[en] A review is presented of theoretical attempts to describe the massive lepton pair continuum produced in hadronic collisions. Beginning with the classical Drell-Yan quark-antiquark annihilation model, its expectations are compared with data. Scaling violations and corrections to the Drell-Yan pictured are discussed. Next, original work is presented bearing on the understanding of the transverse momentum distributions of the dileptons. In a parton model, the quark-gluon scattering graphs which provide scaling violations also endow the dileptons with relatively large (P/sub T/). Comparisons with available data support these QCD expectations; further tests of the QCD predictions are proposed. Implications are drawn for W production experiments, and predictions are presented for reactions initiated by antiprotons