A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (FILM)

'''A Streetcar Named Desire''' is an Academy Award-winning 1951 film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by Tennessee Williams. It was directed by Elia Kazan, who directed the original stage production, and starred Marlon Brando (Stanley Kowalski), Vivien Leigh (Blanche DuBois), Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. All but Leigh were chosen from the Broadway cast of the play.
It was produced by talent agent-lawyer Charles K. Feldman, and released by Warner Bros. Studios. The screenplay, which had many revisions to remove references to homosexuality among other things, was written by Oscar Saul.
A director's cut version of the film was released in 1993 on home video. This version restored scenes filmed by Kazan that had been removed due to the demands of groups such as the Catholic Legion of Decency. The scenes were removed without Kazan's knowledge, and despite the script revisions that had occurred before filming began. These restored scenes add approximately three minutes to the film's duration.
In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
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 leitmotifstyle, 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''.

Contents

Background and production

Cast

Awards

Theatrical Deviations and Variant Versions

Notes

References

External links

Background and production

★ 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).

★ Jessica Tandy, the original actress for Blanche DuBois, was replaced by Vivien Leigh because the director thought Tandy was too old for the role. (Tandy was four years older than Leigh)

★ Brando was the only one of the four actors nominated from the film who did not win an award.

★ When the film was made, one could not buy fitted T-shirts, so a regular T-shirt was bought, it was washed several times and its back was sewn in order to tighten it for Brando.

★ During filming, in the garden of Vivien Leigh's mansion, David Niven discovered Marlon Brando and Laurence Olivier swimming in the pool. Olivier was kissing Brando. "I turned my back to them and went back inside to join Vivien. I'm sure she knew what was going on, but she made no mention of it. Nor did I. One must be sophisticated about such matters in life."^[1]

★ Most of the filming was on sets in California, but a few exteriors were filmed in New Orleans, most notably Blanche's arrival in New Orleans.

★ The streetcar visible in the film is Pearly Thomas # 922, still in service in New Orleans.

Cast

★ Vivien Leigh - Blanche DuBois

★ Marlon Brando - Stanley Kowalski


★ Kim Hunter - Stella Kowalski

★ Karl Malden - Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell

★ Rudy Bond - Steve Hubbel

★ Nick Dennis - Pablo Gonzales

★ Peg Hillias - Eunice Hubbel

★ Wright King - A Collector

★ Richard Garrick - A Doctor

Awards

The movie won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Karl Malden), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Vivien Leigh), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kim Hunter), and Best Art Direction -- Set Decoration, Black-and-White. It was also nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Marlon Brando), Best Director (Elia Kazan), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White, , Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Picture, Best Sound, Recording and Best Writing, Screenplay.

Theatrical Deviations and Variant Versions

Censorship of the time, in the form of the Hollywood Production Code, called for the end of the film involving Stella's renunciation of Stanley's rape of Blanche, perhaps to the point of leaving the household. The original play's ending is far more ambiguous, with Stella, distraught at having sent off her sister Blanche, mutely allowing herself to be consoled by Stanley.

Homosexual themes found in the play were removed for the film adaptation. In the original play Blanche's deceased husband, Allen Grey, had committed suicide after having a homosexual affair. In the film, Blanche says only that she showed scorn towards Allen, driving him to suicide.
The current home video release features the 1993 re-release cut of the film, the original version intended to be shown in the cinemas before madatory censorship cuts were made. This version restores several scenes, including:

★ Stella mentioning that "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."

★ Through added dialogue, it is more clear that Blanche's husband was a homosexual and that she made him commit suicide with her insults.

★ Blanche's line explaining that she wants to kiss the paperboy "softly, sweetly" now has the words "...on the 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, her face blank with desire.

★ Stanley's line "Maybe you wouldn't be so bad to interfere with." and the resulting rape scene.

Notes

Leigh, who had starred Laurence Olivier's production in the West End, was chosen for the film version over Jessica Tandy, who had played the role in the Broadway production. It was believed that Tandy looked too much older than Marlon Brando to be cast as Blanche DuBois. Leigh was also chosen over Tandy at the insistence of the producers, since Brando had not yet achieved the fame necessary to draw audiences to see ''Streetcar''. Thanks to her work on such films as ''Gone with the Wind'', Leigh was internationally known, and provided the star power which they felt the film needed, and the other cast members lacked. ^[2] ''Streetcar'' was arguably the film which catapulted Brando to worldwide fame, although at the time, top billing went only to Vivien Leigh.

References

1. Thornton, Michael. TV & showbiz, Daily Mail, 1 September 2006. Retrieved on 2006 December 30.
2. 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

External links

★ Images from the Movie - an interactive galleria which comprises a lot of images from the movie of A Streetcar Named Desire.

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★ CliffsNotes