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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

  • 1945
  • PG
  • 2h 9m
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
8.7K
YOUR RATING
Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Ted Donaldson, Peggy Ann Garner, Dorothy McGuire, and Lloyd Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.
Play trailer2:15
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99+ Photos
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Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.

  • Director
    • Elia Kazan
  • Writers
    • Tess Slesinger
    • Frank Davis
    • Betty Smith
  • Stars
    • Dorothy McGuire
    • Peggy Ann Garner
    • Joan Blondell
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    8.0/10
    8.7K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Elia Kazan
    • Writers
      • Tess Slesinger
      • Frank Davis
      • Betty Smith
    • Stars
      • Dorothy McGuire
      • Peggy Ann Garner
      • Joan Blondell
    • 108User reviews
    • 38Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 9 wins & 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    DVD Trailer
    Trailer 2:15
    DVD Trailer

    Photos119

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    Top cast90

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    Dorothy McGuire
    Dorothy McGuire
    • Katie Nolan
    Peggy Ann Garner
    Peggy Ann Garner
    • Francie Nolan
    Joan Blondell
    Joan Blondell
    • Aunt Sissy
    James Dunn
    James Dunn
    • Johnny Nolan
    Lloyd Nolan
    Lloyd Nolan
    • Officer McShane
    James Gleason
    James Gleason
    • McGarrity
    Ted Donaldson
    Ted Donaldson
    • Neeley Nolan
    Ruth Nelson
    Ruth Nelson
    • Miss McDonough
    John Alexander
    John Alexander
    • Steve Edwards
    B.S. Pully
    • Christmas Tree Vendor
    Robert Anderson
    • Augie
    • (uncredited)
    Jessie Arnold
    Jessie Arnold
    • Nurse
    • (uncredited)
    John Berkes
    John Berkes
    • Mr. Creckenbox
    • (uncredited)
    Linda Bieber
    • Girl
    • (uncredited)
    Wyrley Birch
    Wyrley Birch
    • Old man on second floor landing
    • (uncredited)
    Ferike Boros
    Ferike Boros
    • Grandma Rommely
    • (uncredited)
    Al Bridge
    Al Bridge
    • Cheap Charlie
    • (uncredited)
    Virginia Brissac
    Virginia Brissac
    • Miss Tilford
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Elia Kazan
    • Writers
      • Tess Slesinger
      • Frank Davis
      • Betty Smith
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews108

    8.08.7K
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    Featured reviews

    9AlsExGal

    Usually I dislike production code era films with children as central characters..

    ... or even as secondary characters that drive the narrative with the adult main characters forced into all kinds of silly or sappy happy situations in order to deal with the child or children. This is not one of those films.

    It is like the anti-"Meet Me In St. Louis" of the previous year. This American family is one of second generation Americans, descended from European immigrants, who have no particular skills and live in the tenements of Brooklyn. The central character is the daughter, Francie, who is a bit of a dreamer like her father, and in fact she adores her father. She wants to be a writer and has a great thirst for knowledge. There is a very cute exchange between herself and the local librarian when she says she is trying to read her way through the library alphabetically by author but has reached a book that is probably just too much for an eleven year old girl. The brother - hard to tell if he is a year older or younger - is very different from her, not that interested in learning, and would probably not go to school if he was not forced, but that doesn't mean he is a bad kid.

    You meet the mother in the family first -Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire). This first scene is skillfully written, and you immediately get, before even meeting him, that Katie is always doing battle with the family budget and must scrub floors for a living because her husband is a bad provider. In short she is tired of his nonsense but feels trapped.

    Then you meet the father and husband - Johnny (James Dunn). He is a singing waiter when he can find work. He has a good voice, but he has neither gotten serious about singing as a career or outright abandoned it in favor of learning some other trade. Instead he is always dreaming about his ship coming in. He is an alcoholic but not a mean one. And he is exactly the kind of guy who would sweep a girl off her feet when she is 18, but who will never pan out as far as getting serious about work and whom you will be acutely impatient with by age 30. James Dunn won an Oscar for his performance here, and ironically he actually was fired by Fox in the 1930s because of his drinking and Fox was reluctant to take him on again for this role because they did not want a repeat performance.

    Katie's sister, Sissy, is played by the boisterous Joan Blondell. Sissy seems to have money - she is always well dressed. And she has just entered into a third marriage without really being sure she was divorced from the second. She has money but no children, which she wants badly. However, she has had several miscarriages. Katie has children but not enough money to really support them. So you feel like some of the undercurrents of tension between the two sisters is that each badly wants something that the other one has and feels that they take it for granted.

    One of the great things about this film is that it takes time to go about the neighborhood and let you meet all of the people who live there - the barber, the local saloonkeeper (James Gleason), the sick little girl who lives downstairs, and the local beat cop. Together this weaves an interesting tapestry of atmosphere.

    So this is "one year in the life of an American family", but that year is full of hard knocks and also some complete tragedies, but some good events too. It is absolutely worth watching.
    tfrizzell

    Go Forth Into the World and Make Thy Dreams Come True.

    A youngster (Peggy Ann Garner) in circa 1900 Brooklyn dreams of a suitable education and ultimately a better life. She and her young brother (Ted Donaldson) experience highs and lows as their lives are followed in a documentary-style format that creates a realistic and compassionate view. Poverty is tough in the area though as mother Dorothy McGuire (in arguably her greatest role) and father James Dunn (in one of the finest performances ever captured on film, he deservedly won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1945) have a hard time making ends meet. McGuire has a difficult time seeing the bright things in their lives, while Dunn (a hopeless alcoholic) treats everyone, including strangers on the street, with love, respect and understanding. Dunn sees greatness in Garner, even when most do not, and does his best to see that her hopes do come true. The title is symbolistic as a large tree in front of the family's low-rent apartment is about to be cut down to their dismay. It also refers to the fact that Garner is growing up and showing maturity way beyond her years; she is literally branching out and letting her leaves flourish. First-time director Elia Kazan arguably does the best work of any film-maker who had never completed a feature previously as he just lets Betty Smith's wonderful novel unfold methodically with a deliberate pace, tone and style. The screenplay yielded Oscar nominations for adapters Frank Davis and Tess Sleringer. Dunn, an actor who had a very pedestrian career, showed just how much of a hidden talent he really was. He is the straw that mixes the entire movie into an American classic. Arguably one of the top 10 films of the 1940s and one of the best features of all time. 5 stars out of 5.
    9Scarlett O

    Did not expect to be so moved by this movie

    I watched this movie for the first time on TNT last night and was totally blown away. Peggy Ann Garner who plays Francie is a brilliant actress...and at such an early age. I remember we had to read the book in school in the 1960's (!) but I never saw the movie until now. The characters were so convincing, I was transported to Brooklyn, circa early 1900's and never left for 2 hours and 20 minutes. I went to bed thinking about this movie and woke up this morning with it's after affect still lingering in my mind. A "must see" for everyone of all ages. This one's a gem.
    10the_old_roman

    Brooklyn -- the way it was

    What a magnificent motion picture! Dorothy McGuire and Peggy Ann Garner give the greatest mother-daughter performances of all time. Betty Smith's book is a classic, and this film somehow manages to do it perfect justice in the first movie ever directed by Elia Kazan.

    In many ways I feel privileged to be able to comment here because I may be the only "reviewer" in these pages to have been in Brooklyn very close to the time of this film (I was born in 1909). The film recaptures the feel, the mores, the neighborhood so magnificently, it is incredible. Every time I watch this movie, I feel as if I am revisiting my youth, albeit an idealized version.

    Everyone who watches this movie should share it with the next generation of moviegoers. It truly is timeless.
    gregcouture

    Genuinely moving, with a cast that could not be bettered.

    This one breaks my heart every time I have seen it. Dorothy McGuire, Peggy Ann Garner, James Dunn, Joan Blondell and all the rest of the cast, without exception, under Elia Kazan's careful tutelage, render portraits that ring so true one is hard put to think of a film where such ensemble work has been surpassed. It is certainly an example of the Hollywood studio system, then in full flower, providing audiences with an experience that touches the emotions without a hint of sentimentality. Its restraint now seems like an artifact of days long gone, with so much current product catering to audiences who seem to demand nothing but mindless pablum and/or brutal sensation. I've never been able to confine myself to a "Ten Best" list of my own but "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" would definitely have a place on it should someone ask me to name such a small number of my all-time favorites.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      After being so impressed by the dailies of the film, executives at Fox wanted to re-shoot the entire movie in Technicolor, but Elia Kazan refused.
    • Goofs
      The portrait of General Washington in Francie's classroom was issued nationwide to public schools and buildings in 1932 to mark the bicentennial of his birth. The chronology of the story has events taking place at least 20 years earlier.
    • Quotes

      Francie Nolan: Out the window, our tree they killed it!

      Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush: Well, would you like at that now.

      Francie Nolan: They didn't have any right to kill it did they papa!

      Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush: Now wait a minute. They didn't kill it. Why they couldn't kill that tree.

      Francie Nolan: Promise?

      Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush: Why sure baby. Don't tell me that tree is gonna lay down and die that easily. Look at that tree. See where it's coming from. Right up outta that cement! Didn't nobody plant it. Didn't ask the cement to grow. It just couldn't help growing so much it just pushed that old cement out of the way. Now when you bust it with something like that, can't anybody help it, like... like that little ole bird up there. He didn't ask anybody could he sing and he certainly didn't take any lessons. He's so full of singing it just has to bust out someplace. Why they could cut that ole tree right down to the ground and a root would push up someplace else in the cement.

    • Connections
      Featured in Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995)
    • Soundtracks
      I've Got Rings on My Fingers (Mumbo Jumbo Jijjiboo J. O'Shea)
      (1909) (uncredited)

      Music by Maurice Scott

      Performed by a calliope

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 1945 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Lazos humanos
    • Filming locations
      • Stage 5, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Twentieth Century Fox
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 9 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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