A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Grade: 97
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" may be the greatest of all tear-jerkers. "Schindler's List", it is true, can bring out the tears. But if you have a predeliction for crying, nothing will do the trick for you like this film will. Its emotional impact on the viewer is strong, because the script and the performances bond us to the characters and their struggles.
Dorothy McGuire stars as Katie Nolan, mother of earnest young teenager Francie (Peggy Ann Garner) and streetwise pre-teenage Neeley (Ted Donaldson). McGuire's husband is charming dreamer James Dunn, whose drinking and inability to find steady work condemn his family to poverty. Their free spirited, oft-married Aunt Sissy (Joan Blondell) is an occasional visitor. The story takes place around 1900, in a Brooklyn tenement.
If one tries hard, it is possible to criticize "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". At age 27, McGuire was too young to be ideally cast as Garner's mother or Dunn's wife. She keeps her splendid figure both during and immediately after her pregnancy. Blondell's problems vanish too readily as the story progresses. Donaldson's character is subtly shunted aside in preference to Garner. Although the family is quite poor, they seem to live in a nice neighborhood. All of these weaknesses are trivial, due to straightforward direction by Kazan, and the extremely high quality of the script.
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" marked a comeback for James Dunn, whose performance won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Dunn's career flourished in the mid 1930s, often co-starring with Shirley Temple as an attentive father figure. He soon developed a reputation for drinking, and his soft personality did not make for easy casting. His role in this film seems tailor-made. It would not be as great a film with someone else playing the part.
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" was Elia Kazan's first film. It remains his best film, although subsequent titles such as "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront" are more famous today. It is an adaptation of the Betty Smith novel. The screenplay was credited to Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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