A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)

{{Infobox film

| image = A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster by Bill Gold

| director = Elia Kazan

| producer = Charles K. Feldman

| screenplay = {{Plainlist|

Tennessee Williams
Oscar Saul (adaptation)

}}

| based_on = {{Based on|A Streetcar Named Desire
1947 play|Tennessee Williams}}

| starring = {{Plain list|

}}

| music = Alex North

| cinematography = Harry Stradling

| editing = David Weisbart

| distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1951|09|19|New York|ref1={{AFI film|53428}}. Retrieved Sept. 19, 2021}}

| runtime = 125 minutes{{cite web|url=http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/DetailView.aspx?s=&Movie=53428|title=A Streetcar Named Desire|publisher=American Film Institute|access-date=July 4, 2017}}

| country = United States

| language = English

| budget = $1.8 million{{cite web|title=A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)—Financial Information |url=http://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Streetcar-Named-Desire-A |website=The Numbers |access-date=May 9, 2019 }}

| gross = $8 million {{No wrap|(North America)}}

}}

A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 American Southern Gothic drama film adapted from Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Directed by Elia Kazan, it stars Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden. The film tells the story of a Mississippi Southern belle, Blanche DuBois (Leigh), who, after encountering a series of personal losses, seeks refuge with her sister (Hunter) and brother-in-law (Brando) in a dilapidated New Orleans apartment building. The original Broadway production and cast was converted to film, albeit with several changes and sanitizations related to censorship.

Tennessee Williams collaborated with Oscar Saul and Elia Kazan on the screenplay. Kazan, who directed the Broadway stage production, also directed the black-and-white film. Brando, Hunter, and Malden all reprised their original Broadway roles. Although Jessica Tandy originated the role of Blanche DuBois on Broadway, Vivien Leigh, who had appeared in the London theatre production, was cast in the film adaptation for her star power.Manvell, Roger. Theatre and Film: A Comparative Study of the Two Forms of Dramatic Art, and of the Problems of Adaptation of Stage Plays into Films. Cranbury, New Jersey: Associated University Presses Inc, 1979. 133 The film brought Brando, previously virtually unknown, to prominence as a major Hollywood film star, and earned him the first of four consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Actor; Leigh won her second Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Blanche. It received Oscar nominations in ten other categories (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay), and won Best Supporting Actor (Malden), Best Supporting Actress (Hunter), and Best Art Direction (Richard Day, George James Hopkins), making it the first film to win in three of the acting categories.

The film earned an estimated $4,250,000 at the US and Canadian box office in 1951, making it the fifth biggest hit of the year.'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', Variety, January 2, 1952 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".

Plot

File:A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) - trailer.webm

Blanche DuBois, a middle-aged high school English teacher from Auriol, Mississippi, arrives in New Orleans. She takes a streetcar designated "Desire""Named 'Desire'" in the sense that the streetcar has a roll sign up front declaring its route's destination, namely Rue Desiré in the Bywater neighborhood. The street was named at about the time of the Louisiana Purchase by the plantation owner, Robert Gautier de Montreuil, as a tribute to his third daughter, Desirée. Coincidentally, the streetcar company ceased that route in 1948, a year after the play was written. to the French Quarter, where her sister Stella and Stella's husband Stanley Kowalski live in a small, dilapidated tenement apartment. Blanche claims to be on leave from her job due to anxiety. Blanche's demure manner is a stark contrast to Stanley's crude behavior, making them mutually wary and antagonistic. Stella welcomes having her sister as a guest, but Stanley patronizes and criticizes her.

Blanche reveals that the DuBois family estate, Belle Reve, was lost to creditors. She was widowed at a young age after her husband's suicide. When Stanley suspects Blanche may be hiding an inheritance, she shows him proof of the foreclosure. Looking for further proof, he knocks some of Blanche's private papers to the floor. Weeping, she gathers them, saying they are poems from her dead husband; Stanley explains he was only looking out for his family, and then announces that Stella is pregnant.

Blanche meets Stanley's friend Mitch, whose courteous manner and sensitivity is in sharp contrast to Stanley and his other friends, and the two fall in love. During a poker night with his friends, Stanley explodes in a drunken rage, striking Stella; Blanche and Stella flee upstairs to neighbor Eunice Hubbell's apartment. After his anger subsides, Stanley remorsefully bellows for Stella from the courtyard below. Stella is drawn downstairs by her attraction to Stanley, and they go to bed together. The next morning, Blanche urges Stella to leave Stanley, calling him a sub-human animal.

As weeks pass into months, tension mounts between Blanche and Stanley. Blanche is hopeful about Mitch, but anxiety and alcoholism have her teetering on mental collapse while anticipating a marriage proposal. Meanwhile, Stanley discovers that Blanche had been fired for sleeping with an underage student. He passes this news on to Mitch. Stella angrily blames Stanley for this catastrophic revelation, but their fight is interrupted when she goes into labor.

Later, Mitch arrives and confronts Blanche about Stanley's claims. She pleads for forgiveness, but Mitch, hurt and humiliated, ends their relationship. Later that night, while Stella's labor continues, Stanley returns from the hospital to sleep. Dressed in a tattered gown, Blanche pretends she is departing on a cruise with an old admirer. Stanley admonishes her for lying about her past and mistreating him; the two fight and it is implied that he rapes her.

Weeks later, during another poker game at the apartment, doctors arrive to take the nearly catatonic Blanche to a mental hospital. Blanche has told Stella what happened, but Stella cannot bring herself to believe it. On seeing the doctor and nurse, Blanche resists at first, but the doctor talks to her gently and she goes with them willingly, saying that she has "always depended on the kindness of strangers". As Blanche is led away, Mitch tries to attack Stanley but is pulled away by the other poker players. Realizing that Blanche had told her the truth, Stella takes her baby upstairs to the Hubbells' apartment, determined to leave Stanley.

Cast

File:Vivien Leigh in Streetcar Named Desire trailer 2.jpg for the film]]

{{cast listing|

Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois
Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski
Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski
Karl Malden as Mitch
Rudy Bond as Steve Hubbell
Peg Hillias as Eunice Hubbell
Nick Dennis as Pablo
Wright King as a collector
Edna Thomas as Mexican Woman
Ann Dere as Matron Nurse
Richard Garrick as Doctor
Mickey Kuhn as Sailor
Lyle Latell as Policeman (uncredited)

}}

Production

A Streetcar Named Desire was adapted directly from the successful 1947 Broadway production of the play, which won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Many of the cast and crew were ported over from the stage production, including director Elia Kazan and actors Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Ann Dere, Edna Thomas, and Richard Garrick. Kazan intended for Jessica Tandy, who won a Tony for her portrayal of Blanche, to also reprise her role on film, but producer Charles K. Feldman insisted on casting an actress with more box office appeal. The role was offered to both Bette Davis{{Cite web|title=AFI{{!}}Catalog|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/53428|access-date=2022-01-02|website=catalog.afi.com}} and Olivia de Havilland, who both declined. Vivien Leigh, who had already played Blanche in Streetcar's London production (directed by then-husband Laurence Olivier), was eventually cast. In Brando's autobiography, he praised Tandy but felt that Leigh "was Blanche."

Aside from the opening and closing scenes, which were shot on location in New Orleans, A Streetcar Named Desire was filmed entirely on soundstages at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The Kowalski apartment was designed to gradually appear smaller over the course of the film, in order to reflect tension between the characters.

For the opening scene, #922 was chosen to be the streetcar that dropped off Blanche. As of 2022, this streetcar was still in service on the St. Charles Streetcar Line.{{cite web |date=June 2022 |title=The real Desire Streetcar - A New Orleans Story |url=https://heartoflouisiana.com/streetcar-desire/}}

Marlon Brando is often displayed shirtless, in one of the first occurrences for a Hollywood movie.{{cite news|url=https://entertainment.time.com/2011/08/19/top-10-shirtless-movies/slide/a-streetcar-named-desire/|title=Top 10 Shirtless Movies: A Streetcar Named Desire|author= Frances Romero|date=2011-08-18}}

= Censorship =

Several scenes were cut after filming was completed in order for the film to conform to the Hays Code and avoid condemnation by the National Legion of Decency. In 1993, after Warner Bros. rediscovered the censored footage during a routine inventory of archives,[http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbol/us/dd/podcasts/wac/WAC_new_release_podcast_20140603.mp3 Warner Archive Podcast (June 3, 2014).] several minutes were restored in an 'original director's version' video re-release.{{Cite web |title=University of Virginia Library Online Exhibits {{!}} CENSORED: Wielding the Red Pen |url=https://explore.lib.virginia.edu:443/exhibits/show/censored/walkthrough/film1 |access-date=2024-09-26 |website=explore.lib.virginia.edu}}

Music

The jazz-infused score by Alex North was written in short cues that reflected the psychological dynamics of the characters. It was one of the first jazz scores composed for a mainstream feature film, and earned North an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.{{Cite web |title=Jazz on Film: the brilliance of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' |url=https://www.jazzwise.com/features/article/jazz-on-film-the-brilliance-of-a-streetcar-named-desire |access-date=2022-01-02 |website=Jazzwise |language=en}}

Comparison to source material

The play was set entirely at the Kowalski apartment, but the story's visual scope is expanded in the film, which depicts locations only briefly mentioned or non-existent in the stage production, such as the train station, streets in the French Quarter, the bowling alley, the pier of a dance casino, and the factory where Stanley and Mitch work.
Dialogue presented in the play is abbreviated or cut entirely in various scenes in the film, including, for example, when Blanche tries to convince Stella to leave Stanley and when Mitch confronts Blanche about her past.
The name of the town where Blanche was from was changed from the real-life town of Laurel, Mississippi, to the fictional "Auriol, Mississippi".
The screenplay was modified to comply with the Hays Code. In the original play, Blanche's husband died by suicide after he was discovered having a homosexual affair. This reference was removed from the film; Blanche says instead that she showed scorn at her husband's sensitive nature, driving him to suicide. She does, however, make a vague reference to "his coming out".
The scene involving Stanley raping Blanche is cut short in the film, instead ending dramatically with Blanche smashing the mirror with the broken bottle.
At the end of the play, Stella, distraught at Blanche's fate, mutely allows Stanley to console her. In the film, this is changed to Stella blaming Stanley for Blanche's fate, and resolving to leave him.
In the film, Blanche is shown riding in the titular streetcar, which was only mentioned in the play. By the time the film was in production, however, the Desire streetcar line had been converted into a bus service; the production team had to gain permission from the authorities to hire out a streetcar with the "Desire" name on it.{{cite web|title=New Orleans Public Service, Inc. 832|url=http://www.pa-trolley.org/Roster/832N.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519083522/http://www.pa-trolley.org/Roster/832N.htm|archive-date=May 19, 2011|access-date=November 13, 2011}}

Reception

= Box office =

In the months after its release in September 1951, A Streetcar Named Desire grossed $4.2 million in the United States and Canada, with 15 million tickets sold against a production budget of $1.8 million.[https://www.the-numbers.com/market/1951/top-grossing-movies Annual Movie Chart] | 1951–1952 | the numbers A reissue of the film by 20th Century Fox in 1958 grossed an additional $700,000.{{cite magazine|title='Streetcar' New Run Heads For $700,000|magazine=Variety |date=November 11, 1958|page=5|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/variety212-1958-11#page/n86/mode/1up|access-date=July 7, 2019|via=Archive.org}}

= Critical response =

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| footer = The performances of the entire main cast (Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter) garnered widespread critical acclaim, earning them all Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively, with everyone winning except Brando.

| image1 = Marlon Brando Streetcar 1948 e.jpg

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| image2 = Vivien Leigh - Anna Karenina.jpg

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| image3 = Karl Malden.jpg

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| image4 = Kim Hunter. cph.3b23243.jpg

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Upon release, the film drew very high praise. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther stated 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 has also expressed praise for the film, calling it a "great ensemble of the movies." The film has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 8.60/10. The consensus reads, "A feverish rendition of a heart-rending story, A Streetcar Named Desire gives Tennessee Williams's stage play explosive power on the screen thanks to Elia Kazan's searing direction and a sterling ensemble at the peak of their craft."{{rotten-tomatoes|1020333-streetcar_named_desire|A Streetcar Named Desire}} {{Metacritic film prose|97|20|access-date=March 5, 2025}}{{Cite Metacritic |title=A Streetcar Named Desire |id=a-streetcar-named-desire |type=movie |access-date=March 5, 2025}}

In his 2020 autobiography Apropos of Nothing, director Woody Allen praised the film:{{blockquote| The movie Streetcar is for me total artistic perfection... It's the most perfect confluence of script, performance, and direction I’ve ever seen. I agree with Richard Schickel, who calls the play perfect. The characters are so perfectly written, every nuance, every instinct, every line of dialogue is the best choice of all those available in the known universe. All the performances are sensational. Vivien Leigh is incomparable, more real and vivid than real people I know. And Marlon Brando was a living poem. He was an actor who came on the scene and changed the history of acting. The magic, the setting, New Orleans, the French Quarter, the rainy humid afternoons, the poker night. Artistic genius, no holds barred.}}

The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited this movie as one of his 100 favorite films.{{cite web |last1=Thomas-Mason |first1=Lee |title=From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/akira-kurosawa-100-favourite-films-list/ |website=Far Out Magazine |date=January 12, 2021 |access-date=January 23, 2023}}

Filmink argued that the censor-driven changes did not fundamentally change the meaning of Williams' play, in contrast to other adaptations of his work.{{cite magazine|title=What makes a financially successful Tennessee Williams film?|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/what-makes-a-financially-successful-tennessee-williams-film/|date=19 November 2024|access-date=19 November 2024}}

Awards and honors

A Streetcar Named Desire won 4 Academy Awards, setting an Oscar record when it became the first film to win in three of the acting categories, a feat subsequently matched by Network in 1976 and Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2022.{{Cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1952 |title=The 24th Academy Awards (1952) Nominees and Winners |access-date=August 20, 2011|publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110706093825/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/24th-winners.html| archive-date= July 6, 2011 | url-status= live}}{{cite web |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/47311/A-Streetcar-Named-Desire/details |title=NY Times: A Streetcar Named Desire |access-date=December 19, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090125175326/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/47311/A-Streetcar-Named-Desire/details| archive-date= January 25, 2009 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2009 | url-status= dead}} It was also the first time since 1936 (Anthony Adverse) that a Warner Bros. movie won four or more Oscars.

class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
Award ! Category ! Nominee(s) ! Result
rowspan="12"\| Academy Awards \| Best Picture \| Charles K. Feldman \| {{nom}}
Best Director \| Elia Kazan \| {{nom}}
Best Actor \| Marlon Brando \| {{nom}}
Best Actress \| Vivien Leigh \| {{won}}
Best Supporting Actor \| Karl Malden \| {{won}}
Best Supporting Actress \| Kim Hunter \| {{won}}
Best Adapted Screenplay \| Tennessee Williams \| {{nom}}
Best Production Design \| Art Direction: Richard Day; Set Decoration: George James Hopkins \| {{won}}
Best Cinematography \| Harry Stradling \| {{nom}}
Best Costume Design \| Lucinda Ballard \| {{nom}}
Best Original Score \| Alex North \| {{nom}}
Best Sound Mixing \| Nathan Levinson \| {{nom}}
rowspan="2"\| British Academy Film Awards \| colspan="2"\| Best Film from any Source \| {{nom}}
Best British Actress \| Vivien Leigh \| {{won}}
Directors Guild of America Awards \| Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures \| Elia Kazan \| {{nom}}
rowspan="3"\| Golden Globe Awards \| colspan="2"\| Best Motion Picture – Drama \| {{nom}}
Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama \| Vivien Leigh \| {{nom}}
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture \| Kim Hunter \| {{won}}
Jussi Awards \| Best Foreign Actor \| Marlon Brando (also for The Men) \| {{won}}
National Board of Review Awards \| colspan="2"\| Top 10 Films \| {{draw\|6th Place}}
National Film Preservation Board \| colspan="2"\| National Film Registry \| {{won\|Inducted}}
rowspan="4"\| New York Film Critics Circle Awards \| colspan="2"\| Best Film \| {{won}}
Best Director \| Elia Kazan \| {{won}}
Best Actor \| Marlon Brando \| {{nom}}
Best Actress \| Vivien Leigh \| {{won}}
Online Film & Television Association Awards \| colspan="2"\| Hall of Fame – Motion Picture \| {{won}}
rowspan="2"\| Sant Jordi Awards \| rowspan="2"\| Special Jury Prize \| Vivien Leigh \| {{won}}
Tennessee Williams \| {{won}}
rowspan="3"\| Venice International Film Festival \| Golden Lion \| rowspan="2"\| Elia Kazan \| {{nom}}
Special Jury Prize \| {{won}}
Best Actress \| Vivien Leigh \| {{won}}
Writers Guild of America Awards \| Best Written American Drama \| Tennessee Williams \| {{nom}}

class="wikitable plainrowheaders"

Award

! Category

! Nominee(s)

! Result

rowspan="12"| Academy Awards

| {{nom}}

| {{nom}}

| {{nom}}

| {{won}}

Best Supporting Actor

| Karl Malden

| {{won}}

Best Supporting Actress

| Kim Hunter

| {{won}}

Best Adapted Screenplay

| Tennessee Williams

| {{nom}}

Best Production Design

| Art Direction: Richard Day;
Set Decoration: George James Hopkins

| {{won}}

| {{nom}}

| {{nom}}

| {{nom}}

| {{nom}}

rowspan="2"| British Academy Film Awards

| colspan="2"| Best Film from any Source

| {{nom}}

Best British Actress

| Vivien Leigh

| {{won}}

Directors Guild of America Awards

| Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures

| Elia Kazan

| {{nom}}

rowspan="3"| Golden Globe Awards

| colspan="2"| Best Motion Picture – Drama

| {{nom}}

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

| Vivien Leigh

| {{nom}}

Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture

| Kim Hunter

| {{won}}

Jussi Awards

| Best Foreign Actor

| Marlon Brando (also for The Men)

| {{won}}

National Board of Review Awards

| colspan="2"| Top 10 Films

| {{draw|6th Place}}

National Film Preservation Board

| colspan="2"| National Film Registry

| {{won|Inducted}}

rowspan="4"| New York Film Critics Circle Awards

| colspan="2"| Best Film

| {{won}}

Best Director

| Elia Kazan

| {{won}}

Best Actor

| Marlon Brando

| {{nom}}

Best Actress

| Vivien Leigh

| {{won}}

Online Film & Television Association Awards

| colspan="2"| Hall of Fame – Motion Picture

| {{won}}

rowspan="2"| Sant Jordi Awards

| rowspan="2"| Special Jury Prize

| Vivien Leigh

| {{won}}

Tennessee Williams

| {{won}}

rowspan="3"| Venice International Film Festival

| Golden Lion

| rowspan="2"| Elia Kazan

| {{nom}}

Special Jury Prize

| {{won}}

Best Actress

| Vivien Leigh

| {{won}}

Writers Guild of America Awards

| Best Written American Drama

| Tennessee Williams

| {{nom}}

American Film Institute recognition

1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies No. 45
2002 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions No. 67
2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
"Stella! Hey, Stella!" No. 45
"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." No. 75
2005 AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores No. 19
2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) No. 47

References

External links

{{AFI film|53428}}
{{IMDb title|0044081}}
[https://www.allmovie.com/movie/a-streetcar-named-desire-am6670 A Streetcar Named Desire at AllMovie]
{{TCMDb title|16434}}
{{rotten-tomatoes|1020333-streetcar_named_desire/reviews}}
Werner, Stephen A., [http://daniellordsj.com/SLCHP27-StanleyKowalski.html “In Search of Stanley Kowalski” St. Louis Cultural History Project (Summer 2022).]