A Streetcar Named Desire Page #5

Synopsis: Blanche DuBois, a high school English teacher with an aristocratic background from Auriol, Mississippi, decides to move to live with her sister and brother-in-law, Stella and Stanley Kowalski, in New Orleans after creditors take over the family property, Belle Reve. Blanche has also decided to take a break from teaching as she states the situation has frayed her nerves. Knowing nothing about Stanley or the Kowalskis' lives, Blanche is shocked to find that they live in a cramped and run down ground floor apartment - which she proceeds to beautify by putting shades over the open light bulbs to soften the lighting - and that Stanley is not the gentleman that she is used to in men. As such, Blanche and Stanley have an antagonistic relationship from the start. Blanche finds that Stanley's hyper-masculinity, which often displays itself in physical outbursts, is common, coarse and vulgar, being common which in turn is what attracted Stella to him. Beyond finding Blanche's delicate hoidy-toidy
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Elia Kazan
Production: Warner Bros. Pictures
  Won 4 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 15 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.0
Rotten Tomatoes:
98%
PG
Year:
1951
122 min
9,095 Views


Sister, did he hurt you, darling?

Poker should not be played

in a house with women.

- All right, take it easy, will you?

- Look out.

Get him in that shower.

- Look out.

- Get him in that shower, I said!

Come on, all right.

Get his feet, will you? Get his feet!

Grab his feet, come on, take it easy.

Come on, boy. Get under there.

Come on.

Get under there. There you go.

How do you feel, Stan?

Stanley, wake up!

Hey, Stanley!

We ought to get his clothes off and...

STANLEY:

Hey! What do you think...!

Poker should not be played

in a house with women!

Aw, come on!

Hey! Where's Steve? Come on.

Wait. Come here. Take it easy.

Stella.

Honey?

Hey, Stella?

Honey, where are you?

Stella?

Hey, baby...

Look, you can sleep over here, Stella.

Blanche can have Steve's place.

He ain't coming home tonight

if he knows what's good for him.

Is my baby up there? I want her...

Look, she ain't coming down

and she ain't gonna talk to you neither...

...so you might just as well

not call her!

Hey, Stella!

You quit that howling down there

and go to bed!

Eunice, I want my girl down here!

You shut up!

- You're gonna get the law on you.

- Stella!

You can't beat on a woman

and then call her back.

You're gonna have a baby.

I hope they haul you in, turn a fire hose

on you like the last time!

- I want my girl down here!

- You stinker!

Hey, Stella!

I wouldn't mix in this.

Don't ever leave me, baby.

Blanche, come back!

Miss DuBois?

Miss DuBois?

Oh.

All quiet along the Potomac now?

She ran down here

and went back in there with him.

- Sure she did.

- I'm terrified.

Nothing to be scared of.

They're crazy about each other.

It's a shame this had to happen

when you got here.

- Violence is so...

- Sit down on the steps...

...and have a cigarette with me.

- Why...

...I'm not properly dressed.

Well, that don't make no difference

in the Quarter.

Such a pretty silver case.

I showed you the inscription, didn't I?

Yes.

So much...

So much confusion in the world.

Thank you for being so kind.

I need kindness now.

Bananas!

Bananas!

Stella?

Hm?

Stella. Oh, my baby.

My baby sister.

Why, angel, what's the matter with you?

- He left?

- Stan? Mm-hm.

Will he be back?

- He's gone to get the car greased, why?

- Why?

I've been half-crazy, Stella. How could

you come back to this place last night?

Please, Blanche. He was as good

as a lamb when I came back.

- He's really very ashamed of himself.

- And that...

- That makes it all right?

- No.

Stanley's always smashed things.

On our wedding night,

as soon as we came in here...

...he snatched off one of my slippers...

...and rushed about the place smashing

the light bulbs with it.

He did what?

He smashed all the light bulbs

with the heel of my slipper.

And you let him?

Didn't run, didn't scream?

I was sort of thrilled by it.

Eunice and you had breakfast?

Oh, do you suppose

I wanted any breakfast?

You're so matter-of-fact

about it all, Stella.

What other can I be?

He's taken the radio to get it fixed.

It didn't land on the pavement,

so only one tube was smashed.

And you standing there smiling.

What do you want me to do?

Pull yourself together. Face the facts.

What are they in your opinion?

In my opinion,

you're married to a madman.

I've got a plan for us both,

to get us both out of here.

I wish you'd stop taking it for granted

I'm in something I wanna get out of.

I take it you have sufficient

memory of Belle Reve to find this place...

...and these poker players impossible

to live with.

- You take too much for granted.

- I can't believe you're in earnest.

- No?

- I understand what happened a little.

You saw him first in uniform,

an officer, not here.

I'm not sure it makes

any difference where I saw him.

What you're talking about is desire,

just brutal desire.

The name of that rattletrap streetcar

that bangs through the Quarter.

Up one old, narrow street

and down another.

Haven't you ever ridden

on that streetcar?

It brought me here.

Where I'm not wanted...

...and where I'm ashamed to be.

Don't you think your superior attitude's

a little out of place?

- A man like that...

- I told you I love him.

I tremble for you, I just tremble.

- Hi, Stanley.

- Hi.

May I speak plainly?

Yes, do. Go ahead, as plainly

as you want to.

Well, if you'll forgive me...

...he's common.

Yes, I suppose he is.

Suppose?

Surely you can't have forgotten

that much of our upbringing, Stella...

...that you just suppose there's

any part of a gentleman in his nature.

Oh, you're hating me saying this,

aren't you?

Go on and say it all, Blanche.

He's like an animal.

Has an animal's habits.

There's even something

subhuman about him.

Thousands of years have passed him

right by and there he is...

...Stanley Kowalski,

survivor of the Stone Age.

Bearing the raw meat home

from the kill in the jungle. And you...

...you here waiting for him.

Maybe he'll strike you

or maybe grunt and kiss you.

That's if kisses have been discovered

yet. His "poker night," you call it.

His party of apes?

Maybe we are a long way

from being made in God's image.

But, Stella, my sister...

...there's been some progress

since then.

Such things as art, as poetry,

as music.

In some kinds of people...

...some tenderer feelings have had

some little beginning...

...that we have got to make grow

and to cling to...

...as our flag in this dark march

toward whatever it is we're approaching.

Don't, don't hang back

with the brutes.

Hey, Stell?

Hey, Stell?

- Hiya.

- Hi.

Hey, is Blanche back yet?

Yeah, she's back.

Oh, hi there, Blanche.

You look like you got under the car.

That mechanic down at Fritz's doesn't

know his axle grease from third base.

Hey!

- Don't throw that thing at me! Eunice!

You brick redhead,

I'll play with you!

You wanna play with me,

I'll play games with you!

That's just what I gave your

brother, you big redhead!

He hit me!

And I'm gonna call the police!

Some of your sister's friends

have stayed in the city.

- Did Eunice get the police?

- No, she's getting a drink...

...at the Four Deuces.

- That's much more practical.

Blanche is making us

some new slipcovers, honey.

Hey, is she here?

She went to the Four Deuces.

That no-good, rotten...

Hey, Stella, I can't find

my other pair of shoes.

We cleaned in there.

I'll get them.

I can't find nothing

around this dump anymore.

Oh, Stanley.

What sign were you born under?

- What sign?

- Astrological sign.

I bet you were born under Aries.

Aries people are forceful, dynamic,

they dote on noise.

They love to bang things around.

Stanley was born just five minutes

after Christmas.

Capricorn, the goat!

Say...

...do you happen to know

somebody named Shaw?

Why... Why, everybody knows

someone by the name of Shaw.

This somebody named Shaw is under

the impression that he met you in Auriol.

I figure he must have got you

mixed up with some other party...

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Tennessee Williams

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983) was an American playwright. Along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.After years of obscurity, at age 33 he became suddenly famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie (1944) in New York City. This play closely reflected his own unhappy family background. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1959). With his later work, he attempted a new style that did not appeal to audiences. Increasing alcohol and drug dependence inhibited his creative expression. His drama A Streetcar Named Desire is often numbered on short lists of the finest American plays of the 20th century alongside Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.Much of Williams' most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays and a volume of memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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