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      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

      1945, Drama, 2h 8m

      18 Reviews 2,500+ Ratings

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      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn  Photos

      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

      Movie Info

      This adaptation of the classic novel tells the story of young Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner) who yearns for life beyond her Brooklyn apartment building. While her daily routine is difficult, she makes the best of her situation, living with her hard-working mother (Dorothy McGuire), alcoholic father (James Dunn) and tough little brother (Ted Donaldson). Encouraged by her kind but irresponsible dad, Francie struggles to keep her hopes up and persevere despite all the odds against her.

      • Rating: PG

      • Genre: Drama

      • Original Language: English

      • Director: Elia Kazan

      • Producer: Louis D. Lighton

      • Writer: Frank Davis, Anita Loos, Tess Slesinger, Betty Smith

      • Release Date (Theaters):  wide

      • Runtime:

      • Distributor: 20th Century Fox

      • Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox

      • Sound Mix: Mono

      Cast & Crew

      Peggy Ann Garner
      James Dunn
      Joan Blondell
      Lloyd Nolan
      Ted Donaldson
      Ruth Nelson
      John Alexander
      B.S. Pully
      Ferike Boros
      Charles Halton
      Patricia McFadden
      Robert Strange
      Robert Tait
      J. Farrell MacDonald
      Adeline De Walt Reynolds
      George Melford
      John Berkes
      Lillian Bronson
      Tess Slesinger
      Alfred Newman
      Leon Shamroy
      Dorothy Spencer
      Lyle R. Wheeler
      Thomas Little
      Bonnie Cashin

      Critic Reviews for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

      Audience Reviews for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

      • Apr 10, 2013

        Flying under the radar, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a great Kazan film. Putting aside the snitch tendencies off the screen, the tale of the family in a Brooklyn tenement is particularly dark in a tremendous way.

        Super Reviewer
      • Feb 05, 2010

        Director Elia Kazan gives us his adaptation of the Betty Smith novel about a young girl coming-of-age in 1900s Brooklyn. Living with an alcoholic father and a workaholic mother, she and her tough little brother try to survive the rough times in their little apartment home. The father is a singing waiter and dreams of one day making it big in show business. To his daughter, he's larger-than-life character, a charming prince or movie star. The mother is more pragmatic or cynical, or maybe just tired of the hard life, and finds his antics less amusing. The daughter is naturally inquisitive, she attempts to read every book in the library in alphabetical order. It's only natural she's extraordinarily bored at the substandard and overcrowded school she attends. She wants nothing more than to attend the school where the children of higher incomed families go. The father makes it the one wish of hers he can fullfill and somehow manages to get her in. She means to rise above her status in life and make something great of herself. She wants to be a writer. The teacher at her new school encourages her, but warns her not to be a pipe-dreamer, as "they never do anyone any good" (ironically, her father is one of the biggest pipe-dreamers ever, and she fails to see this). The little girl is like a tree growing in Brooklyn, a thing of radiant beauty pushing it's way up through the sidewalk. Where so many darkened minds exist in illiteracy and poverty, she intends to grow up with her imagination intact and in pursuit of the intellectual, despite her surroundings. But when her surroundings are a family as loving and supportive as hers, she almost can't help but succeed. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a wonderfully expressed film, full of the sorrow and joy of timeless adolescence.

        Super Reviewer
      • May 14, 2009

        A family living in poverty with a realist mother and a dreamer dad. Touching father/daughter scenes full of their optimism despite their circumstances are well-executed due to the talents of Dunn and Garner. This movie definitely requires a box of tissues.

        Super Reviewer
      • May 26, 2006

        i never get tired of watching this. so many different stories throughout that make up this family's life. Peggy Ann Garner (Francis) has such talent

        Super Reviewer

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