A streetcar named Desire 1951 - A milestone Hollywood work with Brando's star-making performance

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IMDB rating: 8,1

Director: Elia Kazan
Main Cast: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden

"With the same director (Elia Kazan), a screenplay co-adapted by the playwright (Tennessee Williams), and three-quarters of the Broadway production's stars, A Streetcar Named Desire transcended 'filmed theater' to become a groundbreaking Hollywood work. Battling the stringent Production Code, Kazan and Williams made concessions concerning the 'perverse' sexual elements of Blanche DuBois' past, but they retained the crucial rape of 'delicate', old-fashioned Blanche by brutal, 'modern' Stanley Kowalski, earning the Code's approval for a film definitively aimed toward adults. Marlon Brando's star-making performance as the 'Stella'-howling Stanley burned itself into popular consciousness with its combination of carnality and Method-acting 'naturalness', establishing Brando as the premier purveyor of the then-innovative Method acting style and a striking erotic presence. The more traditional Vivien Leigh, replacing Broadway's Jessica Tandy, similarly flourished as Blanche, while the Oscar-winning art direction, Harry Stradling's photography, and Alex North's moody, influential jazz score enhanced the hothouse atmosphere. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture, and took home awards for Leigh, Karl Malden, and Kim Hunter, though Brando lost to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen." - www.allmovie.com

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Gone with the wind 1939 - One of the greatest achievements in film history

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IMDB rating: 8,2

Director: Victor Fleming (George Cukor)
Main Cast: Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, Hattie McDaniel, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford

"As epic as the 1,000-plus-page Margaret Mitchell bestseller on which it was based, David O. Selznick's production of Gone With the Wind (1939) went through three directors, a well-publicized search for Scarlett O'Hara, and a then-enormous four-million-dollar budget, resulting in one of the all-time highest-grossing movies. Sparing no expense on sets and costumes, Selznick aimed to produce the ultimate Technicolor blockbuster, faithfully adapting the book's Civil War era travails of Southern belle Scarlett and her roguish match, Rhett Butler. While the film is grand in scale (and length), its cast, especially relative unknown Vivien Leigh as Scarlett and MGM king Clark Gable as Rhett, made the narrative as engrossing as the spectacular recreation of the burning of Atlanta (in which old sets were torched). Premiering first in Atlanta, Gone With the Wind delivered on the promise of the hype, breaking box-office records. Earning an unprecedented 13 Oscar nominations, Gone With the Wind won eight statuettes and two special awards, taking Best Picture in Hollywood's 'miraculous' year, as well as Best Director for Victor Fleming, and Best Actress for Vivien Leigh. Best Supporting Actress Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Oscar.
The film grossed nearly 192 million dollars, assuring that, just as he predicted, Selznick's epitaph would be 'The Man Who Made Gone With the Wind'." - www.allmovie.com

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