IMDb > A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
A Streetcar Named Desire
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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) More at IMDbPro »

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A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) -- Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her.
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) -- AllTrailers.net - Trailer (Flash)
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Overview

User Rating:
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 13% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Elia Kazan
Writers:
Tennessee Williams (original play "A Streetcar Named Desire")
Oscar Saul (adaptation)
(more)
Contact:
View company contact information for A Streetcar Named Desire on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
1 December 1951 (West Germany) more
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
...When she got there she met the brute Stan, and the side of New Orleans she hardly knew existed. more
Plot:
Disturbed Blanche DuBois moves in with her sister in New Orleans and is tormented by her brutish brother-in-law while her reality crumbles around her. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Won 4 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 14 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(100 articles)
A Single Man Gets Degayified Posters
 (From Alternative Film Guide. 24 November 2009, 1:43 AM, PST)
Weisz Picks Up Richardson Theatre Award
 (From WENN. 24 November 2009, 12:16 AM, PST)
User Comments:
"I've Always Depended On The Kindness Of Strangers." more (174 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

Vivien Leigh ... Blanche DuBois

Marlon Brando ... Stanley Kowalski

Kim Hunter ... Stella Kowalski

Karl Malden ... Harold 'Mitch' Mitchell
Rudy Bond ... Steve
Nick Dennis ... Pablo Gonzales
Peg Hillias ... Eunice
Wright King ... A Collector
Richard Garrick ... A Doctor
Ann Dere ... The Matron
Edna Thomas ... The Mexican Woman
Mickey Kuhn ... A Sailor
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mel Archer ... Foreman (uncredited)
Dahn Ben Amotz ... Bit part (uncredited)
Marietta Canty ... Giggling woman wth Eunice (uncredited)
John George ... (uncredited)
Chester Jones ... Street vendor (uncredited)
Lyle Latell ... Policeman (uncredited)
Maxie Thrower ... Passerby (uncredited)
Charles Wagenheim ... Passerby (uncredited)
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Directed by
Elia Kazan 
 
Writing credits
Tennessee Williams (original play "A Streetcar Named Desire")

Oscar Saul (adaptation)

Tennessee Williams (screenplay)

Produced by
Charles K. Feldman .... producer
 
Original Music by
Alex North 
 
Cinematography by
Harry Stradling Sr. (director of photography) (as Harry Stradling)
 
Film Editing by
David Weisbart 
 
Art Direction by
Richard Day 
 
Set Decoration by
George James Hopkins 
 
Makeup Department
Gordon Bau .... makeup artist
Ray Forman .... hair stylist (uncredited)
Otis Malcolm .... makeup artist (uncredited)
Pat O'Grady .... body makeup artist (uncredited)
Hazel Rogers .... hair stylist (uncredited)
 
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Don Alvarado .... assistant director (uncredited)
 
Sound Department
C.A. Riggs .... sound
Nathan Levinson .... sound (uncredited)
 
Costume and Wardrobe Department
Lucinda Ballard .... wardrobe
Lillian House .... wardrobe (uncredited)
Robert O'Dell .... wardrobe (uncredited)
Marguerite Royce .... wardrobe (uncredited)
 
Music Department
Ray Heindorf .... musical director
Maurice De Packh .... orchestrator (uncredited)
 
Other crew
Irene Mayer Selznick .... presenter: stage play
 
Crew verified as complete


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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
122 min | USA:125 min (re-release)
Country:
USA
Language:
English | Spanish
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Certification:
USA:GP (1970 re-release) | USA:Approved (certificate #14871) (original rating) | Australia:PG (TV rating) | France:Unrated | South Korea:12 | UK:12A (re-rating) | New Zealand:PG | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:PG (1993 director's cut) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PG (Manitoba)
Filming Locations:
Los Angeles, California, USA more
Company:
Charles K. Feldman Group more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Vivien Leigh, who suffered from bipolar disorder in real life, later had difficulties in distinguishing her real life from that of Blanche DuBois. more
Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Stanley says that Louisiana utilizes the Napoleonic Code (which was promulgated a year after the Louisiana Purchase). Actually, Louisiana uses as its private law the Louisiana Civil Code. Although it is similar to the Napoleonic Code, it has always been the controlling legal authority in the state. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
A Sailor: Can I help you, ma'am?
Blanche DuBois: Why, they told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemetery and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Space Quest VI: The Spinal Frontier (1995) (VG) more

FAQ

Where does the title come from?
How closely does the movie follow the play?
Is this movie based on a novel?
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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
20 out of 28 people found the following comment useful.
"I've Always Depended On The Kindness Of Strangers.", 20 October 2006
10/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

When the history of American theater is written for the 20th Century the two most prominent names will be Eugene O'Neill and Tennessee Williams. Both men pushed the exploration of the human soul to the very limit in their work. Writing drama will never be the same because of the work of these two men.

Williams's masterpiece is A Streetcar Named Desire which ran over 860 performances in three years. When Warner Brothers bought the film rights, they did the highly unusual thing of bringing almost the entire Broadway cast over. That included Marlon Brando for whom this was his second film. Brando was not a movie name yet and the decision was made to recast the female lead with Vivien Leigh instead of Jessica Tandy who played Blanche Dubois on Broadway.

In doing so this gave Vivien Leigh the very unique position of having played opposite the two men who are held up as male acting icons for the last century, Marlon Brando and Leigh's husband at the time Laurence Olivier. Certainly Blanche Dubois was unlike anything she ever did opposite Olivier.

In fact Blanche is opposite that other southern belle that Leigh got her first Oscar for, Scarlett O'Hara. Scarlett may come on like a spoiled brat at first, but she turns out to be made of some real stern stuff when the chips are down.

Blanche Dubois however retreats into her own fantasies when trouble brews. She's left the plantation home in a small Mississippi town where she doubles as an English teacher and comes to live with her sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski.

Brando is Kowalski and for years impressionists did him by yelling from the pit of their abdomens, "STELLA, STELLA." That is until The Godfather and then they stuffed their cheeks and said how one day a favor would be asked in return.

But impressionists only make a living because of the impressions made by the players. On Broadway and Hollywood, Stanley Kowalski made Marlon Brando a superstar and an icon for a couple of generations. Kowalski as done by Brando is a force of nature, primeval impulses that bubble to the surface in all of us sometimes.

Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski and Karl Malden as Mitch Mitchell also won Oscars in the Supporting categories to go with Leigh's. Hunter is a torn women fighting both suspicions about her husband and her sister. The real reason why Blanche has come to live with them and the affect her silly flirtations are having on her husband and their marriage.

Malden as Mitchell starts out as passive and as nice as Jim Connor, the gentleman caller from that other Tennessee Williams masterpiece, A Glass Menagerie. But he proves to be something less than meets the eye in his dealings with Leigh.

A Streetcar Named Desire won all kinds of Awards, the three acting Oscars, one for Elia Kazan as Best Director and a whole bunch of technical ones. But An American In Paris won for Best Picture and Hollywood decided young Brando could wait for his and they gave it that year to Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen.

This film is still the best adaption to the screen of a Tennessee Williams play and is an absolute must to see.

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Message Boards

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
What does Stanley do for a living? GunHillTrain
Who did you sympathize with? myavalon
STELLLLA!!!!! keeb69
Vivien Leigh wasnt good KKyriacoscar
What is it exactly that he hates so much? turnip_head
Brando's acting confuses the hell out of me sensa_moi
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