A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | 
| Director: Elia Kazan
Actors: Dorothy Mcguire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, James Gleason
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy Used: $26.99
New (9) Used (17) Collectible (1) from $26.99
Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 1704
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 128 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 3.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 6301773586
UPC: 086162151736
EAN: 9786301773584
ASIN: 6301773586
Theatrical Release Date: February 28, 1945
Release Date: January 1, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Tape in Good Condition Original Box Cut and Placed in a Protective Case All Items Guaranteed
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Amazon.com
Elia Kazan made his directorial debut with this adaptation of Betty Smith's novel about a bright, young girl growing up in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, trying to rise above her tenement existence. Sensitively filmed by Kazan, and graced with wonderful performances by James Dunn as the wistful, alcoholic father and Dorothy McGuire as a strong-willed mother. Peggy Ann Garner won a special Oscar for her performance. --Tom Keogh
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
 Tender Passage of Youth March 29, 2005
Bobby Underwood (Bakersfield, California United States)
49 out of 51 found this review helpful
Betty Smith's heartfelt and timeless novel of a young girl's passage through her youth in the Brooklyn slums was transformed by director Elia Kazan into one of the most touching and deeply felt films ever made. It has that rare ability to break your heart one moment and make you smile the next. There is a tenderness here that has rarely been captured on film. Many point to Elia Kazan's flashier films, but it was this sentimental film that was his crowning achievement. There are moments in this film when even those who never cry at the movies will be moved to tears.
Peggy Ann Garner was so wonderful as the young and sensitive Francie, the Academy gave her an Oscar for Most Promising Juvenile Performer. James Dunn garnered an Oscar also as Francie's loving father, Johnny Nolan, a singing waiter with a gift for dreaming he passes on to Francie, who wants to be a writer. Francie's papa makes their hard life worth living and she worships him. He understands and adores her.
But when he isn't working, Johnny is usually drunk. Everyone in their poor neighborhood knows Johnny is a good man, however, and loves and respects him. He is the one who will find a way for Francie to attend the school she dreams of, even though it is far from their home. Francie's mother is the only one who doesn't seem to see how special Johnny is.
Dorothy McGuire gives another terrific performance as Francie's hard working mother, Katie, who tries desparately not to love her boy Neely more than Francie, and fails; tries desparately not to become bitter with the charming lad she married in her youth, but can't; and tries desparately not to let her heart grow cold and hard, and fails once more.
Francie and her family may live in poverty, but Kazan takes the time to show the joy that can be found in the small things in life. For Francie, her father represents happiness and living. Joan Blondell, as Katie's sister and Francie's aunt Sissy, with her free spirit and big heart, adds to Francie's joy in life. It is one of Blondell's finest roles.
It is Peggy Ann Garner's emotional performance, however, you will always remember. She brings a sweetness and sincerity to Francie that makes her unforgettable. Purchasing this film is an opportunity to own one of the true masterpieces in American cinema. It will touch your heart and remind you what Hollywood was once capable of, and make you wonder where it all went wrong.
 Heartbreakingly dissapointing August 12, 1999
21 out of 36 found this review helpful
I read the astonishingly true book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I loved it- and understood it. I expected so much from the movie- but when it was finished, I was just dissapointed. I understand that sometimes parts of books had to be changed to make a movie. And yet... it was probably the small cast of characters, and the MANY alterations. Wherer is the cruel, evil Granpa Rommely? Why do the characters talk so FAST. They need to slow down, and relax. Where's Little Tilly, or Gussie? The movie, as I can call it, is cute. I would give it 2.5 stars. But, it shows a glossed over version of Francie's life. Francie was a child who lived in a world of brutality. She went to a school (from 6-10 anyway) where the teachers were CRUEL, and DIRTY. She wore smudged clothes, ripped, and patched. She never had enough to eat. The most refreshing aspect of the book was that she was able to find magic IN SPITE or all of this. But the movie changes a mature book into a G-Rated film.I will never hear the names Francie, Neely,Sissy and Katie, and see Peggy Ann Garner, Ted Donaldson,Joan Blondell and Dorothy McGuire. I will always see Francie as a skinny, ragged looking child, with wondering eyes, and a timid smile. I will always see Neely as a scruffy, ragged kid, with a little-boy grin on his face. I will always see Sissy as a dark-haired, full-figured ''bad girl'' sensitive beauty, and I will always see Katie as a wide-eyed, unexplainable fighter.The only acotr who captured the essence of the character is James Dunn as Johnny. Now HE deserved his Oscar. They took too much out of the book to make the movie good. Where's Aunt Evy, and Uncle Wille Flitmann? More importantly WHERE'S THE EXPLAINATION OF HOW KATIE AND JOHNNY MET. They just skipped right past that part. I have always read reviews of movies I loved- and seen one person who gives a 5-star movie (atleast 5-star to me) and gives it 2-stars for not following the book, and I feel angry. But in this case- I urge anyone who loved the movie to thoroughly read the book, then watch it again. The movie COULD HAVE BEEN SO GREAT! They should have followed Francie's life until the end of the book. They should have shown Francie and Lee, her true love. A part in the book read, after Katie had heard Francie call her ''mother'' instead of ''mama'': '' Mother! Katie remembered when she had called her mother ''mother'' instead of ''mama''. She had said ''Mother'' when she had been ready to marry Johnny. When she had called her mother ''Mother'' she had finished growing up. She had never said ''mama'' again. Now Francie.... And this is just the problem. The movie never fully ''grows up''. I hope someday, someone takes the time (though it will take a long time) to make a movie TRUE TO THE BOOK.If people loved this movie, wait until they see a movie that follows the book. They will be astonished at the difference!
A wonderful film with an all star cast September 24, 2001
Paul Sayles (Japan)
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a movie that will hit a lot of people in many ways. For me, it is a reminder of my strong willed mother, alcoholic father and free-spirited brother. I think, like Francie, I was my father's friend more than I was his son. I would listen to his stories, wait up for my parents when they had gone to a party to make sure they got home ok, listen to my mother raking my father for his drinking and cringing as dad just sat there.
The casting is outstanding and makes the movie work. Not just the major roles, but the smaller ones too are exceptionally casted. Put someone else in as the junkman and it might not work as well. Another person in the role of the doctor signing the death certificate may leave a different and lesser impression. Lloyn Nolan, Dorothy McGuire and James Dunn were all inspiried choices. Joan Blondell was a brilliant choice as Aunt Sissy, her of many husbands but still with a element of humanity that has stuck with her.
There are many memorable scenes but some have a deeper and lasting meaning. A young girl named Flossie is showing off her new dress to all passers by. After a few moments it is apparent that Flossie is not well. Later when we learn she has died, McGuire tells Dunn that she'll have to buried in potter's field. Dunn hits the right tone, as in a resolute voice he reminds his wife that her parents did the right thing while she was alive by getting her new dresses. Good for dad!
The other scene that hits me every time I see it, is the scene when after dad has died, Francie goes around and collects his shaving mug from the barber and puts it is a box under her bed. She still has a part of him!
Dad's posthumous graduation gift to Francie is one of the most moving scenes I've ever witnessed. Blondell outdoes herself as the supporting and careing adult sharing a little girls bottled up grief.
Where I live in Japan now, Annie Laurie is used as a song for an advertisement. When I hear the music and words, I don't think of the product but of the scene in the movie when Dunn learns they have inherited a piano from the previous room tenent and is playing and singing Annie Laurie. Pieces such as this stick in my mind.
Some will say that the movie doesn't include everything from the book and that is lacks the gritty poverty, that it is a rather stilted happy ending. They have a point but folks, get into the characters, feel what they are trying to project and you'll come away from the movie a better person for having seen it. If need be see it again and again.
 TEARFUL AND TERRIFIC. July 30, 2002
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
Having never read the Betty Smith novel, I cannot state how true this 1945 film was to its original source; but I do think it makes for quality heartfelt entertainment. As Francine, Peggy Ann Garner plays her role with an amazing display of natural unaffected intelligence uncommon in child actors of her era; hers is a wonderfully tear-jerking performance. Dorothy McGuire is fine as Francine's long-suffering mother Katie (something about her seemed a bit too classy for her character at times, but nothing to wreck another excellent portrayal). As the illiterate, rather loose-loving - and intensely likeable - Aunt Cissy, Joan Blondell does justice to her role. Blondell later wrote that there was originally a scene where children were playing outside on the street and find a tin full of condoms; curious, they went to Cissy for explainations. Blondell claimed the scene in which she lovingly explained about life and love to the children was the best she ever did - naturally, it was deemed too distasteful for release! As Johnny, the alcoholic singing waiter father whom Francine adores, James Dunn won himself a deserved AA. A poignantly (and fairly realistic) study of a struggling family living in Brooklyn way back when.
Profound family story, one of top 5 tear-jerkers of all time. August 21, 2005
R. Christenson (Pine, CO USA)
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
I've seen well over 4,000 movies (3,245 since I started keeping a list, and at least 100 a year before that), and of them all, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn stands out in my memory as the single most effective in terms of the performances of the actors affecting the viewer.
It's a simple story about a poor family, a timeless story that will ring true to millions of families around the world, similar in type to movies like I Remember Mama, The Human Comedy, and Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, but more serious, and in my opinion even more insightful than those fine films. And it's certainly one of the top five tear-jerkers of all time, up there with films like All Mine to Give, On Borrowed Time, Old Yeller, and Bridge to Terabithia. But it's pleasant to watch, even joyful at times, even if you anticipate the sad part.
Every actor in the film rose to the occasion, bringing the character's of Betty Smith's novel to life with fidelity and veracity, depth and breadth, in several cases giving the best performance of a lifetime. That's certainly the truth in the cases of Peggy Ann Garner as young Francie and James Dunn as her lovable, lovable, and lovable - and alcoholic - lovable father Johnny Nolan, both recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars for their roles in this movie, for best juvenile performer, and best supporting actor, respectively. But also I think Dorothy McGuire as Francie's mother Katie, Joan Blondell as Aunt Sissy, and Lloyd Nolan as Officer McShane each gave their finest performances ever here. (Funny little coincidence of names: Nolan played Mike Shane in several movies, here he plays McShane in a movie full of Nolans.)
There's not much point in detailing the plot here; you should certainly see it for yourself, and it's a shame it's not on DVD yet, as of this writing. Suffice it to say one parent is an irresponsible dreamer, the other a hard provider, both giving love in different ways, and young Francie must learn to retain the best from each. If you've read the book by Betty Smith, this film is very faithful except they left out one incident that would have been considered inappropriate in a film in the 1940s, when young Francie was approached by a molester. The film works perfectly without that.
Another favorite character actor has a small role: James Gleason (Here Comes Mr. Jordan, The Bishop's Wife, Suddenly), as one of Johnny's friends.
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