Category Archives: Vivien Leigh

1951 Films, Drama, Elia Kazan, Karl Malden, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh

A Streetcar Named Desire-1951

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A Streetcar Named Desire-1951

Director Elia Kazan

Starring Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh

Scott’s Review #872

Reviewed March 2, 2019

Grade: A

An adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s dark and dreary Broadway play, the stellar cast of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) features three of the four original members of the stage version who bring the film to the big screen.

Tremendous acting and a southern, morbid setting will leave the viewer transfixed and wondering what chaos and drama will next unfold. The story is sad pitiful and quite heavy as each character suffers guilt, resentment, rage, or regret, but the elements make the film a pure classic.

Aging southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) has lost her valuable southern plantation and flees her aristocratic livelihood to New Orleans to live with her working-class sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando).

Unhappy, Blanche immediately begins acting snobbish in contrast to regular folks and offends many with her prim and proper ways.

Stanley feels slighted by Blanche convinced that she is keeping the inheritance from Stella resulting in conflict. She meets Mitch (Karl Malden) and it appears she may have a shot at happiness after all.

The most painful and well-dissected character is Blanche. A fun fact is that Leigh is the only actor among the principal four to not appear in the original stage version, the role played by Jessica Tandy.

Leigh undoubtedly is cast because of her star power at that time dives full-steam ahead into the role and gives the perfect blend of pathos and courage adding the most complexity.

Reduced to a life among the poor and struggling, the reality is tough for the once-wealthy heiress who has lost all her money through no fault of her own, her estate taken by creditors after her husband’s tragic death assumed to be suicide.

Almost as complicated is Stanley, played stunningly by Brando, an actor who with this film was beginning to embark on Hollywood success that would surround him throughout most of the 1950s.

The most prominent film cover art features a tee-shirt-clad Brando, his muscular arms and torso on display, and his smoldering bad-boy pose. The sexual tension between Stanley and Blanche is undeniable as their love/hate relationship is filled with unbridled passion.

Their carnal attraction is largely due to the brutish masculinity that Brando exudes on camera.

The combined supporting performances by both Kim Hunter and Malden almost match the leads as far as complexity and are just as important to recognize.

Hunter plays Stella as wounded and put-upon, but not weak. She has strength but is unsure who to trust or whether to leave her husband. Malden plays Mitch as benevolent and trusting, enamored with Blanche until her secrets are finally revealed.

Heartbroken, even he, the kindest character in the group is left unhappy. Malden is great at adding an every-man and graceful quality to Mitch.

Who can ever forget the poignant and melancholy wails of “Stella! Stella! Stella!” emitted by the tragic Stanley a moment forever remembered in cinematic history? He longingly begs for Stella’s forgiveness as he looks towards the sky.

The suggested rape, although not shown, is a powerful tidbit and controversial in the film for 1951. The audience not seeing the action is arguably as intense as having seen it as the imagination can often be more prominent.

The black and white cinematography adds emotional treasures as the bleak New Orleans life is captured and the struggle and hardship of the characters are wonderfully portrayed.

The run-down tenement most of the film takes place is dour, suffocating, and dingy, perfectly enveloping the characters’ lives.

Hopelessness and depression are commonalities as director Elia Kazan creates a film that grasps his audience and never lets go.

A Streetcar Named Desire is about conflict, pain, and the human desire for love and feeling thwarted by realism and dire circumstances.

Each of the four characters is capable of being dissected and sympathized with and worthy of discussion. This only proves the complexities of each.

I challenge a good comparison to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and A Streetcar Named Desire as both have similar qualities.

The film set an Oscar record when it became the first film to win in three acting categories (a feat only since matched by Network in 1976).

The awards it won were for Actress in a Leading Role (Leigh), Actor in a Supporting Role (Malden), Actress in a Supporting Role (Hunter), and Art Direction.

A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) is not an easy watch but assuredly is a feast in excellent acting and a bevy of heartbreaking and wounded characters.

Oscar Nominations: 4 wins-Best Motion Picture, Best Director-Elia Kazan, Best Actor-Marlon Brando, Best Actress-Vivien Leigh (won), Best Supporting Actor-Karl Malden (won), Best Supporting Actress-Kim Hunter (won), Best Screenplay, Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, Best Sound Recording, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White (won), Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Costume Design, Black-and-White

1941 Films, Alan Mowbray, Alexander Korda, Drama, Gladys Cooper, Laurence Olivier, Romantic Drama, Vivien Leigh

That Hamilton Woman-1941

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That Hamilton Woman-1941

Director Alexander Korda

Starring Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh 

Scott’s Review #779

Reviewed June 27, 2018

Grade: B+

That Hamilton Woman (1941) is an obscure, black, and white gem that stars legendary actors and real-life couple Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier.

Providing a story of an old-fashioned style romance, war battles, and dazzling cinematography, the film succeeds as a classic film that should be better remembered than it is.

The overall theme here is a tragic love story with a sad ending.

One of the best aspects of That Hamilton Woman is witnessing the super-couple team of Leigh and Olivier act opposite one another. The actor’s talents are reason enough but makes a fascinating viewing experience.

The curiosity of the pairing of big stars in their heyday is a delight, and highly appealing and both actors do not disappoint. One wonders whether they were acting or otherwise enjoying the experience.

That Lady Hamilton begins with a jarring scene in which the title character, known as Emma, Lady Hamilton (Vivien Leigh) is thrown into debtor’s prison after stealing booze in France.

The rest of the story is told via flashbacks as she regales her fellow prisoners with how she wound up in her current state. Her former life starkly contrasts as Emma appears as a young woman with hope, promise, and riches.

It is hard to imagine how her life turned out so badly which gives the film quality of strong intrigue.

The film then has a “riches to rags” element as the story is told in reverse. Full of energy, British Emma moves with her mother to the Kingdom of Naples where she marries the affluent (and much older) Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), presumably for his money.

When handsome Admiral Horatio Nelson (Olivier) appears on the scene, the pair fall madly in love. They face tremendous hurdles, however, as the war rages on and each is unfaithful to their respective spouses.

Since the film was made scarcely two years after the epic romance Gone with the Wind (1939), one cannot help but compare Leigh’s portrayal of Emma to Scarlett O’Hara.

Emma comes across as a British version of the southern lass, especially as she is clad in gorgeous gowns or romancing men.

However, as the film develops she becomes a much more sympathetic character and certainly less of a vixen. Still, there are plenty of similarities for viewers to draw from.

The role of Lady Frances Nelson (Gladys Cooper) is completely one-note so the rooting value is never in doubt. The audience is firmly in the corner of Emma and Horatio and this is the film’s intention.

With that said, Cooper does a fantastic job of making her character completely unlikeable. Her icy, vengeful spirit is in perfect balance with the sympathetic lead characters. The fact that Horatio and Emma are adulterers, especially for the year the film was made, is not fully explored.

To be critical, and presumably, because the film is old, the video quality is not the greatest. If the film were in color the gorgeous Italian landscapes and Leigh’s lovely costumes would have appeared even more lavish and picturesque.

But due to the age of the film, not much can be done about it unless it is decided to repackage the disc or make it a Blu-ray offering.

Still, the luminous mountains and the lush oceans of southern Italy are frequently featured throughout the film, which is a real treat.

Purely a showcase for newlyweds Olivier and Leigh to dish their real-life romance for mainstream audiences, That Hamilton Woman (1941) must have been a big deal at the release.

While suffering from lackluster film quality, the story is quite hearty featuring romantic scenes combined with loud, bombastic battle scenes and a bit of British and Italian history.

Sadly, this film is largely forgotten, but is a good watch for fans of the legendary stars.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Sound Recording (won), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Special Effects

1939 Films, Best Picture Oscar Winners, Drama, Epic, George Cukor, George Reeves, Hattie McDaniel, Jane Darwell, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Sam Wood, Scott's Top 100 Films, Thomas Mitchell, Victor Fleming, Vivien Leigh

Gone With The Wind-1939

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Gone With The Wind-1939

Director Victor Fleming/George Cukor

Starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland

Top 100 Films #15

Scott’s Review #201

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Reviewed December 4, 2014

Grade: A

Gone with the Wind is the grand masterpiece of the sweeping epic drama.

The film is based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling novel. Set in the South (Georgia) during the Civil War era, it centers on the life of Scarlett O’Hara, a southern belle of cotton plantation Tara, and how she must struggle to keep her plantation alive after the South loses the war.

Initially, Scarlett cares little about the war, instead enjoying her spoiled, narcissistic lifestyle, and romances with many men in the town, all vying for her attention. She revels in one sunny picnic and ball after another with all eyes on her.

As war decimates the South, however, Scarlett must take over the plantation and survive the ravages of war.

Mixed in with the war theme is a romance between Scarlett and Rhett, one of cinema’s most recognized and enduring couples. Having gone through three directors (Victor Fleming, George Cukor, and Sam Wood), the film is as extravagant and precise in its style, attention to detail, and set design as films come.

At close to four hours in length, Gone with the Wind is a lavish production that can take an entire afternoon or evening to watch and is divided into two halves- interestingly the first half directed by Cukor, and the second primarily directed by Fleming.

It is a film that can be viewed and analyzed over and over again and the set pieces and flawless perfectionism alone marveled at. The first half is superior to the second, but that is like comparing prime rib to filet mignon- it’s a preference for goodies.

The first half is brighter, cheery, and fantastic. The wonderful Tara and neighboring plantation Twin Oaks host southern balls and parties and are filled with romance, gossip, and beautiful costumes. War is coming, but it is a delightful time of merriment.

The Southerners embrace going to war they assume will last for two weeks and they will be victorious. They party and they celebrate.

The second half has a much darker tone.

By the beginning of the second half, Atlanta has burned, thousands of men have died, Tara is decimated, Scarlett’s mother died, and her father went batty.

The rebuilding of the south is explored, the troubled Rhett and Scarlett marriage commences, their daughter dies, and the world-famous line uttered by Rhett to Scarlett, “Frankly my dear…. I don’t give a damn”.

Having been now directed by a different person (Fleming), the first and second halves almost seem like two separate films.

Vivien Leigh plays a wonderful role. In 1939 women were rarely strong characters in the film, so for that reason Gone with the Wind is groundbreaking for female characters.

Scarlett is selfish, yes, but she rises above, is strong, saves her plantation, and succeeds as a successful businesswoman- almost unheard of in cinema for 1939. Her undying love for Ashley Wilkes, but unable to obtain him (he is married to his cousin Melanie) gives her a sympathetic vulnerability.

Clark Gable, already a huge star and the people’s choice to play Rhett, is charismatic and handsome. The fact that he and Leigh did not get along makes their fights and sexual tension electric. They love each other but also hate each other and this is transmitted on screen.

Rhett is his own man- he defines himself as not a Northerner, but not a Southerner either. He is a vagabond and spends many nights at the local brothel in the company of Belle Watling. The character of Rhett is independent and strong.

The supporting characters are colorful, lively, and humorous. Aunt Pittypat with her dramatic worrying and smelling salts and Prissy with her insistence on expert child-birthing when in reality she knows nothing, are moments meant to lighten the mood.

Mammie, a mother figure to Scarlett, is a moral, kind, yet tough character. Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) is an even sweeter character in her caring and selflessness.

Lesser characters such as Dr. Meade, Suellen, Carreen, India, and Frank Kennedy all serve their purpose and are no throwaway characters.

Bothersome is that over the years Gone with the Wind has been unfairly “feminized” once it began airing as an alternative to the annual Super Bowl, the assumption being that only women would enjoy it, which is silly.

I do not find this film to be a female film and frankly, some of the battle scenes are quite masculine, with epic fires and guns galore. Is Gone with the Wind now considered a racist film?

Perhaps so, and time has made the political incorrectness much more glaring- this point can be debated endlessly. Ashley participates in a hooded Klan organization and is a hero of the film!

Certainly, the slaves are portrayed as happy, kindly, and comfortable with their place in life throughout the film, vastly different from what surely transpired. However, Hattie McDaniel (Mammie) won the first-ever Oscar for a black actress so that was monumental progress and influence.

Using seemingly thousands of extras, the war-torn Atlanta scene where the camera rises up and up and up panning down on hundreds of wounded and dead Union soldiers as Scarlett defeatedly walks among them is still heartbreaking to watch and is a reminder of the power and destruction that war is.

Gone with the Wind is an epic masterpiece from long ago that still holds up amazingly well. The sets, the rich characters, and the costumes can be admired and still inspire today.

Oscar Nominations: 8 wins-Outstanding Production (won), Best Director-Victor Fleming (won), Best Actor-Clark Cable, Best Actress-Vivien Leigh (won), Best Supporting Actress-Hattie McDaniel (won), Olivia de Havilland, Best Screenplay (won), Best Original Score, Best Sound Recording, Best Art Direction (won), Best Cinematography, Color (won), Best Film Editing (won), Best Special Effects