FAQ

Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a fading Southern Belle, moves from her family's plantation in Auriol, Mississippi to stay with her younger sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and her 'Polack' husband Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) in their tiny apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans (Louisiana). It soon becomes apparent that Blanche's aristocratic pretentiousness thinly masks her alcoholism and neurotic delusions. Stanley takes a dislike to her, and she to him, and the Kowalski household becomes a battleground, Blanche reacting to Stanley's crudeness and brutish behaviors, and Stanley to her devious and self-centered ways. Meanwhile, pregnant Stella is caught in between.

A Streetcar Named Desire is the 1951 film adaptation of the 1947, Pulitzer Prize winning stage play by American writer and playwright Thomas 'Tennessee' Williams [1911-1983]. The play was adapted for the screen by American screenwriter Oscar Saul in collaboration with Williams. Three TV movies, A Streetcar Named Desire (1984) (1984), A Streetcar Named Desire (1995) (1995), and A Streetcar Named Desire (1998) (1998), have also been made from the play.

When Blanche first arrives at the Kowalskis' apartment in New Orleans, she explains: "They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields!" "Desire" is the name of the streetcar route—both lines existing in reality—that takes Blanche to her sister's apartment. Elysian Fields is the name of the street on which the Kowalskis live, but it is also the name for the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Knowing that, the allegory becomes fairly obvious. Blanche's nymphomania (desire) has gotten her on a route (the streetcar) that will lead to her death (Elysian Fields).

Yes. Although it's not explicitly shown onscreen, the insinuation is unmistakable. On the night that Stella is in the hospital birthing their baby, Stanley comes home alone to find Blanche blathering on about Mitch (Karl Malden) bringing her roses and about receiving a telegram from an ex-beau inviting her on a cruise to the Caribbean; none of which is true. Stanley calls her bluff and accuses her of playing "Queen of the Nile" all summer while swilling down his booze. Blanche panics and smashes a bottle with which to defend herself, but Stanley grabs her and begins to "roughhouse". With that, the scene ends. A bit later, Stella says to Eunice (Peg Hillias), her upstairs neighbor, "I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley." These are the clues to let the viewer know that Stanley raped Blanche, although he later denies it to his poker buddies.

While Stanley and Mitch play a game of poker with two other buddies, Stella and Eunice help Blanche pack for her "cruise". Stanley and Stella have actually made arrangements to send Blanche to a "rest home" in the country. When the doctor and his attendants come to take Blanche away, she refuses to go because "you aren't the gentleman I'm expecting." The attendant wrestles Blanche to the floor and suggests they use a straitjacket, but the doctor respectfully helps Blanche to her feet and offers his arm. "Whoever you are, I've always depended on the kindness of strangers", Blanche tells him and goes with him quietly. In the final scene, Stanley calls out to Stella, but she picks up her baby and runs up the stairs to Eunice's apartment, saying to herself, "I'm not going back in there....not this time. I'm never going back...never."

Outside of some location changes that couldn't be done by the play because it all had to take place onstage, there are two major differences between the play and the movie: (1) In the play, Blanche goes into more detail about what she discovers about her young husband and why he shot himself, and (2) the end of the play is different as far as how Stella deals with Stanley (probably due to Hollywood's code at the time that no bad deed will go unpunished). Also, the last line of the film is completely different from the play.

Tennessee Williams was a prolific writer, and many of his stories and screenplays have been made into movies, including Baby Doll (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) or its two TV remakes Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1976) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1984), Suddenly, Last Summer (1959), The Fugitive Kind (1960), Summer and Smoke (1961), The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) or its TV remake The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (2003), Sweet Bird of Youth (1962), The Night of the Iguana (1964), Boom! (1968), and The Glass Menagerie (1950) or its two remakes, The Glass Menagerie (1973) and The Glass Menagerie (1987). Another great one is This Property is Condemned (1966) starring Natalie Wood and Robert Redford.