The Spoiler Alert: A Streetcar Named Desire
The Essentials: Rating: PG | Category: Drama | Director: Elia Kazan | Writers: Tennessee Williams (screen play), Oscar Saul (adaptation) | Starring: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
Well, that was definitely NOT what I was expecting.
I thought this movie was a love story. I think maybe it was the way people would shout “STELLAAAAA!” all these years in reference to it and it seemed more romantic than what it turned out to be? I have not read the Tennessee Williams play that is the basis for the movie, nor did I know anything other than this is a famous movie and Marlon Brando is in it. Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock. With that info, we begin:
The Plot
It’s 1947. Vivien Leigh is Blanche Du Bois. We meet her as she arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella (the famous STELLAAAAAA, and played by Kim Hunter) and it’s clear pretty quickly that Blanche is harboring some leftover resentment towards Stella.
It appears Stella up and left the family some years ago and Blanche is the one who stayed behind to take care of various relatives that died. Despite her best efforts Blanche was unable to save the family home and lost it to creditors. Thus, now she has to move in with Stella.
Blanche Is Nuts
Right off the the bat, she’s very flighty and talks in an “I’m better than you” Southern Belle voice, while generally acting out of touch with reality. Initially I didn’t know if it was all an act or if she was actually crazy.
Stanley Kowalski: Easy on the Eyes but Hard on the Heart
We meet Stella’s husband Stanley, (a very young and sexy looking Marlon Brando) a blue collar guy who initially comes off as a nice man, just making a living, and concerned about his wife and her share of what was supposed to be the family estate.
But then after a poker game and some drinking and oh, yea, after he slaps around a pregnant Stella, you get the sense that perhaps he’s not the greatest guy you’ve ever met.
It’s at one of these poker games that Blanche meets Stanley’s friend Mitch (played by Karl Malden, whom I only knew previously as the nice Reverend in the classic Pollyanna) and they develop a romance.
But Here Comes Trouble
About the time Mitch decides to marry Blanche, Stanley decides he’s had enough of her insults and of her generally thinking she’s better than everyone. Most of all, he really wants to know what the eff happened to the family estate and why she’s so cagey about why she left home.
Turns out Blanche fed her sister a lie. Although not totally fleshed out, as I understand it: Blanche’s relatives started dying and she had a nervous breakdown. Subsequently she started staying at a hotel of “ill-repute” in her hometown, meeting up with a lot of men. I don’t know if she was meeting with them to feel loved (because she seriously seemed like she just wanted someone to care for her), or if she was like, prostituting herself to try and save the family farm. Or heck if she just wanted to get hers and it wasn’t socially acceptable back in the day. Either way, it wasn’t made totally clear.
But it all went south for Blanche when she apparently seduced a 17-year-old boy. After that she was run out of town. Stanley tells a pregnant Stella all of this and as a result of the stress, Stella goes into labor.
While Stella and Stanley are in the hospital, Mitch comes by and confronts Blanche about her past. She confesses and he breaks up with her, basically calling her unclean. This drives Blanche closer and closer to a full psychotic breakdown.
By the time Stanley gets home from the hospital, she’s gone so crazy that he finds her dressed up in her finery, dancing in the living room by herself. Here she lies to him, telling him she received a telegram from an old rich lover and that she’s leaving soon.
Why does she say this? Because she’s lost her mind.
Stanley humors her and for a minute it seems like he’s done fighting with her and is just happy about his soon to be born child. I thought to myself, “aw, he’s not going to embarrass her since she’s clearly crazy. Let’s just all get out of this alive.”
But I was wrong. He grows tired of her delusions and calls her out and all of the bad blood that’s been building up between them finally leads to a pivotal confrontation.
The Movie Takes A Dark Turn…
Now I’m going to be honest. I had no idea what happened had happened when I saw this. On the screen in this scene, we see Stanley and Blanche yelling at each other, kind of shoving each other around, then she freaks out and runs to her room, and he starts getting these creepy eyes. There’s a struggle and in the end all we see is a reflection of her in a broken mirror passed out. Then the movie cuts to what I assume is a few days later because Stella is now home with the baby.
Obviously, SOMETHING happened. Even more telling is that in the next scene Stella says something to the effect of, “I couldn’t believe her [Blanche’s] story and go on living with Stanley,” which tells me that Stanley did something Serious but Stella doesn’t want to believe it. I honestly thought maybe he threw Blanche out a window or beat her up horribly.
But again, I was wrong. Because apparently Stanley raped Blanche off screen. Which BLEW my mind. And in the end, it’s that rape that caused Blanche to have a full on psychotic break. It was the last straw. She’s now totally out of touch with reality, and in the closing moments a doctor and nurse drive away with her to the asylum, while Stella is left with her baby, visibly crushed. It’s a pretty sad ending.
A Freaking Emotional Rollercoaster
I can’t emphasize enough: the movie took a turn I did not expect. I was initially very surprised that I ended up watching a movie about a woman’s mental breakdown, so imagine my full on brain spasm when I found out what had happened offscreen. My mind seriously did not go to that place given how the movie was edited. I wouldn’t have even known, but 30 minutes after the movie ended my husband was commiserating like, “Can you believe how awful Stanley is? His wife is in the hospital having a baby and he raped his sister-in-law.” To which I responded with, “huh?!?!” I had to look it up to confirm. I’m that naive it seems.
Older movies definitely did not beat you over the head with that concept. Or perhaps audiences back then were more intuitive and would have understood what happened to Blanche right away? Perhaps it’s just my delayed reaction and understanding that has made this movie more impactful for me than it would have been had I bothered to ask someone about it beforehand.
Some IMDB trivia tells us:
“due to the highly contentious subject matter, no major studio would dare touch the property,”
In the play, the rape scene was much more obvious, but was eventually toned down for the 1950’s censors. That may also explain why the movie has a PG rating, despite such adult themes.
Poor STELLLLAAAAA
I feel really bad for Stella. I mean yea, she was clearly sexually attracted to Marlon Brando (who wasn’t back in the day?) and did not want to leave that. But the poor girl was married to a batterer. She seemed to enjoy having Blanche around initially and yea, Blanche was definitely crazy but Stella seemed more than willing to look out for her. Even sadder if you ask me, is that Stella clearly really wanted to live in denial about Stanley assaulting her sister, initially claiming that she “couldn’t believe it”.
But watching Blanche be taken away in a full on delusional state seemed to jolt Stella because in the final seconds of the movie she takes her baby and runs upstairs to the neighbor proclaiming she’ll never go back to Stanley even as he calls out for her.
Some Actor Fun Facts:
Vivien Leigh
- Apparently she only does movies where she’s charged with trying to save her family’s property (cuz that’s all I’ve seen her do). Gone with the Wind, anyone?
Marlon Brando
- This film is widely accepted as Brando’s breakout movie, however, he was the only actor of its four main stars to not win an Oscar. It was the first of 4 consecutive nominations for the Best Actor Oscar, with no wins until lucky number four. Watching Brando at the Oscars back then had to be like the Great Leonardo DiCaprio Oscar Watch we just had end for our generation this year.
This is absolutely NOT just an excuse to put up a photo of Leo with that much-deserved Oscar.
Checking off #47 on the AFI List.
Till next time,
— Delia
