Watch A Tree Grows in Brooklyn For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

Just perfect...

Good movie but grossly overrated

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This classic movie, based on Betty Smith's autobiographical novel, was Elia Kazan's directorial debut. Though the entire cast was wonderful, James Dunn won a well-deserved Oscar, here, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.Since this story is about a poor family in greater New York City around the turn of the century, I sometimes get it mixed up with that of George Stevens' I Remember Mama. However, any momentary confusion is soon rectified when I recall the cast and the character difference between the two maternal figures (Irene Dunne in I Remember Mama and Dorothy McGuire in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. McGuire was great at playing 'hard' and serious characters, as she later did in Kazan's Gentleman's Agreement and Mann's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (1960).To me, this is one of those many priceless movies in which life is viewed from a child's point of view (how they see--and feel--things that are going on around them and within the family. The protagonist, here, is 12 or 13 year-old Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner). Her acting may be a little over-sentimental, but I think her role may have called for it. On the other hand, Ted Donaldson is refreshingly realistic as her younger brother, Neeley.The Nolan family is poor and has learned to live by all of the cost- savings means humanly possible. For example, the two children go to a cheaper school and work on Saturdays as 'rag pickers,' gathering trash on the streets and selling it to the neighborhood junk man. On Christmas Eve, they wait until all of the other Christmas trees have been sold and then gather at the tree lot as the vendor throws his leftover trees to anyone whom can catch them.The children's mother, Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire), works hard doing domestic work, cutting corners, and being the disciplinarian of the family so they can survive. As a result, those around her often see her as 'hard.' Her husband, Johnny Nolan, aka 'The Brooklyn Thrush' (James Dunn), works at night as a singing waiter for a small salary--but mainly for tips. He is a pipe dreamer, a romantic, and a drunk. Everyone in the neighborhood, including the local policeman, Officer McShane (Lloyd Nolan), knows it—but they all love him anyway--and learn to call him 'sick' when he comes home drunk. Johnny fills Francie's head full of fanciful dreams about being discovered by an impresario and telling her what he will do for the family when he is discovered and 'his ship comes in.' When Francie dreams of going to a better school down the block, her father helps her get into it by making up an address that is within the school district.Katie's fun-loving sister, Aunt Sissy (Joan Blondell), often comes to visit and often has a new husband—'Aunt Sissy has gone and done it again.' She, too, wants to see that the children are not too hardened by Katie and that they get to enjoy their life. Although everyone wants Francie to be protected from life's hardships, soon must see things as they are.

Possibly only a director with an eye for gritty reality like the great Elia Kazan could come up with a successful adaptation of Betty Smith's classic novel. With the help of screen writers Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis, with some additional dialogue by Anita Loos (uncredited), Kazan manages to capture the atmosphere of the time and the place; he also demonstrates his considerable skill with characterization. The result is a movie that in spite of considerable flaws has the same raw emotional power that has made the book such an essential.The setting is the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn around the turn of the Twentieth Century. The original novel covered a period of about ten years in the lives of the Nolan family, which is the movie's first major gaffe: in having Peggy Ann Garner and Ted Donaldson play Francie and Neeley Nolan for the duration of the picture, he suspends the story in time and thus makes for a rather confusing adaptation of a book that spanned a decade and was about a young girl's coming of age.Be that as it may, Peggy Ann Garner is luminous as Francie; Oscar-winner James Dunn turns in solid support as her beloved father Johnny, and Dorothy McGuire, a brilliant actress who never really received her due in Hollywood, is sensational as matriarch Katie Nolan, a woman who marries a man she is madly in love with only to discover he is a no-good drunk. He is not abusive or anything like that, it's just that married to Johnny, the twin burdens of the household duties and earning enough money to live on fall on Katie's shoulders.This is a beautiful film. As an adaptation of the novel it fails in some key points (read it and you'll see), but overall it is a fine and moving piece of cinematic art, well-deserving of its status as an American classic.

Movies such as this continue to encourage me to watch the 'ole Black and Whites. The purity and true reflection of family values permeate this picture. It transcends time and place and represents the force of the human spirit to overcome all obstacles; big and small. The impression that stays with me the most is the relationship between father and daughter; there is a special bond that exists on pure love. As hard as things got Katie managed to provide a good home and the children were never worse for wear. She kept me entranced to see through her eyes. Though Johnny has human failings, his love of family is the lodestone of his personality and shone through to all he met. He made you feel good inside just by being around him.

Peggy Ann Garner was just 13 years old when filming "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." Thank you Mr. Turner because I never saw a finer acting performance by any young teen in any film. Peggy died at age 52 , was never a BIG STAR but her performance in this film could have never been matched had she lived and continued in the motion picture industry for a full lifetime. Simply stated: I was stunned by her ability. Incidentally she did win the Academy Juvenile Award in 1945.Dorothy McGuire as Peggy's mom.Enormously gifted. A lifetime of monumental acting achievement which didn't deviate one iota from this role. Then we have James Dunn who played Peggy's dad and for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor 1945. Dunn is absolutely superb as the community drunkard and a waiter with big dreams.You will see the hustle and bustle of 1912 Brooklyn. You will hear the calliope filling the streets with the resounding music of that era. You will see hardship and poverty endured as a 13 year old girl comes of age. The interaction of characters of this film is historic...the entire film is legendary and make sure you have a handkerchief handy.