A Streetcar Named Desire: A Review

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

In the American South, they are proud of their crazy people. So commented Julia Sugarbaker on an episode of Designing Women. I wonder how proud Ms. Sugarbaker would be of Blanche DuBois, the ultimate crazed Southern belle. Both Blanche and her A Streetcar Named Desire antagonist have become legendary. The filmed adaptation of Tennessee Williams' sordid song of the South may have been watered down from the original stage production. However, A Streetcar Named Desire still has immense power owing to its brilliant performances and direction.

Fading beauty and English teacher Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) has come to New Orleans' French Quarter to visit her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) for an indefinite stay. Stella is happy to have Blanche back. One person who is at most disinterested and at most irritated at having the Grande Dame of Belle Reve back is Stella's husband. As Blanche is refined and proper, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) is coarse and brutal. 

Blanche does not understand why Stella puts up with Stanley. It helps that Stella is fixated on Stanley's animal magnetism and incredible body. It also helps that Stella is pregnant. Stanley is convinced that Blanche has squandered the DuBois estate and thus stolen from what should be his due to the Napoleonic Code. It is doubtful that he knows what the Napoleonic Code actually is. It is doubtful that Stanley's poker buddies know either. One who might know is his best friend Mitch (Karl Malden). He is more respectful and sophisticated than Stanley but not as refined as Blanche. 

Mitch and Blanche begin seeing each other socially. Blanche is a widow after her sensitive husband killed himself. What exactly drove her husband to end his life is as shadowy as the fog Blanche seems to live in. So is her sordid past at the Flamingo Hotel and the true reason she left her teaching position. Stanley has contacts who know what's what. Stella won't believe the stories. Mitch believes them. Blanche, whose mixture of lies and fantasy start blending, is teetering on emotional and mental collapse. Stella's now given birth, leaving Stanley and Blanche alone together. Blanche has lost touch with reality. A shocking act from Stanley pushes her over the edge. Will Blanche find refuge from her many disasters? Will Blanche continue to depend on the kindness of strangers?

A Streetcar Named Desire brings back almost everyone from the original stage production to recreate their roles on film. That includes director Elia Kazan, who keeps things well-paced for a two-hour runtime. The only performer who was not from the original Broadway production was Vivien Leigh. She however had played Blanche on the London stage. As such, everyone in the cast, it could be argued, was recreating their original stage performance. 

A Streetcar Named Desire has one of the finest acting in film. Brando, Leigh, Malden and Hunter were all nominated for their performances. Three of the four won in their respective categories, the first time that had happened in Academy Award history. Only Brando lost, with Humphrey Bogart beating him for The African Queen. Each performance is extraordinary. I will start with the winners.

I think it would be difficult to not compare Vivien Leigh's second Oscar for Best Actress to her first for Gone with the Wind. In both, she plays Southern belles gone wildly wrong. However, I think Leigh gives a simply brilliant performance as Blanche DuBois. If one listens to her, we see how Leigh captured Blanche's mix of mania and melancholy. She starts off speaking in a rapid-fire manner. Her voice is very high, and her manner seems almost exaggerated in its graces and airs. Late in the film, however, her pitch changes to a lower, huskier tone. This is when she is forced into talking about her sordid, sleazy past as the town nympho. 

This to me shows that Blanche was somewhat aware that she was putting on an act. I say "somewhat aware" as part of me thinks that Blanche is the type to will something to be true even when it isn't. She is a deeply tragic and traumatized figure. Censorship would not allow her late husband's truth to be fully revealed (she remarks that he was sensitive and wrote poetry). However, Leigh's performance made me think that Blanche carries a bit of guilt about his condition. We see her as already fragile, high-strung and frankly a bit loony when she emerges from the train station. 

When she is forced to relinquish the fantasy world of "magic" to the harsh light of reality, there is more than symbolism there. Blanche struggles between her ideas of refinement and her carnal desires. This is a person at war with themselves. Blanche at heart, I think, wants to be that refined, sophisticated lady. She is also not deliberately cruel, which she says is the one unforgivable thing that she is not guilty of. 

Leigh does an absolutely brilliant job as Blanche DuBois. Her final scene is filled with deep tragedy and a touch of grace. One cannot help being moved by her famous last line. It is a confession to herself and others that unlike Scarlett O'Hara, Blanche DuBois hasn't the strength to stand on her own.

Kim Hunter and Karl Malden also do excellent work as Stella and Mitch. Hunter shows Stella to be drawn to someone like Stanley. It is not openly stated, but it is sex. She, unlike Blanche, has no shame in giving in to the temptations of the flesh. She also is different from Stanley in that her loves can be emotional as well as physical. She accepts Stanley for the man that he is. She may even like how mean he is. However, she also sees the fragility in Blanche and wants desperately to care for her. Hunter is a perfect supporting actress. She supports Brando and Leigh without either overshadowing them or fading in their shadows. Hunter is able to go toe-to-toe with them without taking attention away from them. Hunter manages that balance exceptionally well.

Malden plays Mitch as someone who is between Stanley and Blanche. Stanley, for example, would simply balk at the idea of having to bow to any woman upon greeting them. We see Mitch, albeit reluctantly, do such a thing. The smile on his face is not that of someone who expects a bit of something-something. It does hint that he would like some, however. 

Mitch treats Blanche like the refined lady that she sees herself as. Malden makes Mitch into something of an innocent. He is able to play rough-and-tough poker with the bros. He is also able to fret about his ill mother and marvel at Blanche's elegance and sophistication. His scene where he confronts Blanche about her wicked past is a strong scene. As he forces Blanche to literally enter the light, we see a man both enraged and heartbroken.

Now we turn to Marlon Brando. He is absolutely brilliant from his first scene as the brutal, brutish Stanley Kowalski. Stanley is boorish, animalistic and filled with rage at the slightest hint of mockery. This is a man who is surprisingly similar to Blanche in one way: he too is a man of passions. His cries of "HEY STELLA!" may now be something of a cliche and ripe for parody. However, it is a credit to Marlon Brando's performance that he makes Stanley's intensity and ferocity look natural and not silly.

We still end up finding him repellant given how he tortured Blanche at the end. Stanley is not a good man. When he tears into the refined DuBois sisters for constantly mocking him as a "Polack", one feels that immense chip on his shoulder tearing at him. He acts out like an uncaged, unhinged man. 

It is curious though that for how much Brando as Stanley Kowalski is, few have noted that Brando managed to get a bit humor into his performance. Hearing him constantly go on about both the Napoleonic Code and the various people who will examine things for him is amusing. After his intense and frightening slamming of the dishes, he calmly says that his side is clear and offers to clean Stella and Blanche's side. Brando made that if not laugh-out-loud funny, at least a wryly amusing moment.

Tennessee Williams received credit for the film's screenplay. I suspect that "adaptation by Oscar Saul" did most of the heavy lifting. There are aspects from the original production that would not pass muster in the Hays Code era. Blanche's late husband being gay would be a firm no. The open nature of Stanley's assault on Blanche would never be filmed. Even now, such a thing would still be pretty shocking. I think that the forced changes work in A Streetcar Named Desire. The smashed mirror is already suggestive enough both to what Stanley did to Blanche and the smashing of Blanche's mind. The shall we say more optimistic ending with Stella resolving to reject Stanley's call is one that I like more than her surrendering to him. Granted, that is a personal thing, but I prefer it.

Elia Kazan brought a great deal of passion out of his actors. He also brought in excellent elements, such as the Oscar-winning Production Design of this run-down French Quarter apartment complex. Alex North's Oscar-nominated score was also excellent, a mix of dramatic and sultry to match the chaotic world.

A Streetcar Named Desire is an excellent adaptation. Whatever changes occurred work. Standout, if not iconic, performances capture this dark tale of the seedy South. Haven't we all at one point depended on the kindness of strangers? 

DECISION: A+