Coming up on Saturday at the Described Movies: A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
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From this Saturday at 12am Eastern, that’s 4pm Saturday in NZ, 2pm in Sydney and 5am in the UK, and repeated every four hours throughout the day, it’s the described movies A Streetcar Named Desire from 1951, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from 1958.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1951 American Southern Gothic drama film adapted from Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name.
It is directed by Elia Kazan, and stars Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden.
The film tells the story of a Mississippi Southern belle, Blanche DuBois, who, after encountering a series of personal losses, seeks refuge with her sister and brother-in-law in a dilapidated New Orleans apartment building.
The original Broadway production and cast was converted to film, albeit with several changes and sanitizations related to censorship.
Tennessee Williams collaborated with Oscar Saul and Elia Kazan on the screenplay.
Kazan, who directed the Broadway stage production, also directed the black-and-white film.
Brando, Hunter, and Malden all reprised their original Broadway roles.
Although Jessica Tandy originated the role of Blanche DuBois on Broadway, Vivien Leigh, who had appeared in the London theatre production, was cast in the film adaptation for her star power.
Upon release of the film, Marlon Brando, virtually unknown at the time of the play's casting, rose to prominence as a major Hollywood film star, and received the first of four consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, while Leigh won her second Academy Award for Best Actress for playing DuBois.
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.
It received Oscar nominations in 10 other categories (including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay ), and won Best Supporting Actor (Malden), Best Supporting Actress (Hunter), and Best Art Direction (Richard Day, George James Hopkins ), making it the first film to win in three of the acting categories.
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".
Directed by: Elia Kazan.
Screenplay by: Tennessee Williams, and Oscar Saul.
Based on: A Streetcar Named Desire 1947 play by Tennessee Williams.
Produced by: Charles K. Feldman.
Starring: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden.
Cinematography: Harry Stradling.
Edited by: David Weisbart.
Music by: Alex North.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Release date: 19 September 1951 (New York).
File Length: 125 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $1.8 million.
Box office: $8 million (North America).
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a 1958 American drama film directed by Richard Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Poe, based on the 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name
by Tennessee Williams.
The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson,and Judith Anderson.
After Brick Pollitt (Paul Newman) injures himself while drunkenly revisiting his high school sports-star days, he and his tempestuous wife, Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), visit his family's Mississippi plantation for the 65th birthday of his hot-tempered father, Big Daddy (Burl Ives).
Cantankerous even with declining health, Big Daddy demands to know why Brick and Maggie haven't yet given him a grandchild, unlike Brick's brother Gooper (Jack Carson) and his fecund wife, Mae (Madeleine Sherwood).
Well-received by both critics and audiences, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was MGM's most successful release of 1958, and became
the third highest-grossing film of that year.
Directed by: Richard Brooks.
Screenplay by: Richard Brooks, and James Poe.
Based on: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1955 play by Tennessee Williams.
Produced by: Lawrence Weingarten.
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, and Judith Anderson.
Cinematography: William Daniels.
Edited by: Ferris Webster.
Music by: Charles Wolcott.
(uncredited)
Production company: Avon Productions.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Release date: 27 August 1958 (United States).
File Length: 108 minutes.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Budget: $2.3 million.
Box office: $17.6 million.
Any questions, comments, or ideas for future described movies: e-mail me: anthony at mushroomfm dot com (e-mail address written that way to cut down on
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Enjoy the movies.