Just watched the movie A Streetcar Named Desire for the first time

Has a lot to say about class consciousness in America.

I haven't watched it for a while. It's definitely not something to watch if you're not in a good state of mind to begin with. The dynamic between Stanley and Blanche is so depressing. I think there's an alternate ending where Stella definitively chooses to stick with Stanley (chooses him over Blanche). Although that's more depressing than the movie's original ending (Stella is torn between her husband and her sister), it's actually more believable that she would choose Stanley.

I like the ending on my dvd where she says she is definitely leaving him. He caused her breakdown. People will usually choose family over others. Stella clearly loved her sister. I really felt for Blanche. Good acting/pathos. I was sad to see her taken away.

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."

Brando was hot but had a weird accent.

Love this film. Loved the play also.

Blanche is such a fascinating character.

Even in the "new" ending that shows Stella running upstairs with the baby and vowing to never go back ... well, you know she's going back.

Didn't censors cut the original ending in which Stella and Stanley reconcile because they would not abide Stella returning to a rapist?

I would have loved to have sucked Brando's big sweaty cock off in that Louisiana heat.

Does anyone know if Jessica Tandy made comments about losing the film roles to Leigh?

The movie was filmed in air-conditioned Burbank.

Does Brando rape her more explicitly in the play. In the movie it is not clear.

Yes r10 -- although the movie is pretty damn clear as well ...

R7, I thought the new ending was Stella definitively returning to Stanley. I have forgotten. I think Stella returning to Stanley is the most realistic ending, unfortunately.

In the play, Stella remains with Stanley. The movie ending seems to indicate she has left him, but it's ambiguous, and she probably will go back to him. It was made ambiguous for the film because, according to the Production Code, Stanley needed to be "punished" for raping Blanche.

Brando seemed just as weird and mannered then as now and was heavily mocked for it (see Frank Gorshin's performance in "Bells Are Ringing.") But Tennessee Williams' plays were not made for naturalistic performers and Stanley Kowalski was the right role for him at the right time. And no, you could not have an explicit rape scene in a Broadway play at that time.

Stella getting her and her baby away from the abusive Stanley was a studio mandated ending. A happy ending for Stella. The play ends with her going back to him and his cycle of abuse. Which is more realistic of course.

Thanks for the info on the different endings (play vs. movie), R13 and R15.

[quote]Does anyone know if Jessica Tandy made comments about losing the film roles to Leigh?

Karl Malden, who was in the Broadway production with Tandy, said, "I know that it broke Jessica’s heart when she was not hired to do the film version of Streetcar." Part of the deal of getting the film made was casting a "name" star with potential box office appeal (Olivia de Havilland was considered before Leigh was cast), and making several script changes to the play (all of which Williams objected to).

Wow do you think if De Havilland had done the movie she would have won a third Oscar in 5 years?

If Brando was such a method actor why did he not give stanley a southern accent? The character is southern in the play. Couldn't he manage that?

I think Brando was great but only in smouldering blue collar roles. He is awful in Mutiny on the Bounty playing an upper class Englishman. His range was limited. It was his raw emotion that made him great.

The film version was a Pol from up North, no? He wasn’t from the south in the movie.

"Now that's how I'm gonna clear the table. Don't you ever talk that way to me. 'Pig,' 'Pollack,' 'disgusting,' 'vulgar,' 'greasy.'"

Does Brandos acting in this hold up?

Well does it? I know Vivien Leigh 's performance is dated and theatrical

Really? I feel Leigh’s performance holds up beautifully.

Brando's BF Wally Cox doing his impression of Brando's acting.

Very cute segment... starts at 17:20

How hung was Marlon?

I very much doubt that wally Cox ever slept with marlon much less was a significant romance with him. You guys fantasise too much.

R28

They were roommates for years.

Brando admitted to having sex with men (interview 1976)

Quincy Jones claims Brando and Richard Pryor had a sexual relationship which Pryor's ex wife confirms.

"Brando told a journalist: "If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after", and writer/editor Beauregard Houston-Montgomery said that while high on marijuana Brando said to him that Cox had been the love of his life."

"Brando is also reported to have kept Cox's ashes in his bedroom and conversed with them nightly."

At Brando's death, their ashes were then scattered together.

Certainly they could have just been good friends...

R28 that’s a very touching story. Just think how much better his life may have been if he had stayed with Wally Cox and not had all those crazy wives and kids.

Brando bulge was small,it was more jean then actual meat.Its the way he belted his pants.

Vivian owned that movie...her constant mood changes and spurts of insanity really mirror todays american women.

Vivien Leigh is magnificent in that film. One of the best performances ever captured on film.

Plus all the other performances are stellar as well.

STELLAR!!!

[r19] Brando's accent was actually similar to a working class New Orleans accent. Listen to the girl at the beginning and the girls at the end of this video.

As if.