The Under 700 Club: A Streetcar Named Desire (1984)

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The Under 700 Club: Reviews in under 700 words for movies with less than 700 logs on Letterboxd (log count as of this publication: 181)

Today is the 113th birthday of Mr. Tennessee Williams, one of the most enduring playwrights of the 20th century and one of the most important influences on my personal theatrical sensibilities and taste. 

Let's celebrate with one the least remembered, yet perfectly cast, productions of his plays, the 1984 television film of A Streetcar Named Desire. 

We all know Streetcar (and if you don't, please fix that) and have probably seen the 1951 film with Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden. That film was both a blessing and a curse, an excellent production with game-changing inhabitations of Williams's perfectly crafted characters, but with characterizations that are so strong they've become the characters. In particular, Brando made it impossible to play Stanley Kowalksi without doing what Brando had already done. 

To create new and distinct characters, you need a cast up for the tall task. Director John Elman (a veteran of television film) assembled that cast. 

Ann-Margret as Blanche: This is the role of all roles. The one that they write books about, literally. In her 2023 book, Blanche: The Life and Times of Tennessee Williams's Greatest Creation, Nancy Schoenberger writes, "She (Ann-Margret) seems less a wounded bird and more of a steel magnolia...her confident sexuality...adds backbone to the role." I don't think I could say it much better myself. So many of Tennessee's female characters are women who lived lives that have since left them behind, particularly in their sexual escapades. Ann-Margret, a sex symbol a few decades prior, was never that down and out, but there was definitely something she could tap into with this character. For her performance, she was nominated for an Emmy and won the Golden Globe. 

Treat Williams as Stanley: This might be one of the harder roles in the American theatrical canon to tackle with a fresh take. It's impossible to play Cabaret's Emcee without doing an Alan Cumming impression, practically impossible to do Audrey in Little Shop without doing the Ellen Greene voice - the same is true of the endless Brando impersonations in productions of Streetcar. Treat Williams manages to get away from that (though he does flirt with some Brando-isms, including the voice), finding the boyish charm inside that brooding beast. There's a reason that Tennessee so often uses the word "animal" to describe him. He's instinctual and quick to pounce. He would bring that same intense allure to the film Smooth Talk the following year. He was nominated for the Golden Globe. 

Beverly D'Angelo as Stella: I love Beverly D'Angelo. Who doesn't? She's adorable. She had made National Lampoon's Vacation the year before and I'm sure she could've made a career of stupid shit, increasingly worse than Chevy Chase movies. The fact that she filmed a Tennessee Williams play next says a lot about her desires and interests as an artist. As much as I love Julianne Moore in Crazy, Stupid, Love, Beverly D'Angelo is the world heavyweight champion for "the perfect combination of sexy and cute." That's essential to the character of Stella, the world that connects the two poles of Stanley's sexual desires and Blanche's fading history. She also received an Emmy nomination. 

Randy Quaid as Mitch: Another Vacation alum, it's hard to remember a time when Randy Quaid was just really good at playing dumb. This is long before he perfected his dolt character, method-acting so hard that he's permanently stuck as an idiot in real life, Austin Butler-Elvis voice style. As Schoenberger puts it, "(Quaid) deftly navigates Mitch's arc from a somewhat oafish figure to a more sensitive soul - and back again..." He also received Emmy recognition, garnering the company's third acting nomination for his performance.

You can find this movie in slightly better-than-VHS quality on YouTube, where it currently has over 75,000 views. Only 181 logs on Letterboxd, however, which, if I were to guess, probably means that it's being shown in AP Literature classrooms and not being watched by enough cinephiles. That's a shame because it really is excellent. So many of the Williams works get hokey, uninspired derivations. This is one of the better ones - I think he would've liked it.

Happy Birthday, Tennessee. Thanks for everything. 

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