Biography
Filmography
..Things Are Looking Up
..The Village Squire
..Gentleman's   
  Agreement
..Look Up and Laugh
..Fire Over England
..Dark Journey
..Storm in a Teacup
..Twenty-One Days
..A Yank at Oxford
..Sidewalks of London
..Gone With the Wind
..Waterloo Bridge
..That Hamilton Woman
..Caesar and Cleopatra
..Anna Karenina
..A Streetcar Named 
  Desire
..The Deep Blue Sea
..The Roman
  Spring of Mrs. Stone
..Ship of Fools
Stage
Appearances
Photo Gallery 1
Photo Gallery 2
etc.

1951

Synopsis:
Blanche has come to New Orleans, to see her sister Stella, and takes a streetcar names Desire – Desire the name of a street in New Orleans, then another named Cemetery, and finally arriving at the French Quarter – also know as Elysian Fields.  Excited to see her sister Stella again, the differences between the two women are obvious.  Stella has a more practical and earthy appeal, and has found marital bliss with the loudmouthed Stanley Kowalski, who enjoys drinking, playing cards, and bowling.  In the midst of Stella and Stanley’s seedy apartment, Blanche attempts to maintain a gentility in her new environment, but Stanley, on meeting her, sense something pretentious and false about Blanche.  She and Stella had inherited Belle Reve (“Beautiful Dream” in French), the family plantation; Stanley wants to know what has happened to the place, since, by virtue of the Napoleonic Code of Louisiana, he can be entitled to half of his wife’s half of the inheritance.  Stella can see that her sister sits on the edge of a nervous breakdown.  Eventually, Blanche admits that the plantation had been lost.  This infuriates Stanley, and he wants to see a receipt showing what has happened to the property, because he is persistent in getting his and Stella’s share from the sale.  Unable to find the papers, Blanche’s search in interrupted by Stanley, his bad manners and impatience getting the best of him.  He begins grabbing at things in her trunk – furs, costume jewelry, clothes, anything he can put his hands on – and suspects her finery could never have been bought on a schoolteacher’s salary.  Blanche comes to terms with the situation and reveals that there were a series of mortgages placed on Belle Reve, and when the payment on them could not be made, the property was foreclosed.  Distrusting his sister-in-law, he pursues the matter, and also looks into the reasons why Blanche left her teaching post.  Having three people living in such a tiny apartment is something Stanley resent, no less the long, hot baths his new guest takes; the dim lighting she prefers; and continually agitating him, her ladylike airs.  Stanley continues having poker parties, the games usually lasting as long as possible.  Among the group at the poker table, is Mitch, a bachelor living with his mother.  To Blanche, he appears to have more manners than the other men.  On meeting Blanche, Mitch becomes interested in her, and tries to change into a man of sophistication, something he is not.  Disgusted by the exchange between the two, Stanley, quite drunk after having downed beer after beer, leaps into her living quarters to shut the radio off.  Although Stella comes to her sister’s defense, she and Blanche are forced to leave the apartment.  Stella and Blanche go find safety upstairs in Eunice’s apartment for the night.  With the poker party abruptly over, Stanley finds himself alone.  Next, he goes to the bottom of the staircase leading to the apartment upstairs, and yells, “Stella!” over and over.  After one of his most piercing cries of her name, Stella exits the safety of the other apartment, and comes to her husband.  Not long afterward, information about Blanche’s background comes to light – the suicide of her young husband; the seduction of numerous men; and dismissal from her teaching job, following seduction of one of her male students.  Stanley tells these tawdry details to Mitch, who has planned on marrying her.  Now that Blanche has no other chance at marriage, she will remain permanent guest under Stanley’s roof.  With Stella in labor and having to go to the hospital, he and Blanche are alone together for the first time.  The confrontation between the two of them evolves into a physical one.  Though Blanche tries to keep Stanley away from her, she is raped by her brother-in-law.  The violent experience drives her into a deeper level of illusion where reality does not exist.  To take her to a mental hospital, a doctor and a matron arrive.  Blanche reinvents the situation, and thinks she will be going to meet one of her old boyfriends.  A brief lucid moment occurs, where she wants to escape, but the gentle manner of the doctor makes the use of a straitjacket unnecessary, the man offering her the respects she craves.  Blanche responds, “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”  Blanche does not say goodbye to Stella; the latter reacts to the situation by leaving Stanley and taking the newborn baby with her to Eunice’s apartment.  Stanley reacts by yelling Stella’s name.

Notes:

Cast:

Directed By:
Elia Kazan

Writing Credits:
Oscar Saul (adaptation)
Tennessee Williams (play)

Links:
IMDB Information Page