(Sunday, September 9, 1951, evening Central European Time) — A Streetcar Named Desire, an American drama film about a fading southern belle who tries to build a new life with her sister in New Orleans, premiered tonight at the 12th Venice International Film Festival.

Adapted from Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 play of the same name, the film was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden.

Streetcar‘s official premiere was held nine days later on Sept. 18, 1951, at Warner Bros. Beverly Theater in Beverly Hills, California, and then opened in New York on the following day.