A Streetcar Named Desire
1951, NR, 122 min.
Directed by Elia Kazan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden.

This 1951 multi-Oscar winner has been re-released in this director’s cut which reinserts a few minutes of footage that were removed before its release. The enforcers of the Production Code at that time insisted on the deletion of certain material that made clear Blanche’s late husband’s homosexuality and her subsequent “nymphomania,” as well as footage that left no mystery about Stanley’s ultimate rape of Blanche. Seen for the first time as screenwriter Tennessee Williams argued 40 years ago that it should be, Streetcar is always a wonderful screen drama and now, also, a study in film archeology.

This article appears in November 12 • 1993 (Cover).

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.