Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.Encouraged by her idealistic if luckless father, a bright and imaginative young woman comes of age in a Brooklyn tenement during the early 1900s.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 4 wins & 1 nomination total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAccording to Turner Classic Movies, Joan Blondell performed a very adult scene during the filming of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," which the censors deleted from the film's final cut. The Nolan children find a condom, and her character, Aunt Sissy, is tasked with describing to them what it is. She approaches this explanation with compassion as opposed to clinical coldness. Despite the fact that this scene was omitted from the final product, Blondell always considered it the best work she ever did on screen.
- GoofsThe portrait of General Washington in Francie's classroom was issued nationwide to public schools and buildings in 1932 to mark the bicentennial of his birth. The chronology of the story has events taking place at least 20 years earlier.
- Quotes
Francie Nolan: Out the window, our tree they killed it!
Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush: Well, would you like at that now.
Francie Nolan: They didn't have any right to kill it did they papa!
Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush: Now wait a minute. They didn't kill it. Why they couldn't kill that tree.
Francie Nolan: Promise?
Johnny Nolan aka The Brooklyn Thrush: Why sure baby. Don't tell me that tree is gonna lay down and die that easily. Look at that tree. See where it's coming from. Right up outta that cement! Didn't nobody plant it. Didn't ask the cement to grow. It just couldn't help growing so much it just pushed that old cement out of the way. Now when you bust it with something like that, can't anybody help it, like... like that little ole bird up there. He didn't ask anybody could he sing and he certainly didn't take any lessons. He's so full of singing it just has to bust out someplace. Why they could cut that ole tree right down to the ground and a root would push up someplace else in the cement.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995)
- SoundtracksI've Got Rings on My Fingers (Mumbo Jumbo Jijjiboo J. O'Shea)
(1909) (uncredited)
Music by Maurice Scott
Performed by a calliope
Much of the story centers on a couple of interesting relationships. In both cases they are well-acted, and in both cases the relationships suggest a number of themes worth thinking about. Having these two relationships so well-defined and memorably portrayed raises the movie well above the level of a mere sentimental family story.
The relationship between Francie and her father probably makes the movie, and it is wonderfully acted by James Dunn as the somewhat unsteady but thoroughly endearing father, and Peggy Ann Garner (in one of the finest child performances you will see) as the loyal, intelligent daughter.
Dorothy McGuire plays the important but thankless role of Katie, the stern, dour, yet sincere mother, the kind of role that few actresses can handle well. Katie's relationship with her sister (Joan Blondell) is another of the strengths of the movie. Blondell's flamboyant but sensitive portrayal of Sissy wins all the scenes that she is in, yet McGuire is also essential to making them work and to bringing out the themes implied.
The adaptation to the screen is pretty well-conceived. Naturally, much of the depth is going to be lost when you distill a worthwhile novel into a two-hour movie, but the screenplay highlights some very good material, and if it encourages anyone to read the book, so much the better.
- Snow Leopard
- Oct 27, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Raste drvo u Bruklinu
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime2 hours 9 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1