A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)

Starring:Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond, Nick Dennis, Peg Hillias, Wright King, Richard Garrick, Ann Dere, Edna Thomas, Mickey Kuhn, Mel Archer, Maxie Thrower, John George, Marietta Canty, Charles Wagenheim, Lyle Latell, Dahn Ben Amotz, Chester Jones
Director: Elia Kazan
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com essential video

Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Sweaty, brutish, mumbling, yet with the balanced grace of a prizefighter, Brando storms through the role--a role he had originated in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's celebrated play. Stanley and his wife, Stella (as in Brando's oft-mimicked line, "Hey, Stellaaaaaa!"), are the earthy couple in New Orleans's French Quarter whose lives are upended by the arrival of Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh). Blanche, a disturbed, lyrical, faded Southern belle, is immediately drawn into a battle of wills with Stanley, beautifully captured in the differing styles of the two actors. This extraordinarily fine adaptation won acting Oscars for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Stella), and Karl Malden (as Blanche's clueless suitor), but not for Brando. Although it had already been considerably cleaned up from the daringly adult stage play, director Elia Kazan was forced to trim a few of the franker scenes he had shot. In 1993, Streetcar was rereleased in a "director's cut" that restored these moments, deepening a film that had already secured its place as an essential American work. --Robert Horton

Description

A Streeetcar Named Desire: The Original Director's Version is the Elia Kazan/Tennessee Williams film moviegoers would have seen had not Legion of Decency censorship occurred at the last minute. It features three minutes of previously unseen footage underscoring, among other things, the sexual tension between Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) and Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), and Stella Kowalski's (Kim Hunter) passion for husband Stanley. Catch all of the classic - nominated for 12 Academy AwardsO including Best Picture and winner of 4* - that introduced a new era of filmmaking. Step aboard this Streetcar.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by Karl Malden and Film Historians Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young
Documentaries:5 New Insightful Documentaries: A Streetcar on Broadway ? A Streetcar in Hollywood ? Censorship and Desire ? North and the Music of the South ? An Actor Named Brando
Featurette:Movie and Audio Outtakes Marlon Brando Screen Test Feature-Length Profile Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey

Customer Reviews:

A Streetcar Named Desire.......2007-06-25

Brando's force-of-nature performance in Kazan's "Streetcar"--an electrifying mix of brute physicality and smoldering sexuality--made Stanley Kowalski's infamous bellow a permanent part of pop culture and Brando a household name. But the undeniable strength of this film, adapted from the smash Broadway play by Tennessee Williams, is driven as much by the witty, vivid dialogue and ensemble acting as it is the lead actor's Method work. Leigh, Hunter, Karl Malden, Ruby Bond, and Nick Dennis are all terrific, and Alex North's atmospheric jazz score enhances the tense, combustible interplay. Winner of five Oscars, this "Streetcar" offers an incredible ride.

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE SEAMY SIDE OF LIFE.......2007-05-25

Tennessee Williams rightfully takes his place as one of the premier playwrights in the history of the American theater. The relentless turning out of high quality pieces (and other short literary expositions) on subjects that in an earlier day before the 1950's would have not found nearly so receptive an audience.

I saw the movie version of Streetcar long before I read the original play so that, of necessity, the role of Stanley on the page evokes the powerfully strong, sexual and primitive role performed by Marlon Brando and the equally powerful performance by Vivian Leigh as the coquettish down on her heels Blanche Dubois. There are however, important differences between the story line presented in the movie and in the original play version. Some of the more explicit graphically sexual scenes and latent homosexual allusions did not pass muster with the censors of the times. For one familiar with the story from the stage or theater it is well worth going back and reading the original play to get a feel for the tensions that remain unexplored in the other media.

A reading of the play also makes clear something is missing from the productions and that is the sense that the characters are sleepwalking through life with their own private illusions that prevent them each, in the final analysis, from having more than a surface understanding of the others in the claustrophobic little home they inhabit. Blanche will pay, and pay dearly, for not understanding Stanley better as she tries to live the illusion of a fallen, aging Southern Belle. In any case, whether on stage on the screen or on the page this is a great American classic.

The Kindness of Strangers.......2007-05-09

"A Streetcar Named Desire"

The Kindness of Strangers

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

I have wanted to review this film for a long time and now that I am on vacation, I decided it was time for a New Orleans guy to try to have his say. I recently brought home the wonderful seven volume DVD set of "The Tennessee Williams Film Collection" and have been working my way through reacquainting myself with some of the greatest films ever made. I knew Williams when I lived in Louisiana and followed his career the best I could ad I must say that "Streetcar" is a masterpiece.
Set in the French Quarter of New Orleans during the years following WW II, "A Streetcar Named Desire" is the story of Blanche DuBois, a neurotic and fragile woman who is searching for a place in the world that she can call her own. Her past is not pretty--she has been exiled from her hometown for seducing a 17 year old student at the school where she taught. He suddenly appears at the home of her sister Stella and her husband Stanley stating that she is suffering from exhaustion. She has been beleaguered by financial calamities but Stanley is suspicious since some of the money that is gone also belongs to his wife and therefore himself. Stanley is a brute of a man and a panther. When he demands to see the bill of sale for the family plantation, Belle Reve, he defines his relationship with Blanche. They are in opposing camps and Stella is caught between the love of her sister and the love of her husband. When Blanche tries to help improve their relations, the animal in Stanley emerges and he is enraged. He deeply loves his wife but he is mystified by Blanche and is determined to teach her a lesson.
Blanche sees a way out of her troubles when she meets Mitch, a card playing pal of Stanley. Mitch reveres her but the rumors of her past begin to catch up to her and everything falls apart for Blanche.
The cast of the film is absolutely magic. Kim Hunter is Stella and she is magnificent. She is strong even though she is financially, sexually and emotionally tied to her husband and Stanley is somewhat emotionally dependent upon her. Stanley's performance is one of the best supporting roles ever seen on the screen and she acts with every nuance of her mid and body.
Vivien Leigh is a total revelation. When she spoke, I was mystified. She is a victim but everything but innocent. She charms, she touches, and she emotes with a wonderful presence. The sexual attraction between her ad Marlon Brando as Stanley is quite noticeable and despite all of her lies ad deceptions, I was drawn to her. She is the human condition--she is hidden ugliness from the past and emotional and sexual neediness as well as ordinary human weakness. Leigh's performance is brilliant but we must remember that it is the author who created the character. It is, however, Vivien Leigh who gives it life.
Brando as Stanley is magnificent with his breakthrough performance. His performance is without fault but this is Leigh's movie. Her Blanche is profound as she clings to a very flimsy façade of respectability. When Leigh says she "wants magic" it is a cry from the very depth of the actress's feeling and when she says she has always "depended on the kindness of strangers', we want to hold out her hands and hearts to her.
The writing is some of the finest we have ever seen--the characters are beautifully written and their story s dutifully told. Their complexities are written into them but with subtlety so that they are never obvious or uninteresting.
Elia Kazan directed with a caution heretofore unseen on the screen. How he managed to get this movie made in the early 1950's is a mystery but we should be so thankful that he did. Of course, the homosexual subplot was played down but it is graphic in its violence to women and animal sexuality. It is a compelling movie because the characters are compelling and the way we see them. The film feels humid helping to play up the sexuality therein. The entire atmosphere is wonderful and mesmerizing.
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is nothing short of a great film in which everything works. It was a superb play which successfully made the transition to the screen because of a marvelous cast and outstanding direction. There is not much that I can say that has not been said already over and over again. Let it suffice for me to say, yet once again, that "Streetcar" is magnificent in every aspect and is a landmark film in the world of cinema.

Essential Brando in Williams' Hothouse Classic Of Delusions and Deceptions.......2007-05-08

The unfiltered primacy of 27-year old Marlon Brando (in only his second film) cuts through the feverish, Baroque-style histrionics that define Tennessee Williams' near-poetic masterwork. Brando's mastery over the characterization of Stanley Kowalski comes from a precocious ability to undercut the testosterone-driven braggadocio with a rough-hewn sensitivity tied to Stanley's need for Stella. Directed on all cylinders by Elia Kazan, the 1951 adaptation of the Broadway hit has a somewhat stage-bound feel since most of the action takes place within the environs of the Kowalskis' downscale apartment building in New Orleans' French Quarter. However, screenwriter Oscar Saul seizes on the sexual themes of Williams' play and brings a refreshingly adult view to them (at least for the early 1950's), as Kazan guides the principal actors to powerhouse performances that demand our attention.

The relatively small-scale plot focuses on faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois, who comes to visit her younger sister Stella from Mississippi where she held onto a fantasy of gentility and respectability growing up on the family plantation, Belle Reve. Hoping for a safe haven in New Orleans, Blanche is disappointed to see that Stella has married Stanley, an unruly blue-collar worker. Conflict ensues almost immediately between Blanche and Stanley with Stella stuck in the middle. Gradually, Blanche's self-delusions peel away her sanity until a harrowing incident takes her over the edge. Even though Brando dominates every moment he has, Vivien Leigh affectingly counterpoints with one of her most definitive performances as Blanche, the true protagonist of the piece.

Intriguingly, 56 years later, the contrast between Leigh's florid, more ornately theatrical approach and Brando's fearlessly instinctual work comes across almost too extreme with the actress looking all the more pretentious by comparison. Only in the shattering climax do they truly seem on equal ground. The real surprise, especially in the now-unexpurgated version, is Kim Hunter, whose comparatively subtle performance as Stella maintains a delicate balance between supportive sister and lust-driven wife. In a marginally smaller role, Karl Malden is ideally cast as mama's boy Mitch, who gets caught up in Blanche's lies only to be victimized by them. Harry Stradling's evocative cinematography and especially Alex North's jazzy musical score add substantively to the atmosphere of the heady melodrama.

The two-disc 2006 DVD set is a treasure trove of extras. Even though it lacks a direct connection with the scenes, the commentary track provides historical context with tracks recorded separately with 94-year old Malden and film scholars Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young. The first disc also includes a number of trailers for Kazan's classic films, including three just for "Streetcar". Disc two has an informative 75-minute 1994 documentary on the director, "Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey" and five featurettes focused on various aspects of the movie - its birth as a Broadway play, its translation to film, the struggles with censorship and the Hayes Office, North's music, and of course, Brando. There are rare outtakes included, though the best surprise is a four-minute screen test Brando did for Rebel Without a Cause.

Hollywood with the smell of theatre.......2007-04-23

Probably those who were lucky enough to experience the first performances of Williams'masterpiece in the flesh (with Jessica Tandy as Blanche, for instance) are the only ones able to have a superior parameter to measure the play. For the rest of us, it is Elia Kazan's film.
We, viewers, are blessed that such an ensemble (Kazan, Brando, Leigh, Malden and Hunter) rescued forever one of the peaks of US literature.
For me, among its many virtues, the first and major is the magnificent confluence of the raising talent of Marlon Brando and the evening star of Vivien Leigh.

Average customer rating:

A history lesson.
A True Story of Mexican Revolution.
Poetic, powerful and moving...
negleted masterpiece
poor editing of the film

Viva Zapata!

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ASIN: B000B63Q36

Product Description

This is the second in the magnificent series of films by director Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden, Baby Doll). PLOT SUMMARY: Branded an outlaw after helping Mexican peasants reclaim their stolen land, Emiliano Zapata (Brando) retreats into the mountains with his brother Eufemio (Quinn). Then Zapata's love interest takes priority over his revolutionary activities, as he courts Josefa, who refuses his offer of marriage because he's poor and lacks standing in the community. When he rises to the rank of general, she deems him a worthy suitor and they marry. Later Zapata becomes president, but by then, he's greatly disillusioned and ends up being used as a political pawn. ++++ DVD FEATURES: This officially licensed Asian import is NTSC Region 0 (All-Region) with 4:3 Full Screen display, Dolby Digital Sound in ENGLISH with optional English subtitles.

Customer Reviews:

A history lesson........2007-06-30

The review by 'Maxi' shows the value of movies like "Viva Zapata". Most people, Americans, have very little knowledge of important moments in the history of our neighbors to the south. Or Canada for that matter. Brando, as his usual brooding self is outshone by Anthony Quinn. Nobody plays a Mexican better than Mr Quinn. The storyline is fairly close to the true historical life of the title character. I've seen several Mexican movies about Zapata but I like this one better. Mostly for the production values I think.

For years, on the radio, I listened to "La Hora National" They had 1/2 hour plays about historical events from the past. I wish that we had something like that. It pays be aware of historical events that developed the character of our neighbors. I'd like our people to be more informed about heros from our past, too. Most Mexicans, even after many years of living here, are still Mexican at heart. This is a very good movie about a worthwhile subject.

A True Story of Mexican Revolution........2007-01-18

Actually this was the film that triggered my interest on the Mexican Revolution.
I've seen it many times and always found new details to take into account. As I read more and more on the subject my appreciation of this movie increases.
It presents the viewer with a big fresco of the Revolution that convulsed that country for more than ten years.
I admire the strange capacity of the film to show condensed in each scene, many key issues of why and how the Revolution exploded and continue growing along the years, with an immitigable fire.

Director Elia Kazan has been criticized for his appearance on the Un-American Activities Committee that lead many people related to cinematography to be ostracized.
This been said, regardless of his political stand, he had directed many great Oscar winner films as: "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), "Streetcar Named Desire" (1951); "East of Eden" (1955); "Splendor on the Grass" (1961) and the present "Viva Zapata!" (1952).
He had directed two "Movie Icons" as Marlon Brando (more than once) and James Dean obtaining the best from them. All his films explored the inner depth of human soul with unflinching stare.

Since the first shot, showing a very accurate characterization of President Porfirio Diaz (Fay Roope) and giving an inkling of the type of ruler he was, an enormous gallery of Mexican historical figure are made known.
Francisco Madero's (Harold Gordon) personality and idealistic naïveté is depicted with very few strokes.
Huerta's (Frank Silvera) wickedness and treachery is shown too.

Above all of them Emiliano Zapata's figure impersonated by an inspired Marlon Brando stands with an epic height. His ideals, stubbornness, charisma and internal sorrows leading him to the final sacrifice, are shown convincingly.

A special mention must be done of Anthony Quinn's superb performance, which entitled him to win the Oscar. He not only has the physique du role, but an internal conviction to give flesh to Eufemio, Zapata's brother, a semi cultured and brave centaur, product of his times and environment.

Josefa (Jean Peters) the fiancée and later wife of Emiliano shows all the traits of a high middle class woman romantically requested by a rural hero. The scene played with Brando in the church's atrium is wonderful.
The only character that gives a discordant note is the fictional Fernando, representing an addict to revolution for revolution in itself.

Joseph MacDonald's black and white photography is very beautiful. Steinbeck's screenplay has a solid internal coherence that shows all along the film.

A Classic Movie not diminished by the more than fifty years passed.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Poetic, powerful and moving..........2007-01-17

Elia Kazan will be remembered as the director of some of the most vivid film performances of the fifties... In 'Viva Zapata', Kazan's 'Method' style of acting is applied to John Steinbeck's screenplay that power inevitably corrupts, with Brando again charismatic as the doomed Mexican revolutionary...

Kazan, not only shows us the extremely unpleasant world of poverty where life is hard, short and brutish, but also the story of the agrarian rebel who was Pancho Villa's first revolutionary ally...

Kazan paints a convincing emotional portrait of a mythical figure, who is considered as the 'Wind that swept Mexico.' Kazan explores a facet of the Mexican history, describing the reasons for the revolution fought by Zapata, and works on basic emotions as passion, anger, fear, aggression, ignorance and wisdom...

Brando projects the dedication and the anguish of an inspiring rebel... He portrays the illiterate Mexican peasant revolutionary who for ten years led Guerilla uprisings against dictators and presidents... Brando plays the part with fervor and passion, even transforming his features with special makeup and fake mustache to look amazingly like the Guerilla leader... For his performance, he was nominated for his third consecutive Oscar, but Gary Cooper won for 'High Noon'.

Anthony Quinn gives an effective portrayal of Eufemio Zapata , the swaggering, lecherous, bullying brother, and wins his first Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor... Through his consummate acting skills, Quinn creates in Eufemio a strongly characterization which, despite its brevity, was not overshadowed by Brando's Zapata...

Jean Peters portrays the typical educated girl of the village who falls in love with the wild man of the hills and marries him...

The film begins near the close of the 34th year reign of President Porfirio Diaz (Fay Roope) where a delegation of Indians from the State of Morelos have come to the capital for an audience with the great dictator... There they make known their strong objections over the stealing of their lands by the wealthy, powerful estate barons... Diaz addresses them paternally and instructs them they must examine their boundaries before they bring legal action, something he knows they are incapable of doing...

Burning with a sense of injustice, the simple Emiliano Zapata directs the president's attention to this point, requesting his consent to cross the railing of wires...

President Diaz was disturbed by the persistent Zapata and on the sheet of paper listing his visitors, he unpleasantly circles the name of this one humble man who has really came for 'something.'

Some time later Emiliano and his brother lead the farmers in a general inspection through their expropriated fields and as they do so, a squad of Diaz militia attack them, shooting and cutting down men, women and children indiscriminately...

Zapata and some of his followers fight back, and retreat to a mountain hideout... There they are located by a sly political agitator, a newspaperman named Fernando Aguirre (Joseph Wiseman), who brings news of Francisco Madero (Harold Gordon), exiled in Texas...

Zapata sends his friend Pablo (Lou Gilbert) to interview Madero and find out if he is worth following...

One day, and in a church, Zapata risks his life to speak of truth, and of love... But the pretty brunette Josefa (Jean Peters) rejects him, even though she admits to being attracted to him, and tells him he must improve his social position before she might think out his proposal...

When Espejo (Florenz Ameo) refuses to consider him as a suitor to his daughter, Zapata angrily leaves his house... He is immediately arrested by policemen and led away with a rope around his neck...

As the mounted police walk him behind their horses through the countryside they are gradually joined by peasants, who silently march along... The group increases into a huge number of farmers... Zapata comes to a realization, that the peasants have chosen him as their leader and that he has no course but to accept... Destiny has singled him out...

'Viva Zapata!' received 5 Academy Award Nominations...It is a greatly entertaining film, excitingly directed by Kazan who made its action sequences so intense and who permitted his actors full scope in developing their characters...

negleted masterpiece.......2006-12-28

Viva Zapata is one of the three or four movies that made Marlon Brando the best actor of his generation -- "the Men", "Streetcar---", "On the Waterfront" and "Godfather 1", being among the others. Scripted by Nobelist John Steinbeck, directed by Elia Kazan, featuring bravura performances by Anthony Quinn and Joseph Wiseman, and winner of many international and US awards for acting, directing and scrit, Viva Zapata should rank among the top 100 movies (it did make the NYT's recent top 1000). Yet,it's been sadly neglected -- not even released on DVD is the USA, and to my knowledge unseen on TV. Viva Zapata is a masterpiece lost for suceeding generations.

poor editing of the film.......2006-12-13

the dvd that i recieved through AmaZon was poorly edited. both the beginning and the end of the movie was cut off. I had seen this picture years ago and remember it very well.I will not return it since i didnt pay very much for it.The dvd was distributed through Sam Luu.

Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)

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Essential boxset for fans of American theater of the 1950s
A Boxed Set Named Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams' plays as movies
A Bit Of Heaven In This Southern Madness
Amazing Box Set Collects Some of the Finest Film Performances of Mid-20th Century American Cinema

Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Starring: Vivien Leigh , Marlon Brando , Kim Hunter , Karl Malden , and Rudy Bond
Director: Elia Kazan , and Richard Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000EBD9UI
Release Date: 2006-05-02

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A much-needed DVD tribute to one of the essential American playwrights, The Tennessee Williams Collection gathers six Williams titles and one vintage documentary. Taken together, it's a potent introduction to the specific terrain (geographical and emotional) of this brilliant writer. The set is anchored by Warner's deluxe two-disc treatment of A Streetcar Named Desire, which has copious extras (among them a fine 90-minute documentary about director Elia Kazan). The multi-Oscar-winning Streetcar is one of the better stage adaptations in film history, and it captures the electrifying Marlon Brando, re-creating his stage role, in the part that changed American acting: the brutish New Orleans sensualist Stanley Kowalski. Vivien Leigh won an Oscar opposite him, as the faded (except in her own mind) Southern belle Blanche DuBois, whose arrival in the Kowalski home leads to disaster.

Kazan also directed Baby Doll, which Williams scripted from a couple of one-act plays. This outrageous sex comedy casts the excellent Carroll Baker as the 19-year-old wife of middle-aged Karl Malden, who anxiously awaits the day he can finally consummate his maddening marriage; immigrant cotton magnate Eli Wallach shows up at Malden's crumbling plantation house just in time to take the bloom off the rose, as it were. Famous for being condemned in 1956, Baby Doll remains a very modern (and gloriously dirty) movie. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Richard Brooks, faithfully brings three of Williams's indelible characters to the screen, even if the script discreetly changes the original stage text: the hot Maggie the Cat (Elizabeth Taylor), her reluctant husband Brick (Paul Newman), and Brick's rich Big Daddy (Burl Ives). All three performers act the lights out.

Sweet Bird of Youth reunites Paul Newman with director Brooks, and also showcases Geraldine Page's performance as an aging film star tagging along with young stud Newman to his Southern home town. Some of Williams' more depraved touches are toned down, but the milieu is unmistakable and the movie is intense. The Night of the Iguana gives Richard Burton perhaps his finest hour onscreen: as Williams' dissolute defrocked priest, playing tour guide in Puerto Vallarta to tour groups of nattering biddies. The movie has director John Huston's sympathy for life's losers, as well as a trio of women built to torment Burton's reverend: Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, based on Williams's novel, is not a great movie, but gives Vivien Leigh a good workout as a wounded actress dallying with Italian gigolo Warren Beatty.

Tennessee Williams' South is a 1973 documentary featuring some marvelous observations from Williams, as he holds court for filmmaker Harry Rasky. It also has long scenes from his plays, enacted by good folks such as Maureen Stapleton, Colleen Dewhurst, and Burl Ives. Especially valuable is a Streetcar sequence with Jessica Tandy re-creating her original role as Blanche. Williams himself reads the narration from The Glass Menagerie, a privileged moment. This is not an exhaustive Williams set (Joseph Mankiewicz's Suddenly, Last Summer and Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind are among the best Williams films), but it maps out the steamy, tortured landscape awfully well. --Robert Horton

Description

Streetcar Named Desire 2 Disc SE Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Deluxe Edition Sweet Bird of Youth Night of the Iguana Baby Doll Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Customer Reviews:

Essential boxset for fans of American theater of the 1950s.......2007-02-23

This is a terrific boxset, collecting six of the films based on Tennessee Williams's plays (plus another disc with the documentary "Tennessee Williams' South"). All the films are transferred with great care, and look quite wonderful. And the films themselves are fascinating, because (with the exception of BABY DOLL), they're invariably sanitized, as the major studios (Warner Brothers, MGM) struggled to constrain the unfettered imagination of one of America's most floridly uninihibited playwrights. Yet Williams' reputation as one of the premiere writers for actors allows some classic performances, starting with Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, one of the most potent displays of Method acting which helped to revolutionize American film and theater. Kazan's hyperbolic direction of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is tempered in BABY DOLL, possibly the most charming film in the set (with terrific performances from Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, and, most hilariously, Mildred Dunnock). It seems incredible that, at the time (1956), BABY DOLL was the most controversial film of its year, with condemnation and cries of "filth" being bandied about. But BABY DOLL is a comic interlude in Williams' career. CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF is the most heavily censored, so that all the talk of mendacity makes the film seem mendacious, because no one is talking about what the film is really about. But all the actors go to town with their Southern accents, especially Elizabeth Taylor and Judith Anderson.

But if CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF seems antiseptic, that's nothing compared to SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, which is alternately lurid and dainty. To watch Geraldine Page rip through in an absolutely corrosive and riveting performance is to see one of America's greatest actresses at her peak. THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA is uneven, but, again, some of the performances (in particular, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and, especially, Deborah Kerr and Cyril Delevanti) are superb. The long sequence with Burton and Kerr talking about demons and love while Burton is tied in the hammock is one of the most poetic sequences in all of Williams, handled with great insight and power.

THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE has worn well with the years, as Vivien Leigh gives an elegant performance as the aging woman desperate for love nad even more desperate for her dignity.

Of course, these are all works which could be done now with a greater fidelity to Williams' original texts, but it would be hard to beat the incredible performances, done (in many cases) in the original acting styles of the period (in STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, many of the original Broadway casts were also cast in the films). This is a chance to see some legendary actors in the classic parts which they made famous.

A Boxed Set Named Tennessee Williams.......2007-01-08

He may be considered the great American playwright of the 20th Century, but until I got the boxed set of DVDs featuring adaptations of his works, I had never really been exposed to Tennessee Williams. This set of six movies gives a good sampling of Williams and shows why he got his reputation for both daring and excellence.

In chronological order by film date, the first film in the set (and probably the best) is A Streetcar Named Desire. This story focuses on the interrelationship of three characters: Blanche DuBois (played by Vivien Leigh), her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Blanche moves in with the couple, fleeing from scandal in her hometown and with only a weak grip on sanity. The brutish Stanley is her natural antagonist, with Stella stuck in the middle. Eventually, however, Blanche and Stanley will have to confront each other.

Though Blanche may be the main character, it is Stanley who steals the show due to Brando's wonderful performance. After seeing this movie, I can understand how significant of an impact that Brando had in the world of movie acting; prior to Streetcar, acting performances like Brando's were quite rare. This is a great film, and the only Williams movie I was really familiar with prior to watching, both due to its immortal scenes ("Stella!") and the brilliant Simpsons musical adaptation (in "A Streetcar Named Marge").

Next is Baby Doll, with Karl Malden as an impoverished cotton-miller and Carroll Baker as his very young wife, the Baby Doll of the title. She has been viewing her much older spouse with increasing contempt and has held him to a promise that they would not consummate their marriage until she turned 20, an event soon to happen. Eli Wallach enters the film as both a business and romantic rival to Malden. For the time this movie was made (1956), this film was sexually daring, and though not as explicit as modern movies, it still holds up well.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor) and Brick (Paul Newman) as a married couple on the edge. A deep secret has kept them estranged and there is the additional complication of the impending death of Brick's very wealthy and dominating father. Brick may be Big Daddy's favorite, but their problems threatens to cut Brick out of an inheritance he doesn't want; Maggie, however, has other ideas.

Newman is back in a different role in Sweet Bird of Youth as a young hustler who returns to his hometown as the lover/employee of an aging actress. He is hopeful that she will help him make it big in Hollywood, but he is also interested in winning back his old girlfriend, a goal her corrupt political boss father will do anything to stop.

Night of the Iguana has Richard Burton as a drunken reverend turned third-rate tour guide winding up at a hotel run by the widow (Ava Gardner) of an old friend. His job is threatened when a young tourist (played by Sue Lyons of Lolita fame) keeps trying to seduce him. As things fall apart for him, it's up to the widow and an artist (Deborah Kerr) to keep him from destroying himself.

Finally, there is The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, featuring Vivien Leigh as a recently widowed actress who takes a young lover (played by an early Warren Beatty). This is probably the weakest in the set, and the only one I felt rather bored while watching.

Actually, there is a problem that is consistent with many of these movies in that they often just seem like filmed plays. That is, everything seems very staged and there is little real action; the focus is on dialogue, which often takes the somewhat formal form you see in the theater. That is not to say that these are bad movies; actually, they are almost all good: Streetcar is a five star film, Baby Doll, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth merit four, Night three and Roman Spring two. There are also a good number of extras in the set, including commentaries on Streetcar and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a bunch of mini-documentaries and a bonus disc called Tennessee Williams' South. This bonus disc is an early-1970s documentary featuring interviews with Williams and various actors doing scenes from his plays; it is mildly interesting.

One does not watch Williams expecting happy endings and everything nicely resolved (although some of the films do end more upbeat than others, in part, I believe because of a Hollywood demand for such conclusions, despite how the plays may have been written). Instead, you get a level and type of drama that was rarely shown prior to the Williams. Overall, this set rates a high four stars; it may not be perfect, but you do get some good films that pushed the limits of what was allowed at the time.

Tennessee Williams' plays as movies.......2007-01-06

Each of the plays of Tennessee Williams that has been rended as a movie is worth watching. The rawness of emotions, the actors and the direction all make these movies immensely watchable.

A Bit Of Heaven In This Southern Madness.......2006-10-09

Being a sucker for a good box set, I have accumulated quite a few. You end up with some great DVDs, but also some titles that you might not have purchased on their own. This Tennessee Williams collection is one that I wholeheartedly recommend--each selection might not be a true classic, but each represents a significant part of Williams' lexicon and lore. Put together, they symbolize and honor a master craftsman and a time when words, dialogue and screenplays were more important than quick edits and loud soundtracks.

Of course, the undisputed champion of this set is the two disc "A Streetcar Named Desire." An absolutely perfect rendering of a brilliant play, "Streetcar" boasts some of the most powerful performances you're likely to see. With Oscars going to Vivien Leigh, Karl Malden and Kim Hunter--this is one of the most honored films in history. And Marlon Brando's Stanley Kowalski has become a legend.

I'm not going to individually review every film, each offers its own merits. What is amazing about these films is how adult they were for their day and how well they stand up today. Southern melodrama never looked or sounded so good.

"Cat on A Hot Tin Roof" is a flawed, truncated version of Williams' play--but still an entertaining vehicle for Newman and Taylor. "Sweet Bird Of Youth" is one of my absolute favorites proving once and for all that Geraldine Page was an acting icon! Those that dismiss "Baby Doll" as a more minor work miss some of its subtlety. It's a very clever romp. "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and "The Night of the Iguana" are both intriguing and eminently watchable, but not without their problems.

These films represent very adult topics, some great writing--sometimes leaning toward lurid melodrama--and awesome performances. It's easy to see why so many top caliber actors and directors are attached to these pieces--and why so many were honored for their works.

If you love film (or plays for that matter) and you haven't seen some of these titles, do yourself a favor--BUY THIS SET and enjoy. Tennessee Williams was a singular talent and a unique voice. KGHarris, 10/06.

Amazing Box Set Collects Some of the Finest Film Performances of Mid-20th Century American Cinema.......2006-05-24

If playwright Tennessee Williams's Southern gothic writing style makes his works feel more ornately melodramatic than those of O'Neill or his closest contemporary Arthur Miller, they do provide resonant showcases for the actors inhabiting his characters. This is clearly evidenced in this six-film, eight-disc collection that epitomizes some of the most powerful acting to come out of Hollywood in the 1950's and early 1960's, all directed by true filmmaking masters. Probably because they are the least censored by the studio system at least in the form presented now, the best of the set are Elia Kazan's "A Streetcar Named Desire" and John Huston's "The Night of the Iguana". The others are Kazan's "Baby Doll", Richard Brooks' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", Jose Quintero's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" and Brooks' "Sweet Bird of Youth".

A feral, smoldering Marlon Brando justifiably made his reputation as brutish Stanley Kowalski in 1951's "A Streetcar Named Desire", and his animalistic charisma still leaps off the screen. Intriguingly, one of the extras included in the two-disc set for the movie is footage from a 1947 screen test of Brando when he was 23, and his stardom seems assured even then. The plot of the movie amounts to the inevitable clash between Kowalski and his visiting sister-in-law, Blanche DuBois, a fading Southern belle on the verge of a mental breakdown. Having proven her ability to be a convincing Southerner in "Gone With the Wind", Vivien Leigh expertly handles all the florid dialogue with her particular blend of defiance and vulnerability.

Strong supporting work comes from Kim Hunter as Blanche's naive sister Stella and Karl Malden as Blanche's seemingly respectful suitor Mitch. Now over ninety, Malden is on hand to provide his own eloquent recollections of the production on an alternate track, and film historians Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young provide more objective commentary on another track. Film critic Richard Schickel's 1995 feature-length look at Kazan is the centerpiece of the second disk, and there is also a more interesting five-part documentary on the film and original Broadway show, the best portion focusing on censorship and the several minutes that have been reinserted in the DVD version of the film.

1964's "The Night of the Iguana" deals with a similarly dysfunctional group of people, but this time the setting is a dilapidated Mexican beach resort where Reverend Shannon, newly defrocked, has taken a group of spinsters from a women's college. Huston made his reputation on his strong literary adaptations, and his affinity shows in the fulsome characterizations, striking visuals and dark humor. Richard Burton is in peak form as Shannon, and there is also sterling work from Deborah Kerr as the spinsterish Hannah and especially Ava Gardner as the slatternly resort owner, Maxine Faulk. The DVD contains a recent making-of featurette and a vintage video, both fascinating.

"Baby Doll" is an entertaining hoot that doesn't seem as sensationalistic as I'm sure it was when the film was first released in 1956. It's simply a Southern-fried farce about the potential deflowering of a nineteen-year old child bride with a nice, pouty turn by Carroll Baker in the title role and a surprisingly funny one by Karl Malden as her randy husband, cotton mill owner Archie. 1958's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is far more vaunted but ultimately hamstrung by the overly careful portrayal of Brick as an asexual protagonist, this in spite of stellar performances from Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman and Burl Ives.

Newman is even better as gigolo Chance Wayne in 1963's "Sweet Bird of Youth", and he is matched all the way by Geraldine Page's all-cylinders-on performance as faded movie queen Alexandra Del Lago (a role that would have ironically been ideal for Ava Gardner). The weakest film of the set is 1961's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" about an aging American actress living in Rome who falls recklessly in love with an indifferent gigolo. A decade after "Streetcar", the glamorous-looking Leigh excels in the title role, while a young Warren Beatty fits the physical requirements as the gigolo Paolo even though his faux-Italian accent is a little too emphatic. All four of these movies come with making-of featurettes and original trailers, and "Cat" also includes commentary from Williams' biographer Donald Spoto.

The focal point of the eighth disc is a 1973 documentary, "Tennessee Williams' South", which highlights insightful interviews with Williams in the New Orleans area. The film also includes classic scenes from his plays reenacted specifically for the documentary. You can have the privilege of seeing Broadway's original Blanche DuBois, Jessica Tandy, and compare her work to Leigh's, as well as an impressive turn by Maureen Stapleton as Amanda Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie". This is an incredible film collection for anyone who wants to see some of the greatest performances of mid-20th century American cinema.

A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)

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A Streetcar Named Desire
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE SEAMY SIDE OF LIFE
The Kindness of Strangers
Essential Brando in Williams' Hothouse Classic Of Delusions and Deceptions
Hollywood with the smell of theatre

A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Director's Version)
Starring: Vivien Leigh , Marlon Brando , Kim Hunter , Karl Malden , and Rudy Bond
Director: Elia Kazan
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

On the Waterfront (Special Edition)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
Rebel Without a Cause (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)
Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)

ASIN: 0790729377
Release Date: 1997-03-26

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

A Streetcar Named Desire.......2007-06-25

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE SEAMY SIDE OF LIFE.......2007-05-25

The Kindness of Strangers.......2007-05-09

Essential Brando in Williams' Hothouse Classic Of Delusions and Deceptions.......2007-05-08

Hollywood with the smell of theatre.......2007-04-23

Best of the 50s (North By Northwest/Rebel Without A Cause/The Searchers/Streetcar Named Desire)

Average customer rating:

nice gift!

Best of the 50s (North By Northwest/Rebel Without A Cause/The Searchers/Streetcar Named Desire)
Starring: Best of 50's 4 Pak
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Best of the 60s (Bonnie and Clyde/Bullitt/Cool Hand Luke/The Wild Bunch - The Director's Cut)
Best of the 40s (Adam's Rib / The Big Sleep / The Maltese Falcon / Mildred Pierce)
Best of the 70's (All The President's Men/Deliverance/Mean Streets/Network)
Midnight Cowboy
The Grapes of Wrath

ASIN: B00011ZBIY
Release Date: 2003-12-02

Customer Reviews:

nice gift!.......2006-11-10

I gave this as a gift for my Aunt and Uncle who celebrated their 60th birthdays. They said they really loved it!

Previn - A Streetcar Named Desire / Previn, Fleming, Gilfry, San Francisco Opera

Average customer rating:

Desire
Wonderful modern opera
A Great Disappointment
A Wasted Opportunity
Loved it!!!

Previn - A Streetcar Named Desire / Previn, Fleming, Gilfry, San Francisco Opera
Starring: Renée Fleming , Elizabeth Futral , Judith Forst , Rodney Gilfry , and Anthony Dean Griffey
Director: Kirk Browning , and Debbie Palacio
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Dvorak - Rusalka / Robert Carsen, James Conlon - Fleming, Urbanova, Diadkova, Larin, Opéra de Paris
Massenet - Manon / Fleming, Alvarez, Vernhes, Chaignaud, Lopez-Cobos, Paris Opera
Film By Tony Palmer
Previn - A Streetcar Named Desire / Fleming, Futral, Gilfry, Griffey, SF Opera, Previn
R. Strauss - Capriccio / Fleming, von Otter, Finley, Trost, Henschel, Hawlata, Dell'Oste, Banks, Tear, Schirmer, Paris Opera

ASIN: 6305639744
Release Date: 1999-11-30

Amazon.com

There are those who believe (whether they admit it or not) that opera is an exclusively European art whose history ended with the death of Puccini. They are, of course, entitled to this delusion, but it creates serious obstacles for a vital form of new music and it deprives opera fans of some memorable theatrical experiences. For most of the 20th century and very intensively in its last half, American composers have been transforming literary masterpieces into operas that deserve and are gradually winning a place in the repertoire with the European classics. With A Streetcar Named Desire (1998), André Previn is the latest addition to the list of these composers, with Gian Carlo Menotti, Dominick Argento, John Corigliano, Carlisle Floyd, John Harbison, William Bolcom, Mark Adamo, and others.

Previn came to classical music from a background as a jazz pianist and soundtrack composer, credentials that may raise a few eyebrows but obviously developed his sense of what works dramatically in music and a knack for regional flavor in an opera set in New Orleans. The libretto preserves the impact of the original Tennessee Williams play about the fragile Blanche DuBois (brilliantly portrayed by Renée Fleming) and the loutish Stanley Kowalski (sung with precision and a subtle sense of character by Rodney Gilfry). There are no weaknesses in the supporting cast and there are particularly fine performances by Elizabeth Futral and Anthony Dean Griffey. Previn, a world-class conductor, is of course an expert in his own music, and Kirk Browning has a convincing approach to the opera's visual elements. Highly recommended to anyone not allergic to modern opera. --Joe McLellan

Description

Recorded live with the San Francisco Opera, the world premiere production of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. For his first-ever opera, Previn turned to one of the most celebrated plays in the history of American theater, Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning A Streetcar Named Desire. He saw the haunting story of lost youth and innocence in the romantic, shadowy world of New Orleans as ideal material. Collaborating with librettist Philip Littell, Previn has captured all the claustrophobic tension, volatile emotion and sexual undertow of Williams' original in his own Streetcar. This world premiere recording took place in September 1998 at the spectacularly renovated War Memorial Opera House, with Previn conducting. The cast includes Renee Fleming as Blanche DuBois, Rodney Gilfry as Stanley Kowalski, Elizabeth Futral as Stella Kowalski, and Anthony Dean Griffey as Mitch. Nominated for a 1999 Emmy Award. English: Stereo. 167 minutes.

Customer Reviews:

Desire.......2007-06-12

The fact that a life can be ruined by a series of unfortunate events becomes realistic, as Blanche becomes a victim. At first, I despised her because of her promiscuity, but afterwards I noticed that her actions were rooted from her inescapable past.
During the 1940's and after the World War II, many people were in desperation trying to find jobs and create a better life. However, as a result of this mindset, some did not succeed and ended up living in a life of disaster. Such calamity resulted in not only financial misfortune, but also social and mental failure. Everyone seemed to scramble to quickly find a great life, but little did they know, the truth of the reality was that not everyone could succeed at the same time. As a result, many hoped for too much, plunging in a world of delusion. Avoiding reality, several other were just assuming fortunes would find them, creating self-fulfilling prophecies.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams wants to depict exactly that tragedy resulted from constant escapades to fantasy by employing Blanche as the typical woman who just lost her grip on reality. Blanche has lost control ever since she found out that her husband was homosexual. Unable to cope with that reality, she just drifted onto another world. She refused to believe that fact and continued to fulfill her desires elsewhere. Everywhere she went, she looked out for ways to satisfy her sexual pleasures. In one instance, she had an affair with a student, as a schoolteacher. Such activity was frowned upon by society, but she did not mind, because she was looking for a way out. After moving to her sister Stella's house, she quickly spots a male named Mitch. In hopes of finding her knight in shining armor, she tried to woo him into getting married. However, Stanley quickly disclosed all Blanche's dirty, stained history in order to stop Blanche and Mitch from going any further. Afterwards, Stanley decides to rape her, and even then, Blanche seems to be lost in world of fantasy. She is unable to stay compose and cope with reality. Everybody seems to think she is crazy, including her sister Stella. At the end of the play, she admits to the doctor she is too gullible and trusting of everyone, assuming everyone would make her life better, creating a false reality that would only make matters worse, revealing the notion that the escape to fantasy would only ruin one's life. Tennessee Williams argues that fantasy is only a false depiction of the world in its most rudimentary image, which causes one to lose control of the complications of reality, inevitably resulting in a disaster.
Despite the mature content, this book should be read, because it exposes an intriguing take on life.

Wonderful modern opera.......2007-04-09

I was really not sure from the previous reviews whether or not I would like this modern opera version of "Streetcar Named Desire". Personally, I just had to watch it because of the outstanding cast including Renee Fleming, Elizabeth Futral and Rodney Gilfry. Although there were moments when I longed for a beautiful aria instead of recitations, I did enjoy this opera. The cast were all in outstanding voice and Rodney Gilry has tremendous charisma. What a body too! Oh, there I go being superficial. He was perfect as the smirky, mean and arrogant Stanley. Fleming displays fragile and sensitive beauty in her portrayal of Blanche. Futral is lovely as the sweet Stella. I think the libretto could probably have been better written which is why I give it 4 stars. The music was lovely and the SF Orchestra is a perfect accompanist.

A Great Disappointment.......2006-03-01

I am crazy about Renee Fleming, admire Tennessee Williams, and can enjoy, say, Lulu -- so why did I dislike this so? The sets and cast look great; the acting is good enough. The fault, I suppose, lies primarily with the composer: he captures some of the desperation of Blanche, but not the (faded) beauty. Apparently, he wrote this part for Renee Fleming; but, for one thing, I would like to hear it sung more softly -- with slower tempos! Maybe there is vocal beauty here that this performance fails to capture because it doesn't let the music sufficiently "breathe." Renee Fleming has a wonderful melancholy look, which her at times almost Wagnerian vocalizing belies -- Isolde, fallen on hard times.

A Wasted Opportunity.......2005-10-24

Andre Previn and his librettist, Philip Littell have performed a remarkable feat: they have taken what could have and should have been a tremendous opera, and managed to do everything wrong that could possibly be done wrong. Here is one of the greatest plays ever written, which in its power and intensity is basically an opera already. Now - music presumably enhances the drama in an opera, intensifying the dramatic highlights, so if anything, this should have had twice the power. Instead, Previn and Litell have concocted an "opera" entirely devoid of either dramatic or musical impact.

Start with the libretto. The "librettist" has for all practical purposes merely taken ninety percent of the play script verbatim, and called it a libretto. Previn might just as well have written the music straight from Williams' script - it could not have come out much different. A libretto is supposed to be an adaptation: the librettist should condense the drama while maintaining the dramatic highlights, and then add some original material to suit the purposes of a libretto, and to give the composer the proper material to work with. One of the main aspects of this new material is the writing of arias, which of course cannot be found in the original.

Arias did not come about as some arbitrary formula imposed from without. They evolved as the most natural and logical development of the previously mentioned function of music enhancing the dramatic highlights. If music in general enhances the dramatic highlights, an aria does it to an even greater degree, being longer, broader, and very specific to the particular moment. This "Streetcar" has not one single aria as such. There are four passages which the audience dutifully applauds as though they are arias, but they are merely sections of verbatim play dialogue, and to make matters worse, they seem arbitrarily chosen, not even of any special dramatic strength or importance. One waits and waits for an aria, but alas, none are forthcoming. More frustrating yet, no end of potentially powerful dramatic moments arrive, and one says, "At last, here will most certainly be an aria, the moment cries out for one." But no, the moment is allowed to simply peter out, and golden opportunity after golden opportunity is lost, and powerful dramatic passages that should have been expanded and intensified evaporate, rendering the entire opera dramatically and musically homogeneous.

Furthermore, while the music is not atonal, Previn, in three hours, not once manages to find the tonic. When music accompanies drama, there is no neutral or middle ground - if it does not enhance the drama, it diminishes it by its very presence, which then becomes merely intrusive and essentially gratuitous. Such is the case here. Whatever drama manages to emerge, which isn't much, is solely the drama inherent in this great play. The question then arises: why did Previn bother to write this in the first place. Since the music neither improves the drama, nor can stand alone as music, it becomes an utterly pointless and futile exercise, and we are left with only the drama, severely diminished. It is clearly preferable, then, to simply go see the original play on stage if one can find a performance, or watch the film. Either of these two alternatives will show the great and powerful drama of this play, and will demonstrate just how inept is Previn's attempt to turn it into an opera.

Loved it!!!.......2005-09-30

Andre' Previn did a wonderful job turning this wonderful play into an opera. Renee Fleming was absolutely wonderful as Blanche DuBois and Elizabeth Futral was exquisite as Blanche's sister Stella...their voices were just beautiful. Ms. Fleming's voice soared with great power and beauty. Ms. Futral's had such ring in her tone and such pleasantness of tone. The cast was great...my only objection was the voice of Rodney Gilfy, Stanley. He acted wonderfully and his physique was perfect for the role, but his voice was not the most beautiful. I'm still giving it five stars, because I don't think Stanley's voice needed to be beautiful. The music is not clearly melodic, but dramatically it is fantastic. I recommend this DVD.

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Williams' South

Tennessee Williams' South

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

Biography - Tennessee Williams: Wounded Genius (A&E DVD Archives)
Great Writers: Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone)
Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (Broadway Theatre Archive)
A Streetcar Named Desire (Two-Disc Special Edition)

ASIN: B000FLCTU8

Product Description

The brutes and the belles. The gadflies and the good ol' boys. The taboos and the profound truths. They're all part of a tennessee state of mind -- a realm of places, personalities and ideas. Williams is front and center for this exploration, reading from his works, placing them in the context of his life, and serving as guide in visits to his career-shaping refuge in New Orleans and his later-day writing quarters in Key West. Also, dramatizations by distinguished actors -- including Jessica Tandy, Broadway's original Blanche DuBois, in a recreation of her A Streetcar Named Desire triumph -- give flesh-and-bone immediacy to some of the writer's famed works. In his own words. In his own places. The resilient character and memorable characters of one of our greatest writers reside in Tennessee Williams' South.

Customer Reviews:

Williams' South.......2006-06-24

Tennessee Williams is interviewed in Key West and New Orleans, and talks about his childhood, family, religion, race relations in the south, his eccentricies and demons and his love for Chekhov. His observations are often illuminating and provide good analysis for some of his writings. He also reads some of his poetry and prose (the poem from "Night of the Iguana" and "Life Story" and a section from "The Glass Menagerie"). This odd film also contains dramatic pieces at intervals with Williams commenting on the characters and their motivations. The dramatic clips are about 5 minutes each and include Burl Ives in a scene from "The Last of my Solid Gold Watches," Jessica Tandy in "A Streetcar Named Desire," William Hutt in "Small Craft Warnings," Colleen Dewhurst and John Colicos in "Night of the Iguana," and Maureen Stapleton, Michael York, James Naughton and Carol Williard in "The Glass Menagerie."

Average customer rating:

A Streetcar Named Desire
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE SEAMY SIDE OF LIFE
The Kindness of Strangers
Essential Brando in Williams' Hothouse Classic Of Delusions and Deceptions
Hollywood with the smell of theatre

A Streetcar Named Desire [Region 2]
Starring: Vivien Leigh , Marlon Brando , Kim Hunter , Karl Malden , and Rudy Bond
Director: Elia Kazan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( S ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

On the Waterfront (Special Edition)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Deluxe Edition)
Rebel Without a Cause (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Sunset Boulevard (Special Collector's Edition)
Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series)

ASIN: B000059RJQ

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

A Streetcar Named Desire.......2007-06-25

A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE SEAMY SIDE OF LIFE.......2007-05-25

The Kindness of Strangers.......2007-05-09

Essential Brando in Williams' Hothouse Classic Of Delusions and Deceptions.......2007-05-08

Hollywood with the smell of theatre.......2007-04-23

Charlie Rose with Alan Dershowitz; Andre Previn; Mark Canton (November 27, 1998)

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Charlie Rose with Alan Dershowitz; Andre Previn; Mark Canton (November 27, 1998)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Description

First, Alan Dershowitz, professor at Harvard Law School, discusses his new book Sexual McCarthyism, which provides his legal opinions on the Clinton-Lewinsky affair and the subsequent "witch hunt," which he views as prime example of the fact that sex is often deeply linked to power struggles. Then, Andre Previn, conductor, composer, and pianist, discusses his international successful career and his debut opera, a version of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Renee Fleming stars. Finally, Mark Canton, former chairman of Columbia-TriStar Pictures, discusses his three-year production deal with Warner Bros. and the new film he is producing, Jack Frost.

A Streetcar Named Desire / Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

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A Streetcar Named Desire / Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Starring: Vivien Leigh , Marlon Brando , Kim Hunter , Karl Malden , and Rudy Bond
Director: Elia Kazan , and Mike Nichols
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video