A Streetcar Named Desire [60th Anniversary Edition] [DigiBook] [Blu-ray]

Director: Elia Kazan

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/10/2012
UPC:	0883929189670
Original Release:	1951
Rating:	PG
Source:	Warner Home Video
Presentation:	[B&W]
Language:	English
Time:	2:05:00
Sales rank:	8,179

Special Features

Movie and audio outtakes; Marlon Brando screen test; Feature-length profile Elia Kazan: a director's journey; 5 insightful documentaries: a Streetcar on Broadway; A Streetcar in Hollywood; Censorship and desire north and the music of the south; An actor named Brando; Commentary by Karl Malden and film historians Rudy Behimer and Jeff Young; Theatrical trailers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Marlon Brando	Stanley Kowalski
Vivien Leigh	Blanche DuBois
Karl Malden	Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell
Kim Hunter	Stella Kowalski
Rudy Bond	Steve Hubbell
Nick Dennis	Pablo Gonzales
Peg Hillias	Eunice Hubbell
Wright King	Young Collector
Richard Garrick	Doctor
Ann Dere	The Matron
Edna Thomas	Mexican Woman
Mickey Kuhn	Sailor
Chester Jones	Street Vendor
Marietta Canty	Black Woman
Lyle Latell	Policeman
Mel Archer	Foreman
Dahn Ben Amotz	Minor Role
John George	Passerby
Maxie Thrower	Passerby
Charles Wagenheim	Passerby
Alex North	Composer

Technical Credits

Tennessee Williams

Oscar Saul

Charles K. Feldman	Producer
Tennessee Williams	Screenwriter
Oscar Saul	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

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.