A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a 1945 film, the first film directed by Greek-American director Elia Kazan, starring James Dunn (who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, and Peggy Ann Garner (who won the Academy Juvenile Award).

The film is based on an American novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith first published in 1943. It relates the coming-of-age story of its main character, Francie Nolan, against a backdrop of tenement life in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, in the early 20th century.

A 1974 made-for-television film A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, starring Cliff Robertson, Diane Baker, Pamelyn Ferdin and James Olson, was adapted from the 1945 screenplay by Tess Slesinger.

Synopsis

The film covers several months in the life of the Nolans, an Irish American family living in the Williamsburg neighborhood in the borough of Brooklyn in 1912. The film is much shorter than the book, which covers the time from before Francie is born until after she turns 16. The film focuses on the time when Francie is around 13 years old.

Actors