A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (film)
Encyclopedia
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1945 film, the first film directed by Greek-American director Elia Kazan
, starring James Dunn
(who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
), Dorothy McGuire
, Joan Blondell
, and Peggy Ann Garner
(who won the Academy Juvenile Award
).
The film is based on an American novel
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
first published in 1943. It relates the coming-of-age story of its main character, Francie Nolan, against a backdrop of tenement
life in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn
, New York
, at the turn of the 20th century.
A 1974 made-for-television film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, starring Cliff Robertson
, Diane Baker
, Pamelyn Ferdin
and James Olson
, was adapted from the 1945 screenplay
by Tess Slesinger
.
family living in the Williamsburg
neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn
in New York City
in 1900. Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire
) is a hard-working housewife who scrubs the floors of her tenement building
and collects rags for sale to a scrap fabric dealer to help feed her family. She's married to Johnny Nolan (James Dunn
), an alcoholic
and waiter who is a happy man and good father but unable to earn a living to support his family. The Nolans have two children, 13-year-old Francie (Peggy Ann Garner
) and 11-year-old Neeley (Ted Donaldson
).
Katie's sister, Sissy (Joan Blondell
), is a sassy, free-spirited woman who arrives in the late fall and announces she is getting a divorce
and will soon be remarrying for the third time. This scandalizes Katie and ruptures her relationship with Sissy, but thrills the children (who love their wild and wacky aunt). Francie is worried that the landlord has cut many branches off the tree which grows in the tenement's courtyard, and it may die. But her father says that the cutting is necessary, and the tree will grow again. A police officer new to the force, Officer McShane (Lloyd Nolan
), encounters Aunt Sissy and the children one afternoon and is enchanted by the beautiful Katie. A few days later, however, he realizes that the drunken Johnny is Katie's husband and is devastated to learn Katie is married.
Francie wants to go to Miss McDonough's school, but it means lying about where the Nolans live. Katie is opposed, but Johnny convinces her to lie. Katie moves the family into a cheaper apartment in the building, angering her husband. Johnny believes she is merely being stingy, but then learns Katie is pregnant. Determined to get a job to support the family and keep Francie in school, Johnny leaves during a snowstorm to find work. Sissy, too, becomes pregnant, and she and Katie reconcile shortly before Christmas.
Johnny goes missing for a week. Officer McShane then delivers the bad news that Johnny has died from pneumonia
. Francie blames her mother for her father's death, but the birth of Sissy's baby and then Katie's daughter (whom Katie names Annie Laurie) help ease tensions in the household. Come spring, Sissy uses money that Johnny gave her back in December to buy Francie a bouquet of flowers for graduation day. Francie, who has bottled up her grief for months, finally breaks down. Officer McShane proposes to Katie (offering to adopt Annie Laurie) and Francie has her first date. Francie and Neeley think that Annie Laurie's life with McShane as a father will be much easier, but not nearly as much fun. The film ends as Francie sees the courtyard tree begin to grew again, just as her father said it would.
The book is much lengthier than the film, and covers the time from before Francie is born until after she turns 16. Much of this never makes it into the film.
won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
, Frank Davis
and Tess Slesinger
were nominated for Writing, Adapted Screenplay
, and Peggy Ann Garner
won the 1945 Academy Juvenile Award
.
In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
, starring James Dunn
James Dunn (actor)
James Howard Dunn was an American film actor.-Biography:Born in New York City of Irish descent, Dunn was the son of a Wall Street stockbroker who, according to Dunn, "either had a million or nothing." He joined his father in his business for three years...
(who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
), Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
, Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
, and Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner was an American actress.A successful child actor, Garner played her first film role in 1938 and won the Academy Juvenile Award for her work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
(who won the Academy Juvenile Award
Academy Juvenile Award
The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding...
).
The film is based on an American novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Betty Smith
Betty Smith, née Elisabeth Wehner , was an American author.-Biography:Born on December 15, 1896 in Brooklyn, New York to German immigrants, she grew up poor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and attended Girl's High School. These experiences served as the framework to her first novel, A Tree Grows in...
first published in 1943. It relates the coming-of-age story of its main character, Francie Nolan, against a backdrop of tenement
Tenement
A tenement is, in most English-speaking areas, a substandard multi-family dwelling, usually old, occupied by the poor.-History:Originally the term tenement referred to tenancy and therefore to any rented accommodation...
life in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, at the turn of the 20th century.
A 1974 made-for-television film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, starring Cliff Robertson
Cliff Robertson
Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...
, Diane Baker
Diane Baker
Diane Carol Baker is an American actress who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.-Early life:...
, Pamelyn Ferdin
Pamelyn Ferdin
Pamelyn Ferdin is a former American television and film child actor, active both in live action and as a voice actress in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and has since appeared in several voice acting roles as late as 2009...
and James Olson
James Olson (actor)
-Life and career:Olson was born in Evanston, Illinois and graduated from Northwestern University. He performed stage work in and around Chicago before his 1956 film debut in The Sharkfighters...
, was adapted from the 1945 screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Tess Slesinger
Tess Slesinger
Tess Slesinger was a Jewish-American writer and screenwriter and is credited as being a charter member of the New York intellectual scene....
.
Plot
The film covers several months in the life of the Nolans, an Irish AmericanIrish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
family living in the Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1900. Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy McGuire
Dorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
) is a hard-working housewife who scrubs the floors of her tenement building
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
and collects rags for sale to a scrap fabric dealer to help feed her family. She's married to Johnny Nolan (James Dunn
James Dunn
James Dunn, Jim Dunn or Jimmy Dunn may refer to:James Dunn:*James Dunn , an actor who performed in Bad Girl and A Tree Grows In Brooklyn*James Dunn , Australian Senator...
), an alcoholic
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
and waiter who is a happy man and good father but unable to earn a living to support his family. The Nolans have two children, 13-year-old Francie (Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner was an American actress.A successful child actor, Garner played her first film role in 1938 and won the Academy Juvenile Award for her work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
) and 11-year-old Neeley (Ted Donaldson
Ted Donaldson
Ted Donaldson is an American former child actor.-Career:He appeared in twenty films, starting with a starring role as Arthur "Pinky" Thompson in Once Upon a Time , opposite Cary Grant and Janet Blair, and as Barry in Mr. Winkle Goes to War with Edward G...
).
Katie's sister, Sissy (Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
), is a sassy, free-spirited woman who arrives in the late fall and announces she is getting a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
and will soon be remarrying for the third time. This scandalizes Katie and ruptures her relationship with Sissy, but thrills the children (who love their wild and wacky aunt). Francie is worried that the landlord has cut many branches off the tree which grows in the tenement's courtyard, and it may die. But her father says that the cutting is necessary, and the tree will grow again. A police officer new to the force, Officer McShane (Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Nolan
Lloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
), encounters Aunt Sissy and the children one afternoon and is enchanted by the beautiful Katie. A few days later, however, he realizes that the drunken Johnny is Katie's husband and is devastated to learn Katie is married.
Francie wants to go to Miss McDonough's school, but it means lying about where the Nolans live. Katie is opposed, but Johnny convinces her to lie. Katie moves the family into a cheaper apartment in the building, angering her husband. Johnny believes she is merely being stingy, but then learns Katie is pregnant. Determined to get a job to support the family and keep Francie in school, Johnny leaves during a snowstorm to find work. Sissy, too, becomes pregnant, and she and Katie reconcile shortly before Christmas.
Johnny goes missing for a week. Officer McShane then delivers the bad news that Johnny has died from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
. Francie blames her mother for her father's death, but the birth of Sissy's baby and then Katie's daughter (whom Katie names Annie Laurie) help ease tensions in the household. Come spring, Sissy uses money that Johnny gave her back in December to buy Francie a bouquet of flowers for graduation day. Francie, who has bottled up her grief for months, finally breaks down. Officer McShane proposes to Katie (offering to adopt Annie Laurie) and Francie has her first date. Francie and Neeley think that Annie Laurie's life with McShane as a father will be much easier, but not nearly as much fun. The film ends as Francie sees the courtyard tree begin to grew again, just as her father said it would.
The book is much lengthier than the film, and covers the time from before Francie is born until after she turns 16. Much of this never makes it into the film.
Cast
- Dorothy McGuireDorothy McGuireDorothy Hackett McGuire was an American actress.-Career:Born in Omaha, Nebraska, she began her acting career on the stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse...
— Katie Nolan - Joan BlondellJoan BlondellRose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
— Sissy Edwards - James DunnJames Dunn (actor)James Howard Dunn was an American film actor.-Biography:Born in New York City of Irish descent, Dunn was the son of a Wall Street stockbroker who, according to Dunn, "either had a million or nothing." He joined his father in his business for three years...
— Johnny Nolan - Lloyd NolanLloyd NolanLloyd Benedict Nolan was an American film and television actor.-Biography:Nolan was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Margaret and James Nolan, who was a shoe manufacturer...
— Officer McShane - James GleasonJames GleasonJames Austin Gleason was an American actor born in New York City. He was also a playwright and screenwriter.-Career:...
— McGarrity - Ted DonaldsonTed DonaldsonTed Donaldson is an American former child actor.-Career:He appeared in twenty films, starting with a starring role as Arthur "Pinky" Thompson in Once Upon a Time , opposite Cary Grant and Janet Blair, and as Barry in Mr. Winkle Goes to War with Edward G...
— Neeley Nolan - Peggy Ann GarnerPeggy Ann GarnerPeggy Ann Garner was an American actress.A successful child actor, Garner played her first film role in 1938 and won the Academy Juvenile Award for her work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
— Francie Nolan - Ruth Nelson — Miss McDonough
- John AlexanderJohn Alexander (actor)John Alexander was an American stage and film actor.Perhaps his most memorable performance was as Teddy Brewster, a lunatic who thinks he is Theodore Roosevelt, in the 1944 classic film Arsenic and Old Lace opposite Cary Grant. He had previously portrayed that role in the 1941 Broadway play of the...
— Steve Edwards - B.S. PullyB.S. PullyB.S. Pully, born Murray Lerman, was a New York nightclub comedian and stage actor who created the role of Big Jule in the musical Guys and Dolls...
— Christmas Tree Vendor
Awards and nominations
James DunnJames Dunn (actor)
James Howard Dunn was an American film actor.-Biography:Born in New York City of Irish descent, Dunn was the son of a Wall Street stockbroker who, according to Dunn, "either had a million or nothing." He joined his father in his business for three years...
won the 1945 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
, Frank Davis
Frank Davis
Frank Davis is a gridiron football guard for the Las Vegas Locomotives of the United Football League. He was signed by the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent in 2006...
and Tess Slesinger
Tess Slesinger
Tess Slesinger was a Jewish-American writer and screenwriter and is credited as being a charter member of the New York intellectual scene....
were nominated for Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay
The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
, and Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner
Peggy Ann Garner was an American actress.A successful child actor, Garner played her first film role in 1938 and won the Academy Juvenile Award for her work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn...
won the 1945 Academy Juvenile Award
Academy Juvenile Award
The Academy Juvenile Award, also known as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to specifically recognize juvenile performers under the age of eighteen for their "outstanding...
.
In 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".