Among “A Streetcar Named Desire”’s many remarkable claims to fame, is that the classic 1951 film somehow made a comedic cultural icon out of the otherwise unfunny name, “Stella.”
In the indelible motion picture – adapted from Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer-winning play of the same name – the passionate but cruel Stanley Kowalski, anguished and distraught when his wife fearfully leaves him, wildly shouts her name in the street.
“Stella! Stella!”
In both the play and the movie, the moment is intense, powerful and highly emotional. In popular cultural, however, that scene has been replayed so many times, parodied in so many comic strips, cartoons, movie spoofs and comedy sketches, that the actual dramatic scene now often draws laughs of ironic recognition whenever it’s performed on the live stage.
The same thing happens in “Hamlet,” when the melancholy prince steps out to say, “To be or not be …” or the actor playing Colonel Jessep, in the stage version of “A Few Good Men,” stands up and hollers, “You can’t handle the truth!” Without fail, those words bring at least a few laughs from the audience. In context, of course, none of these are particularly humorous lines. Perhaps it’s something about hearing them repeated out of context over and over that trains us, when we hear some poor stage actor daring to utter those words in a live play, to react with detached ironic amusement.
Given all that, it’s remarkable what happens when we catch the full original movie of “Streetcar Named Desire,” with the “Stella!” scene framed in its proper dramatic context. Somehow, it still works.
Taken as a whole, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” directed by Elia Kazan, is still as able to captivate, titillate, and shock an audience as it was when first released 65 years ago. And if you find yourself laughing when Brando, T-shirted and soaked in sweat, finally stumbles into the street and screams his wife’s name, then you haven’t been paying attention to the story. In spite of the teasing it’s been subject to all this time, the “Stella!” scene is without a doubt one of the greatest acting moments in screen history.
And “Streetcar” itself is a cinematic masterpiece. Brando’s star-making performance being just one of the many reasons for its success.
In 1952, the film was nominated for a dozen Oscars, earning nominations in all four acting categories, with Vivien Leigh nominated for Best Actress as the doomed Blanche DuBois, Karl Malden for Best Supporting Actor as Stanley’s kind-hearted buddy Mitch, and Kim Hunter for Best Supporting actress as Stella. Surprisingly, only Marlon Brando – who created the role on Broadway and became an instant star after the movie version – failed to actually win. Though nominated, he lost the Best Actor statue to Humphrey Bogart’s performance in “The African Queen.” Despite that early defeat for Brando – who would go on to be nominated seven more times, winning for “On the Waterfront” and “The Godfather” – “Streetcar” became the first film ever to win Academy Awards in three different acting categories, a feat that would not be repeated until 1977, when “Network” finally accomplished the same trick. That film, for what it’s worth, gave the world, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” yet another oft-parodied line that seems funny when quipped on “Saturday Night Live” or referenced by a stand-up comic, but still remains powerful, complex and deeply moving – when viewed in context as originally intended.
As for “Stella!” – the line, not the character – it lives on and on, often showing up in surprising places. For example, once a year, for the last 19 years, the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival hosts the annual Stella Shouting Contest, in which celebrity judges – once including original Stella Kim Hunter – watch competitors take turns bellowing the famous name in a whimsical quest for pop-cultural glory.
Most important of all, “Stella!” lives on every time a stage actor proves brave enough step up and utter that two-syllable name Marlon Brando voiced so perfectly, and so passionately, that he turned it into a laugh line. And, of course, the power of that line continues every time an audience sits down and re-watches the movie that – with a single striking yell from a breaking heart – turned a brilliant and influential play into an endlessly imitated work of transcendent cinematic art.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” screens Monday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m., at the Sebastiani Theater, 476 First St. E., in Sonoma. Admission $9.
Contact David at david.templeton@sonomanews.com.
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