A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Tennessee Williams (original play "A Streetcar Named Desire")
Oscar Saul (adaptation)
(more)

Release Date:

1 December 1951 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

...When she got there she met the brute Stan, and the side of New Orleans she hardly knew existed.

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.

Plot Keywords:

Southern Belle | Famous Score | Dysfunctional Marriage | Bill Collector | Inheritance

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

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)

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

Other crew
Irene Mayer Selznick	....	presenter: stage play

Production Companies

• Charles K. Feldman Group
• Warner Bros. Pictures (as Warner Bros. Pictures)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1951) (USA) (theatrical)
• CBS Television (1972) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Warner Home Video (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (1997) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (2000) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD) (special edition)
• CBS/Fox (video)
• Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation (cable tv)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)

Runtime:

122 min | USA:125 min (re-release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG (TV rating) | USA:Approved (original rating) (certificate #14871) | France:Unrated | USA:GP (1970 re-release) | South Korea:12 | 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

Company:

Charles K. Feldman Group

Trivia:

A Streetcar Named Desire opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater on December 3, 1947 at ran for 855 performances.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Stan comes back from taking Stella to the hospital, he is looking for a bottle opener. He finds it on the mantlepiece shakes up a bottle of beer and opens it. The beer foams up and spills on his trousers. But if you watch at the moment when he swings himself up to sit on the table -- before he opens the bottle -- you can see that the front of his trousers are already wet. Apparently they re-shot it without him changing into dry trousers.

Quotes:

Stanley Kowalski: Now that's how I'm gonna clear the table. Don't you ever talk that way to me. 'Pig,' 'Pollack,' 'disgusting,' 'vulgar,' 'greasy.' Those kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister's tongue just too much around here. What do you think you are? A pair of queens? Now just remember what Huey Long said - that every man's a king - and I'm the King around here, and don't you forget it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Everybody Loves Raymond: The Sitter (#3.3)" (1998)

Sexy, Brutal, and Endlessly Fascinating

There is little to be said about this movie that thousands of critics have not stated already. It is a magnificent piece of cinema, with an intricate script delivered by actors at the peak of their talents. Leigh is unbearably brittle and fragile and she dances precariously on the edge of sanity. Marlon Brando embodies a sense of brooding masculinity that other men can only dream of attaining, while creating an enduring cinema icon and delivering one of the all-time great movie lines. From the raucous jazz score to the sleazy production design bathed in smoldering grey, 'Streetcar' is a class-act from beginning to end; sexy, brutal, and endlessly fascinating.