Film Forum

U.S., 1951
Directed by Elia Kazan
Screenplay by Tennessee Williams, Elia Kazan, Oscar Saul
Starring Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden
WINNER Academy Awards – Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden), Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter), Best Production Design, 1952
Approx. 122 min. DCP.

Faded Southern belle Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois is destroyed by her brutish brother-in-law, Marlon Brando’s Stanley Kowalski (“two of the greatest performances ever put on film”– Pauline Kael). Kazan retained the claustrophobic setting and the principals of his own Broadway smash, plus Vivien Leigh from Olivier’s London production of Tennessee Williams’ classic. 

Reviews

“You could make a good case that no performance had more influence on modern film acting styles than Brando's work as Stanley Kowalski, Tennessee Williams' rough, smelly, sexually charged hero.”
– Roger Ebert