money that rightfully belongs to Stella. On the fringes of sanity, Blanche is trying to forget her checkered past and start life anew. Attracted to Stanley's friend Mitch (Karl Malden), she glosses over the less savory incidents in her past, but she soon discovers that she cannot outrun that past, and the stage is set for her final, brutal confrontation with her brother-in-law. Brando, Hunter, and Malden had all starred in the original Broadway version of Streetcar, although the original Blanche had been Jessica Tandy. Brando lost out to Humphrey Bogart for the 1951 Best Actor Oscar, but Leigh, Hunter, and Malden all won Oscars. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviReview
With the same director (Elia Kazan), a screenplay co-adapted by the playwright (Tennessee Williams), and three-quarters of the Broadway production's stars, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) transcended "filmed theater" to become a groundbreaking Hollywood work. Battling the stringent Production Code, Kazan and Williams made concessions concerning the "perverse" sexual elements of Blanche DuBois' past, but they retained the crucial rape of "delicate," old-fashioned Blanche by brutal, "modern" Stanley Kowalski, earning the Code's approval for a film definitively aimed toward adults. Marlon Brando's star-making performance as the "Stella"-howling Stanley burned itself into popular consciousness with its combination of carnality and Method-acting "naturalness," establishing Brando as the premier purveyor of the then-innovative Method acting style and a striking erotic presence. The more traditional Vivien Leigh, replacing Broadway's Jessica Tandy, similarly flourished as Blanche, while the Oscar-winning art direction, Harry Stradling's photography, and Alex North's moody, influential jazz score enhanced the hothouse atmosphere. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture, and took home awards for Leigh, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter, though Brando lost to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen. It was re-released in 1993 with four minutes of footage that had originally been censored by the Legion of Decency, including close-ups of Hunter's Stella eyeing Stanley with too much desire. ~ Lucia Bozzola, RoviCast
- Vivien Leigh - Blanche Dubois
- Marlon Brando - Stanley Kowalski
- Kim Hunter - Stella Kowalski
- Karl Malden - Harold "Mitch" Mitchell
- Rudy Bond - Steve Hubbell
Credit
Richard Day - Art Director, Lucinda Ballard - Costume Designer, Elia Kazan - Director, David Weisbart - Editor, Alex North - Composer (Music Score), Ray Heindorf - Musical Direction/Supervision, Harry Stradling - Cinematographer, Charles K. Feldman - Producer, George James Hopkins - Set Designer, Tennessee Williams - Screenwriter, Oscar Saul - Screenwriter, Nathan Levinson - Sound Director, Tennessee Williams - Play Author| A Stravinsky Portrait (1968 Film), A Stranger's Heart (2007 Film) | |
| A Streetcar Named Desire (1984 Film), A Streetcar Named Desire (1995 Film) |
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