A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)

Blanche DuBois, a middle-aged high school English teacher, arrives in New Orleans. She takes a streetcar named "Desire" [5] to the French Quarter, where her sister, Stella, and her husband, Stanley Kowalski, live in a dilapidated tenement apartment. Blanche claims to be on leave from her teaching job due to her nerves and wants to stay with Stella and Stanley. Blanche's demure, refined manner is a stark contrast to Stanley's crude, brutish behavior, making them mutually wary and antagonistic. Stella welcomes having her sister as a guest, but Blanche often patronizes and criticizes her.

It is revealed that Blanche and Stella's family estate, Belle Reve, was lost to creditors; Blanche, widowed at a young age after her husband's suicide, is broke and had nowhere to go except to her sister. When Stanley suspects Blanche may be hiding inheritance money, she shows him paperwork proving the estate was foreclosed on. Stanley, looking for further proof, 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, then announces Stella is pregnant.

Blanche meets Stanley's friend, Mitch, whose courteous manner is a contrast to Stanley's other pals. Mitch is attracted to Blanche's flirtatious charm, and a romance blossoms. During a poker night with his friends, Stanley explodes in a drunken rage, striking Stella and ending the game; Blanche and Stella flee upstairs to neighbor Eunice's apartment. After his anger subsides, Stanley remorsefully bellows for Stella from the courtyard below. Irresistibly drawn by her physical passion for him, she goes to Stanley, who carries her off to bed. The next morning, Blanche urges Stella to leave Stanley, calling him a sub-human animal. Stella disagrees and wants to stay.

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. Finally, Mitch says they should be together. Meanwhile, Stanley uncovers Blanche's hidden history of mental instability, promiscuity, and being fired for sleeping with an underage student. Stanley then passes this news on to Mitch, in full knowledge this will end Blanche’s marriage prospects and leave her with no future. Stella angrily blames Stanley for the catastrophic revelation, but their fight is interrupted when Stella goes into labor.

Later, Mitch arrives and confronts Blanche about Stanley's claims. She initially denies everything, then breaks down confessing. She pleads for forgiveness, but Mitch, hurt and humiliated, roughly ends the relationship. Later that night, while Stella's labor continues, Stanley returns from the hospital to get some sleep. Blanche, dressed in a tattered old gown, pretends she is departing on a trip with an old admirer. She spins tale after tale about her fictitious future plans, and he pitilessly destroys her illusions. They engage in a struggle, after which Blanche is shown in a regressed psychotic state, implying Stanley may have assaulted her.

Weeks later, during another poker game at the Kowalski apartment, Stella and Eunice are packing Blanche's belongings. Blanche, who believes she is going on a vacation, has suffered a complete mental breakdown and is being committed to a mental hospital. Blanche told Stella what happened with Stanley, but Stella disbelieves her. When a doctor and nurse arrive to remove Blanche, she resists and collapses, seized with total confusion. The doctor gently offers Blanche his arm, and she goes willingly. Mitch, present at the poker game, is visibly upset. As the car drives away with Blanche, Stella takes the baby upstairs to Eunice's, ignoring Stanley's calls and vowing not to return.

Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

• Vivien Leigh as Blanche
• Marlon Brando as Stanley
• Kim Hunter as Stella
• Karl Malden as Mitch
• Rudy Bond as Steve
• Nick Dennis as Pablo
• Peg Hillias as Eunice
• Wright King as A Collector
• Ann Dere as The Matron
• Edna Thomas as The Mexican Woman
• Richard Garrick as A Doctor
• Mickey Kuhn as A sailor

As of March 2020, Mickey Kuhn is the last surviving cast member.

The play was set entirely at the Kowalski apartment. The film was opened up to include places only briefly mentioned or non-existent in the play, such as the train station, the streets of the French Quarter, the bowling alley, the pier of a dance casino, and the machine factory.

Dialogue was abbreviated or cut in some scenes, when Blanche was trying to convince Stella to leave Stanley, for example, or when Mitch confronted 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 play's themes were controversial, causing the screenplay to be modified to comply with the Hollywood Production Code. In the original play, Blanche's husband had committed 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", implying homosexuality without explicitly stating it.

The scene involving Stanley raping Blanche is cut-short in the film, instead ending dramatically with Blanche smashing the mirror with the broken bottle in a failed attempt at self-defence. This is so as not to show Stanley picking her up and explicitly taking her to the bed to rape her.

At the end of the play, Stella, distraught at Blanche's fate, mutely allows Stanley to console her. In the movie, this is changed to Stella blaming Stanley for Blanche's fate, and resolving to leave him.[6]

Other scenes were shot but cut after filming was complete to conform to the Production Code and later, to avoid condemnation by the National Legion of Decency.

In 1993, after Warner Brothers discovered the censored footage during a routine inventory of archives,[7] several minutes of the censored scenes were restored in an 'original director's version' video re-release.[8]

Close tight photography altered the dramatic qualities of the play, for example in the lengthy scenes of escalating conflict between Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, or when Karl Malden shines the light on Leigh to see how old she is, or when the camera hovers over Leigh, collapsed on the floor, with her head at the bottom of the screen, as though she were turned upside down.

In the movie, Blanche actually rode the streetcar, 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, and the production team had to gain permission from the authorities to hire out a streetcar with the "Desire" name on it.[9]

The music score, by Alex North, was written in 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.

• Ten Years After's song "Hard Monkeys" references the movie: "Got no street car called Desire, and I'll never light the fire."
• In Modern Family episode "Door to Door", Gloria loses Jay's dog Stella. Gloria in a panic asks Cam for help. While searching for the dog, Cam realizes that he is to play the role he was meant to play, screaming Stella just as Stanley did in A Streetcar Named Desire.
• In Gilmore Girls episode 14 That Damn Donna Reed Rory is given a bird to look after for school which they name Stanley, upon finding out she's a girl rename Stella. When the bird goes missing Lorelai hollers "STELLA" such as in the traditional film.
• The sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, season 3, episode 2 Fun with Dick and Janet (Part 2) starts with Dick spraying beer over himself while screaming "STELLA" twice. Afterwards he is comforted by guest star Roseanne Barr by her squeezing him between her breasts.
• In The Simpsons episode "Secrets of a Successful Marriage", Waylon Smithers has a flashback to his love, with Mr. Burns below his balcony yelling "SMITHERS!" the way Stanley called for Stella. The episode "A Streetcar Named Marge" is centered around a musical remake of A Streetcar Named Desire in which Marge plays Blanche Dubois. Marge's portrayal of Blanche is meant to mirror her relationship with her husband, Homer. In the episode "What Animated Women Want", Milhouse Van Houten adopts Brando's surly attitude and Lisa, after years of rejecting him, finds him irresistible.
• In The Princess and the Frog, when Naveen and Tiana had turned into frogs and accidentally disrupt a party, "Big Daddy" La Bouff calls for a dog named Stella, in the same manner, to get the frogs.
• In Over the Hedge, when Tiger the Persian cat is separated from Stella the skunk, who is disguised as a cat, he calls for her as Stanley called for Stella.
• In Wu-Tang Clan's song "Triumph", Method Man references the movie: "Transform into the Ghost Rider / A six-pack and a streetcar named Desire."[15]
• In the Rod Stewart / Larry John McNally song "The Motown Song", a line references Stanley Kowalski's remark during one of his poker games in the movie: "'Cause you know what luck is / luck is believing you're lucky".
• In Panic! at the Disco's song "Memories", they refer to the play: "And it was beautifully depressing, like a street car named Desire. They were fighting for their love that had started growing tired."
• New Orleans rapper Curren$y references the film in his song "Famous": "this morning staring down at the ocean, inspired, scribbling fire on a streetcar named Desire."
• In Seinfeld episode "The Pen", Elaine takes too many muscle relaxants and meets a woman named Stella at a function. She screams "Stella" repeatedly during the function.
• In Saves The Day's song entitled "Hot Time in Delaware", the track starts with an excerpt from the movie's script: "Oh, how pretty the sky is. I oughta go there on a rocket that never comes down. Which way do we go now, Stella, this way? Stella: No, honey this way."
• In Lana Del Rey's song entitled "Carmen", Blanche's famous line is alluded to: "That's the little story of the girl you know, relying on the kindness of strangers".
• In Sleeper, a 1973 Woody Allen film, Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) attempts to regain his identity by acting out a scene with Luna Schlosser (Diane Keaton) from A Streetcar Named Desire, with Keaton playing the Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) role and Allen playing Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh).
• In an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, Krelboynes act out scenes from the movie with puppet dolls.
• In Lil Wayne's song "Let's Start a Fire", he raps "She's riding me like a street car named Desire."
• In the title song to Colin Hay's 2002 album Company of Strangers, a "Blanche DuBois" is invoked as is reliance upon the kindness of strangers.
• In Bad Religion's album entitled "The New America" a song is titled "A Streetkid Named Desire". The song is an autobiography of sorts that compares the struggles punk rock kids faced in the 70/80's to Blanche's struggles.
• The title of the British biographical drama film A Street Cat Named Bob, based on the book of the same name is a possible play on words of A Streetcar Named Desire.
• In the film The Disaster Artist, Tommy Wiseau (James Franco) rolls on the floor yelling "STELLA!"
• In the film, Hollywood Homicide, Detective K. C. Calden portrayed by Josh Hartnett alongside Harrison Ford, Detective Calden who acts on the side, screams, “Stella! Stella!” while rehearsing for a play in the morning after sleeping with a girl, screaming on the balcony.

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• A Streetcar Named Desire at the American Film Institute Catalog
• A Streetcar Named Desire on IMDb
• A Streetcar Named Desire at the TCM Movie Database
• A Streetcar Named Desire at AllMovie