A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Vivien Leigh: Blanche DuBois
Photos
Quotes
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Blanche : Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
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Blanche : I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.
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Blanche : Deliberate cruelty is unforgivable, and the one thing of which I have never,ever been guilty of.
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Blanche : I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is 50% illusion.
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Blanche : Straight? What's 'straight'? A line can be straight, or a street. But the heart of a human being?
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Blanche : But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable! It is the one unforgivable thing, in my opinion, and the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty.
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Blanche : Oh, Stanley! What sign were you born under?
Stanley : What sign?
Blanche : Astrological sign. I'll bet you were born under Aries. Aries people are forceful, dynamic, they dote on noise. They love to bang things around.
Stella : Stanley was born just five minutes after Christmas.
Blanche : Capricorn - the goat!
[long silence follows as Stanley stares at Blanche]
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Blanche : You're married to a madman.
Stella : I wish you'd stop taking it for granted that I'm in something I want to get out of.
Blanche : What you are talking about is desire - just brutal Desire. The name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another.
Stella : Haven't you ever ridden on that streetcar?
Blanche : It brought me here. Where I'm not wanted and where I'm ashamed to be.
Stella : Don't you think your superior attitude is a little out of place?
Blanche : May I speak plainly?... If you'll forgive me, he's common... He's like an animal. He has an animal's habits. There's even something subhuman about him. Thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is. Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the Stone Age, bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle. And you - you here waiting for him. Maybe he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you, that's if kisses have been discovered yet. His poker night you call it. This party of apes.
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Blanche : Young, young man. Did anyone ever tell you you look like a young prince out of the 'Arabian Nights'?
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Blanche : Oh look, we have created enchantment.
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Blanche : Is there something wrong with me?
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Stella : [Entering the room] Stanley! Stanley, you come on outside with me and left Blanche finish dressing!
Blanche : I've finished dressing honey.
Stella : Well you come out then.
Stanley : Your sister and I are having a little talk.
Blanche : Honey, do me a favor. Run to the drug store and get me a lemon coke with chipped ice. Will you do that for me, sweetie, please.
Stella : All right.
[she leaves to the drug store]
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Stella : [talking about her husband, Stanley] He's on the road a good deal... I can hardly stand it when he's away for a night.
Blanche : Oh, Stella.
Stella : When he's away for a week, I nearly go wild.
Blanche : Gracious.
Stella : When he comes back... I cry in his lap like a baby. I guess that's what's meant by being in love.
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[Blance enters into the spare bedroom and closes the curtain. She looks at her suitcase which is in complete disaray then she starts to undress and talks to Stanley who is sitting in the kitchen]
Blanche : I understand there's to be a little card party here tonight to which we ladies are cordially not invited.
Stanley : That's right.
Blanche : Where is Stella?
Stanley : She's out there on the porch.
[Blanche walks over to the window and looks out. Across the street Stella is talking to someone. Blanche starts walking back to the curtain]
Blanche : I'm going to ask a favor of you in a moment.
Stanley : Well, what's that going to be, I wonder?
Blanche : Well, some buttons in back.
[She opens the curtain]
Blanche : You may enter.
[Stanley stands up and walks into the bedroom]
Blanche : How do I look?
Stanley : You look okay.
Blanche : Many thanks. Now the buttons.
[He puts the buttons on Stella's back]
Stanley : [fumbles with them for a moment] I can't do no more with them.
Blanche : You mean with your big clumsy fingers. May I have a drag of your cig?
Stanley : Yeah, have one yourself.
[hands her a cigarette]
Blanche : Why thank you. It... It looks like my trunk has exploded.
Stanley : Me and Stella was helping you unpack.
Stanley : You certainly did a fast and thorough job of it.
Stanley : Well, It certainly looks like you raided some stylish shops of Paris, Blanche.
Blanche : Clothes are my passion.
Stanley : How much does it cost for a string of furs like that?
Blanche : Why, those were a tribute from an admirer of mine.
Stanley : He must have had a lot of admiration.
Blanche : Oh, in my youth I excited some admiration. But, look at me now. Would you think it possible that I was once considered to be attractive?
Stanley : Your looks are okay.
Blanche : I was fishing for a compliment, Stanley.
Stanley : I don't go in for that stuff.
Blanche : What stuff?
Stanley : Compliments to women about their looks. I never met a dame yet that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and some of them give themselves credit for more than they've got. I once went out with a dame who told me, "I'm the glamorous type," she says, "I am the glamorous type." I say, "So what?"
Blanche : And what did she say then?
Stanley : She didn't say nothing. That shut her up like a clam.
Blanche : Did it end the romance?
Stanley : Well, It ended the conversation, that was all. You know that some men are taken in by all this Hollywood glamour and some men just aren't.
Blanche : I'm sure you belong in the second category.
Stanley : That's right.
Blanche : I cannot imagine any witch of a woman casting a spell over you.
Stanley : That's right.
Blanche : You're simple, straightforward and honest, a little bit on the primitive side, I should think. To interest you a woman would have to...
Stanley : Have to lay her cards out on the table.
Blanche : Well I never did care for wishy-washy people. That was why when you walked in last night, I said to myself, "my sister has married a man". Of course that was all I could hope to...
Stanley : [yells] How about cutting the re-bop!
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Blanche : This old maid, she had a parrot that cursed a blue streak and knew more vulgar expressions than Mr. Kowalski.
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Blanche : I said I was sorry three times!
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Blanche DuBois : My, but you have an impressive, judicial air.
Stanley : You know, if I didn't know that you was my wife's sister, I would get ideas about you... Don't play so dumb. You know what.
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Blanche : [Meeting with Stella, shortly after she's arrived in New Orleans] I bought some nice clothes to meet all your lovely friends in. Well... I'm afraid you won't think they're lovely. Well, anyway, I bought nice clothes and I'll wear them. I guess you're hoping I'll say I'll put up at a hotel. I'm not going to put up at a hotel. I've got to be near you, Stella. I've got to be with people. I can't be alone because... Because as you must have noticed, I... I'm not very well.
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Blanche : I - I - I took the blows... on my face and my body. All of those deaths, the long parade to the graveyard. Father, Mother, Margaret, that dreadful way... You just came home in time for funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. How do you think all that sickness and dying was paid for? Death is expensive, Miss Stella. And I, with my pitiful salary at the school... Yes, accuse me. Stand there and stare at me, thinking I let the place go. I let the place go? Where were you? In there with your Polack.
Stella : Blanche, be still. That's enough.
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[Blanche turns on the radio and the music begins. She dances]
Steve : What do you say, Mitch?
[Mitch turns to Blanche]
Stanley : Come on, Mitch, are you in?
Mitch : What? No, I'm out!
Stanley : [to Blanche] Who turned that on in there?
Blanche : I did. Do you mind?
Stanley : Well, turn it off!
Steve : Come on, will you? Let the girls have their music?
[Stanley goes to their room, angrily and turns off the radio]
Blanche : Stanley!
[He turns to Blanche and goes back to Steve and Pablo at the Poker]
Stanley : There you are. I didn't hear your name it!
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Stanley : Hello... Yeah, Mac... What?
Blanche : Take your hands off me, Stella. What's the matter with you?
Stanley : [turns to Blanche] Will you shut up!
[turns back to the phone]
Stanley : No, we got a noisy woman in place... Look, I told you I don't want to bowl at Riley's. I had a little trouble with Riley last week. I'm the team captain, ain't I? All right. Then we're not gonna bowl at Riley's. We're gonna bowl at the West Side or at the Gate, and I'll see you.
[hangs up the phone]
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Stella : Sure you wouldn't like another
[drink]
Stella : ?
Blanche : Well... Well... Maybe I will take just one tiny nip more just to put the stopper on sort of speak. Now, now, don't get worried. Your sister hasn't turned into a drunkard. She's just all shaken up, and... hardened, dirty... and tired.
