Review of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) by Patrick B — 10 Feb 2012

[A+/100] A royal flush of American cinema that is rightfully regarded as a groundbreaking moment in the depiction of powerful emotional personalism and visceral drama. Acted to gripping perfection by most of the original cast (Malden, Hunter, Brando) that had already made a huge masterwork of the play on Broadway, but with the addition of Vivian Leigh, from the London production, in a heartbreaking and eerie-lovely turn of the central Blanche DuBois role.

Leigh is exceptionally solid and spellbinding here. Brando's pitch-perfect performance is so startlingly naturalistic, intuitive, persuasive, and impossible to shake from one's imagination, he almost overshadows everything else around him, but Leigh's cobweb-like emotional delicacy and sadness provide the consistent timbre that is reflected in Kazan's steamy setpieces of illusion, eros, and decay. And the rest of the cast is more than excellent, as well.

Even with Kazan's footage pruned by the ridiculous National Legion of Decency, for controversial erotic and homosexual allusions, the movie pervades a mysterious articulation of human desire, fear, and twilight Dionysian energies. In its modern refurbishing, with formerly expunged scenes and elements restored, Streetcar is even more sensitive and frightening than ever. Alex North's score, it must be mentioned, is an essential component to the movie's considerable dramatic punch.