Dvd/150: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Elia Kazan, 1951)

To celebrate Tennessee Williams' birth day I watched the greatest of the film adaptations of his works, Kazan's A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE which, nearly 70 years later, still grips like a vice.

Released four years after Kazan's original Broadway production, he was reluctant to repeat himself but relented and cast three of his original actors - Marlon Brando as 'Stanley', Kim Hunter as 'Stella' and Karl Malden as 'Mitch' - but had to replace Jessica Tandy with the more famous Vivien Leigh, who had played 'Blanche' onstage in London.

In retrospect, the casting was inspired: Vivien's 'outsider' status against the established bond between Brando, Hunter and Malden echoes the disturbing presence of Blanche in the working-class world of Stanley, Stella and Mitch.

Much has been made since of the opposing acting styles of Brando and Leigh with his gaining the more stature, but even he grew to respect her extraordinary performance.

Shelf or charity shop?  Really??  You even have to ask?  Tennessee Williams' extraordinary words, Harry Stradling's cinematography, Alex North's pervasive score, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden's multi-layered performances, the intensity of Kazan's direction, the electricity of Brando and of course, the gossamer, iridescent, quicksilver, haunting brilliance of Vivien Leigh.

Dvd/150: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Arthur Lewin, 1945)

The most famous of the eighteen films based on Oscar Wilde's 1890 supernatural novel made a big impression on me when I first saw it years ago.

However  although the film has some great components, ultimately it is smothered by MGM's 'taste'.

The film also suffers from Hurd Hatfield as Dorian; he certainly looks the part but his glacial, uninvolving performance never suggests anything underneath, good or bad.

The film however looks wonderful with marvellous art direction, atmospheric lighting and Academy Award-winning cinematography by Harry Stradling.

It also gained 20 year-old Angela Lansbury an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award, in only her third screen role.  She is luminous as tragic Sybil Vane, loved and discarded by Dorian.

George Sanders' silky Sir Henry excels while Lowell Gilmore as Basil, Richard Fraser as James Vane and Morton Lowry as a dissolute artist make up for Hatfield's anonymity.

Shelf or charity shop?  I can see myself watching this again but it lives in the limbo of my plastic DVD box...