A Streetcar Named Desire is the 1951 film adaptation of the 1947, Pulitzer Prize winning stage play by Tennessee Williams. Williams collaborated with Oscar Saul on the screenplay and Elia Kazan who directed the stage production went on to direct the film. Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, all members of the original Broadway cast, reprised their roles for the film. Vivien Leigh, who had appeared in the London theatre production, was brought in for the film version in lieu of Jessica Tandy, who had created the part of Blanche DuBois on Broadway.

A Streetcar Named Desire holds the distinction of garnering Academy Award wins for actors in three out of the four acting categories. Oscars were won by Vivien Leigh, Best Actress, Karl Malden, Best Supporting Actor, and Kim Hunter, Best Supporting Actress. Marlon Brando was nominated for his performance as Stanley Kowalski, and although lauded for his powerful portrayal, did not win the Oscar for Best Actor.

The film is also noteworthy for being the first film to honor actors in both the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress category.

Plot
Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) is a fading, but nevertheless attractive Southern belle, whose pretensions to virtue and culture only thinly mask her alcoholism and delusions of grandeur. Her poise is an illusion she presents to shield others, and most of all herself, from reality to try to make herself still attractive to new male suitors. Blanche arrives from her hometown of Auriol, Mississippi at the apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), in the French Quarter of New Orleans, on Elysian Fields Avenue. The local transportation that she takes to arrive there includes a streetcar route named "Desire." The steamy, urban ambiance is a shock to Blanche's nerves.

Explaining that her ancestral southern plantation, Belle Reve in Auriol, Mississippi, has been "lost" due to the "epic fornications" of her ancestors, Blanche is welcomed with some trepidation by Stella, who fears the reaction of her husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando). Blanche says her supervisor gave her time off her job as an English teacher because of her upset nerves. In truth, however, she was fired for having an affair with a 17-year-old male student. This turns out not to be the only seduction she had engaged in – and these problems led Blanche to run away from Auriol. A brief marriage scarred by the suicide of her spouse, Allan Grey, has led Blanche to live in a world in which her fantasies and illusions are seamlessly mixed with her reality.
In contrast to both the self-effacing and deferential Stella and the pretentious refinement of Blanche, Stanley is a force of nature: primal, rough-hewn, brutish and sensual. He dominates Stella in every way and is physically and emotionally abusive. Stella tolerates his behavior as this is part of what attracted her in the first place. Their love and relationship is heavily based on powerful, even animalistic, sexual chemistry – something that Blanche says that she finds impossible to understand, despite long glances of admiration and lust towards Stanley. The arrival of Blanche upsets her sister's and brother-in-law's system of mutual dependence. Stella's concern for her sister's well-being emboldens Blanche to hold court in the Kowalski apartment, infuriating Stanley and leading to conflict in his relationship with his wife. Stanley's friend and Blanche's would-be suitor, Harold "Mitch" Mitchell (Karl Malden), is trampled as Blanche and Stanley head for a collision course. Stanley discovers Blanche's past through a co-worker who travels to Auriol frequently. He confronts Blanche with the things she has been trying to put behind her, partly out of concern that her character flaws may be damaging to the lives of those in her new home (just as they were in Auriol), and partly due to resentment of her airs of superiority toward him and a distaste for pretense in general. However, his attempts to "unmask" her are predictably cruel and violent.

Their final confrontation – a rape – results in Blanche's nervous breakdown. Stanley has her committed to a mental institution. Mitch, knowing that Stanley raped Blanche and had her committed to a mental institution, lashes out and punches Stanley but is then held back by the other men, and he starts to weep. As the other men stare at Stanley, he claims he "never once touched her".

Devastated with her sister's fate, Stella weeps and rejects Stanley's intention to comfort her and pushes him away. Stella runs out to see Blanche off, but is too late, as the car Blanche left in has already gone. As he cries her name once more ("Stella! Hey, Stella!"), Stella clings to her child and vows that she is "never going back" to Stanley again. She goes upstairs once more in order to seek refuge with her neighbor, Eunice (Peg Hillias), as Stanley continues to call her name.

Reception
The film earned an estimated $4,250,000 at the US and Canadian box office in 1951, making it the fifth biggest hit of the year.

Critical response
The film drew very high praise from critics upon release. The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther praised the film, stating that "inner torments are seldom projected with such sensitivity and clarity on the screen" and commending both Vivien Leigh's and Marlon Brando's performances. Film critic Roger Ebert also expressed praise for the film, calling it a "great ensemble of the movies." The film currently has a very high 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 50 reviews.

Accolades
A Streetcar Named Desire won four awards at the 24th Academy Awards. The film set an Oscar record when it became the first film to win in three acting categories (this achievement was later equalled by Network in 1976). The awards it won were for Actress in a Leading Role (Leigh), Actor in a Supporting Role (Malden), Actress in a Supporting Role (Hunter), and Art Direction.

In 1999, A Streetcar Named Desire was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

American Film Institute recognition
1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies #45
2002 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions #67
2005 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
"Stella! Hey, Stella!" #45
"I've always depended on the kindness of strangers," #75
2005 AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores #19
2007 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) #47