A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

An Irish-American family in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, at the start of the twentieth century. The father, Johnny, is a singer, charming and an alcoholic; he cannot find work and cannot keep what he finds. The mother, Katie, holds the household up by scrubbing it and has had to harden. Their daughter Francie wants to study and is both ashamed of her father and loves him more than anyone. That double feeling is the centre of the film. Elia Kazan directed. It was his first feature. The source is Betty Smith's 1943 novel. It opened on 28 February 1945. James Dunn, who plays Johnny, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Peggy Ann Garner, who plays Francie, received the Academy Juvenile Award. The screenplay was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was shot on the 20th Century Fox lot between May and August 1944, with everything including the street built on stages. It cost roughly 3.6 million dollars and took 3 million. The reviews were led by the performances. Bosley Crowther called it a vastly affecting film. The dissent came from James Agee, who wrote that the characterisations had been blown up and trimmed off into something comfortably readable. It entered the National Film Registry in 2010. Who it is for: viewers who like period family drama and poverty seen from a child's point of view. Who it is not for: anyone wanting hardness. The novel is more bitter and the film stays inside the limits of the studio era, which is what Agee was saying.