A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire
Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold
Directed by	Elia Kazan
Produced by	Charles K. Feldman
Screenplay by	Tennessee Williams Oscar Saul
Based on	A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Starring	Vivien Leigh Marlon Brando Kim Hunter Karl Malden
Music by	Alex North
Cinematography	Harry Stradling
Editing by	David Weisbart
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	September 18, 1951 (1951-09-18)
Running time	122 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1.8 million
Box office	$4.25 million (US)[1] $8,000,000 (total)

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 film adaptation of the 1947 play of the same name by Tennessee Williams, who also wrote the screenplay with Oscar Saul. The film, a romantic drama, was directed by Elia Kazan, who had also directed the original stage production, and stars Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden; all but Leigh were chosen from the Broadway cast of the play, while Leigh had starred in the London West End production. It was produced by talent agent and lawyer Charles K. Feldman, and released by Warner Bros. The film had many revisions to remove references to homosexuality, among other things.

A Streetcar Named Desire was the first film to win three out of four acting categories at the Academy Awards; Best Actress for Leigh, Best Supporting Actor for Malden, and Best Supporting Actress for Hunter. Brando's performance as Stanley Kowalski, while nominated, even being the favorite and one of the most powerful and influential performances of all time, did not win the Oscar. The film was also the first to win both Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

As in Tennessee Williams' play, the film presents Blanche DuBois, a fading, but nevertheless attractive Southern belle, whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. Her poise is an illusion she presents to shield others, and most of all herself, from her reality in an attempt to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives from her hometown of Oriole, Mississippi (changed from Laurel in the play) at the apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue; the local transportation she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named "Desire." The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche's nerves.

Explaining that her ancestral southern plantation, Belle Rive in Oriole, Mississippi, has been "lost" due to the "epic debauchery" of her ancestors, Blanche is welcomed with some trepidation by Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband, Stanley Kowalski. Blanche says her supervisor gave her time off her job as an English teacher because of her upset nerves. In truth, however, she was fired for having an affair with a 17-year-old male student. This turns out not to be the only seduction she had engaged in — and these problems led Blanche to run away from Oriole. A brief marriage scarred by the suicide of her spouse, Allan Grey, has led Blanche to live in a world in which her fantasies and illusions are seamlessly mixed with her reality.

In contrast to both the self-effacing and deferential Stella and the pretentious refinement of Blanche, Stella's husband, Stanley, is a force of nature: primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual. He dominates Stella in every way and is physically and emotionally abusive. Stella tolerates his primal behaviour as this is part of what attracted her in the first place; their love and relationship is heavily based on powerful, even animalistic, sexual chemistry - something Blanche says she finds impossible to understand, despite long glances of admiration and lust towards Stanley. The arrival of Blanche upsets her sister's and brother-in-law's system of mutual dependence. Stella's concern for her sister's well-being emboldens Blanche to hold court in the Kowalski apartment, infuriating Stanley and leading to conflict in his relationship with his wife. Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor, Harold "Mitch" Mitchell, is trampled as Blanche and Stanley head for a collision course. Stanley discovers Blanche's past through a co-worker who travels to Oriole frequently. He confronts Blanche with the things she has been trying to put behind her, partly out of concern that her character flaws may be damaging to the lives of those in her new home (just as they were in Oriole), and partly due to resentment of her airs of superiority toward him and a distaste for pretense in general. However, his attempts to "unmask" her are predictably cruel and violent.

Their final confrontation — a rape — results in Blanche's nervous breakdown. Stanley has her committed to a mental institution. The reference to the streetcar named Desire — providing the aura of New Orleans geography — is symbolic. Blanche not only has to travel on a streetcar route named "Desire" to reach Stella's home on "Elysian Fields" but her desire acts as an irrepressible force throughout the play — she can only hang on as her desires lead her. Mitch, knowing that Stanley raped Blanche and had her committed to a mental institution, lashes out and punches Stanley but is then held back by the other men, and he starts to weep. As the other men stare at Stanley, he claims he "never once touched her".

Devastated with her sister's fate, Stella weeps and rejects Stanley's intention to comfort her and pushes him away. Stella runs out to see Blanche off, but is too late, as the car Blanche left in has already gone. As he cries her name once more ("Stella! Hey, Stella!"), Stella clings to her child and vows that she is "never going back" to Stanley again. She goes upstairs once more in order to seek refuge with her neighbor, Eunice, as Stanley continues to call her name.

Cast

Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

• Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois
• Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski
• Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski
• Karl Malden as Harold "Mitch" Mitchell
• Rudy Bond as Steve Hubbel
• Nick Dennis as Pablo Gonzales
• Peg Hillias as Eunice Hubbel
• Wright King as A Collector
• Richard Garrick as A Doctor

Production

Casting

Much of the original Broadway cast, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis and Richard Garrick repeated their roles for the film.

Many big names were considered for the role of Blanche, including Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davis.

John Garfield turned down the lead role of Stanley as he did not want to be overshadowed by the lead actress playing Blanche.

Jessica Tandy, who had originated Blanche DuBois on Broadway, was originally slated to play the role but was bypassed as not being well known enough. Vivien Leigh was cast, star of the London production, at the insistence of the producers. This was because her fame, from films such as Gone with the Wind in which she had also played a Southern belle, provided the star power which they felt the film needed; Brando had originated the role of Stanley on Broadway but had not yet achieved the fame necessary to draw audiences, which is why in trailers and during the credits of the film he is credited after Vivien Leigh.^[2]

Locations and design

Most of the filming was on studio sets in Hollywood, over the course of 36 days, but a few exteriors were filmed in New Orleans, most notably the opening scenes of Blanche's arrival. By the time the film was in production however, the Desire streetcar named in the play had been converted into a bus service and the production team had to gain permission from the authorities to hire out a streetcar with the "Desire" name on it. The streetcar visible in the film, Perley Thomas #922, was restored in 1998,^[3] and is still in service in New Orleans.^[4]

Vivien Leigh was viewed as an outsider by some of the cast, who already had met during the Broadway production, and Kazan told her to exploit her isolation in the role to reflect Blanche's.

Leigh was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was said towards the end of her life to have mistaken herself for Blanche at many times.

During studio shooting, Elia Kazan made the set walls movable so that, with each passing scene, the walls could close in on Blanche Dubois (thus mirroring her insanity).^{[citation needed]}

Brando's iconic tight T-shirt had to be made specially, as one could not buy fitted T-shirts at the time; a regular T-shirt was bought, washed several times and its back was sewn in order to tighten it for Brando.^{[citation needed]}

Music

The music score, by Alex North, was a radical departure from the major trend in Hollywood at that time, which was action-based and overly manipulative. Instead of composing in the traditional leitmotif style, North wrote short sets of music that reflected the psychological dynamics of the characters. For his work on the film, North was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Music Score, one of two nominations in that category that year. He also was nominated for his music score for the film version of another play, Death of a Salesman, which also was composed with his unique technique. However, he lost to Franz Waxman's score for A Place in the Sun.

Releases

The play's themes were controversial, causing the screenplay for the film to be watered down to comply with the Hollywood Production Code. In the film, Stella denounces Stanley's rape of Blanche, perhaps to the point of leaving the household. In the original play, the ending is more ambiguous, with Stella, distraught at having sent off her sister Blanche, mutely allowing herself to be consoled by Stanley. Williams, in his memoirs, describes the film as "marvelous performances in a great movie, only slightly marred by Hollywood ending".^[5]

In the original play, Blanche's deceased husband, Allan Grey, had committed suicide after he was discovered having a homosexual affair. This material was removed for the film; Blanche says only that she showed scorn towards Allan, driving him to suicide.

Some of these changes were in the screenplay. Other scenes were present but cut after filming was complete in order to conform to the Production Code and later, to avoid condemnation by the National Legion of Decency. According to the DVD's audio commentary, these cuts suggested by the Legion of Decency were made without the knowledge of the director.

While the film was originally distributed by Warner Brothers, it was mainly a production of Charles K. Feldman's company. Feldman (and eventually his estate) would gain all ancillary rights through 1993. Through the decades, the film was re-released and outsourced through different studios, first by 20th Century Fox for a 1958 re-issue, and in 1970 through United Artists. UA would ultimately hold television syndication and home video rights (through what was then CBS/Fox Video) until 1992 when the Feldman estate sold their share of the film to the Motion Picture and Television Fund. The Fund chose Warner Bros. to co-operate in a restoration of the film to director Kazan's original vision (adding back several minutes of controversial footage that had been previously cut^[6]), and thus Warner Bros. would gain back major rights to this film for the first time since its original 1951 release. While the film is now copyrighted by the MPTF, WB now has all ancillary rights, including home video, theatrical, and television distribution, which explains why all current video releases are by Warner Home Video.

The current DVD release has the following restored scenes:

• Stella says "Stanley's always smashed things. Why, on our wedding night, as soon as we came in here, he snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light bulbs with it...I was sort of thrilled by it."
• The dialogue makes it clearer that Blanche's husband was homosexual and that she made him commit suicide with her insults.
• Blanche's line explaining that she wants to kiss the paperboy "softly and sweetly" now has the words "...on your mouth" at the end.
• When Stella takes refuge upstairs after Stanley punches her, her emotions are made clear as she is shown in close up.
• Stanley's line, "Maybe you wouldn't be so bad to interfere with", and the ensuing rape scene.

Reception

Critical response

The film drew very high praise from critics upon release. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther praised the film, stating that "inner torments are seldom projected with such sensitivity and clarity on the screen" and commending both Vivien Leigh's and Marlon Brando's performances. Film critic Roger Ebert also expressed praise for the film, calling it a "great ensemble of the movies." The film currently has a very high 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 46 reviews.^[7]

Accolades

The film won four awards at the 24th Academy Awards.^[8] That includes three awards for acting, making A Streetcar Named Desire tied for the most Oscar wins in acting categories (the other was Network in 1976). The awards it won were for Actress in a Leading Role (Leigh), Actor in a Supporting Role (Malden), Actress in a Supporting Role (Hunter), and Art Direction.^[9]

In 1999, A Streetcar Named Desire was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

American Film Institute recognition

• 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #45
• 2002 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions #67
• 2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "Stella! Hey, Stella!" #45
  • "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers," #75
• 2005 AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #19
• 2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #47

References

External links

	New Orleans portal
	Film portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: A Streetcar Named Desire

• A Streetcar Named Desire at the Internet Movie Database
• A Streetcar Named Desire at the TCM Movie Database
• A Streetcar Named Desire at AllRovi
• A Streetcar Named Desire at Rotten Tomatoes