A Streetcar Named Desire
By Kit Macdonald
The early 50s' most respected actress, Vivien Leigh, stars alongside the most vibrant upstart actor of the day, Marlon Brando, in Elia Kazan's sumptuously well-realised film about a fragile and delusional Southern belle driven to distraction and tragedy by the brutish realities of a deeply patriarchal society. Adapted from Tennessee Williams' play, which in 1948 won him the first of his two Pulitzer Prizes in Drama, Streetcar follows the descent into mental instability and personal torment suffered by Blanche DuBois due to the behaviour of her sister's brutish husband Stanley after she moves into the dilapidated apartment they share in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Leigh and Brando both turned in career-landmark performances in portraying the intense to-and-fro of Blanche and Stanley's relationship, and Kim Hunter and Karl Malden excel in their supporting roles. Kazan had previously directed the Broadway production of Streetcar, and the depth and sharpness of his understanding of Williams' text can be felt at every turn.