Street Car Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire is the 1951 film adaptation of the 1947, Pulitzer Prize
winning stage play by Tennessee Williams. Williams collaborated with Oscar Saul
on the screenplay and Elia Kazan who directed the stage production went on to
direct the film. Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, all members of the
original Broadway cast, reprised their roles for the film. Vivien Leigh, who had appeared in the London
theater production, was brought in for the film version in
lieu of Jessica Tandy, who had created the part of Blanche DuBois on Broadway.



Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter were all awarded Oscars opposite Marlon
Brando (nominated) in Elia Kazan’s hothouse adaptation of the Tennessee Williams
play which he had originally directed on Broadway. When the death of her husband
reduces her circumstances, fading Southern belle Blanche Dubois is obliged to seek
shelter with her sister’s in-laws in a tenement in New Orleans. Neurotic, wistful
and desperately clinging to memories or fantasies of prosperity and refinement, her
presence provokes uncontrollable tensions - especially with brutal, virile brother-in-
law Stanley Kowalski.