Marlon Brando is at the height of his powers here, reprising his acclaimed Broadway role as the brutal Stanley Kowalski in director Elia Kazan's classic adaptation of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Brando's bravura performance is matched by that of Vivien Leigh (as Kowalski's sister-in-law, the neurotic southern belle Blanche DuBois) and their scenes together sizzle with sexual tension. The play's homosexual references were cut to comply with censorship rules of the day, though Blanche's implied violation and references to her sordid past remain. The film won four Oscars - awards for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Kowalski's wife), Karl Malden and art director Richard Day - but Brando missed out to Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen.

A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.