My wife and I went to the Saenger Theater in downtown Mobile, AL (about an hour's drive) on Saturday night to see A Streetcar Named Desire. What an experience! It's one of those fine old theaters with ornate walls and opera boxes - very cool for a classic film. We've seen Citizen Kane and the Mobile Symphony Orchestra there.

I have seen Streetcar at home, but seeing it on the big screen was like seeing a totally different movie. The tension in some scenes was spine-tingling. Some of Tennessee Williams' wittier lines were laugh-out-loud funny. But the one thing that amazed me the most was the screen presence of Marlon Brando. His best and longest scenes are in the first half of the film. I was mesmerized. I also enjoyed Karl Malden's performance. He pulls off the moma's boy character perfectly. His character Mitch in Streetcar reminds me of his character Archie Lee in Baby Doll (another Elia Kazan directed masterpiece with a brilliant performance from Eli Wallach) which is one of my all-time faves.

Vivian Leigh as Blanche DuBois was excellent. She worked her extensive monologues convincingly. But the monologues and her scenes got longer as the film went on and I really wanted to see more of Brando. That's the only complaint I have, but I guess that's because I had never seen the young Brando on the big screen before.

I've never read the play, but I'll have to now. I'm not sure whether Stanley forced himself on Blanche while Stella was in the hospital. I would like to think he didn't, but you never no with Tennessee Williams. My wife believed that Stanley didn't force himself on Blanche but that he did do something to push her over the edge and that's why Stella's attitude toward Stanley changed at the end. I trust my wife's instincts when it comes to those kinds of things, but I may check the play to make sure.

The superb acting (real acting) and impressive dialogue in this film was refreshing. The only recent comparable film driven by good dialogue that comes to mind is Glenn Gary Glenn Ross. Am I just missing today's dialogue intensive films? I know Tarrantino provides some excellent lengthy dialogue for many of his characters, but he doesn't always use it to provide insight into the character. I think some of his dialogue is included simply because it is "cool sh*t to say".

I stayed to catch the ending credits so I could see who did the film score because I didn't catch it at the beginning. Everyone in front of me was getting up to leave so I couldn't see the screen. That's something else I'll have to check, but it sounded like a Mancini score.

The Saenger's summer film series ends next week with Rebel without a Cause. I'll finally get to see James Dean on the big screen. We'll see how he compares to Brando.