ASTREETCARNAMEDDESIRE
DIRECTED BY: ELIA KAZAN - WRITTEN BY: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS - STARRING: MARLON BRANDO, VIVIEN LEIGH, KIM HUNTER, KARL MALDON
AWARDS: BEST ACTRESS IN LEADING ROLE, BEST ACTRESS IN SUPPORTING ROLE, BEST ACTOR IN SUPPORTING ROLE, BEST ART DIRECTION
BLACK AND WHITE - RELEASED I95I

The breakout film for Marlon Brando, one of the best films ever made, with a cast of greats and a beautiful and arresting story. Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, which had seen much success on Broadway, the film was like a grenade thrown into the complacent world of Hollywood picture-making at the time (the anti-GWTW). The location is the French Quarter of New Orleans, then a slum, but thanks to the film destined to be a tourist trap par excellence. Among other firsts in American films, Streetcar pioneered the female orgasm and the T-shirt worn by Brando plus his naturalistic line readings.

Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) was the kind of guy, up to this point, American films had taught us to admire; tough, monosyllabic, loving sports, and one of the guys. But there’s a darker side to this dream, and there always had been. Tough too often meant patronizing to anyone "weaker", monosyllabic too often meant stupid, and sports was a notorious haven for jocks and frat-boys; anyone who’s gone through high school in America knows all about it.

Kowalski isn’t dumb, he has enough craftiness to know a good thing when he sees it, and when his wife’s sister Blanche (Vivien Leigh) comes staggering in the door with gin on her breath and suitcases in hand, he sees weakness, and he’s looking for the main chance, as he’s always done. After all, Blanche is not bad looking and she may have a deed to an old plantation house upriver that may be worth something. In any case, his raw sexuality, and Greek-god muscled body, and male gaze, were new to films; and extremely controversial at the time. In fact several minutes of the original film were taken out before initial release. (they're back in the latest DVD)

Vivien Leigh's portrayal of Blanche is engaging and heartbreaking. She's pretentiously arty and believes in kindness and beauty; she's had a hard life and is a fallen woman. She thinks she can tease and discredit Stanley with a few catty putdowns, but she's met her match. By coming to stay with her sister she's stepped into a trap with the beast Kowalski; chest-beating blue collar sadist. The story is by no means a black/white, good/bad story though. Each character is like a Greek god, full of strengths, shadows and inconsistencies.

We first meet Blanch emerging from a cloud of steam at the railroad station; like a spirit wearing her fine old Southern Belle clothes; recently come from the old plantation house. If she's the older more refined South, Stanley is the new South with his admiration for Huey Long. She has others do for her when she can get away with it (slavery). She may be the alter-ego of Tennessee Williams in her love of young men and her aesthetic tastes; the play is chock-full of the author's sexual preoccupations. But showing Kowalski for what he was as the play progresses was definitely a new thing in American film, and guaranteed to make the average boorish American male of that period uncomfortable.

Brando’s portrayal of Kowalski was of a caliber that made him a star from the day the film opened in I95I. He had further success, but the phenomenal success of Streetcar typecast him as a sort of chthonic force of nature, in On the Waterfront (I954), Viva Zapata (I952) and The Wild One (I953). Another actor made famous in Streetcar was Karl Malden, as well as Kim Hunter, as Kowalski’s wife. The director, Elia Kazan, also stepped up a notch following the opening of the film and worked with Brando on many of his later films. The only off-putting aspect to A Streetcar Named Desire is it’s staginess, almost all the action takes place in a two-room apartment, but that adds to the tension of the film. The success of this production certainly argues for making films from successful plays. The DVD has an excellent commentary track.

Vivien Leigh in Streetcar Named Desire

(a) The origin of the character of Blanche in Tennessee Williams mind has been theorized to have been himself, in a relationship with a man.
(b) During studio shooting, Elia Kazan made the set walls movable so that, with each passing scene, the walls could close in on Blanche Dubois.