A Streetcar named desire

Blanche Dubois, a faded Southern belle whose fortunes have crumbled to nothing, comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella. Stella’s husband, the brutish but magnetic Stanley Kowalski is suspicious of her past and puts in train a devastating chain of events which will finally destroy for all time Blanche’s already tenuous grasp on the world of reality. Directed by John Erman for television, this version of “A Streetcar called desire” cannot help but invite comparisons to the 1954 Vivien Leigh/Marlon Brando version directed by Elia Kazan, which is the most famous adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play. Nonetheless the three leads - Ann-Margaret, Treat Williams, Beverly D’Angelo - make a fine job of the material in a more realistic presentation of the play which goes to great lengths to establish the physical and moral decay of New Orleans in the 1940s. Also featuring Randy Quaid.