"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" 1945 Tribute

A thread about the film.

Here's an excellent and free copy of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" from YouTube here:

I first read the book many years ago, when I was a freshman in high school; it was in my school's library. I really loved it and read it many times after that. The movie is pretty great too. I went on to read other Betty Smith books, and enjoyed them, too. One of them, Joy in the Morning, had already been made into a movie starring Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux, but I don't think it was a hit.

Not a fan of the book so never viewed the film.

...the Musical

Had more adult themes than I expected it to.

The book was originally written as a memoir...

Was this a talkie?

I saw the movie before I read the book, OP -- a rarity for me.

The movie is wonderful.

Joan Blondell is excellent in this film. But the story is shit. Girls who pine for useless father's - please.

Zanuck wanted Grable to do it, r10. She refused telling him that "she was strictly a song & dance girl".

Stritch's Cissy.

The book is a lot more adult than one might expect. It’s quite hard hitting, actually.

I would say "get a blog", but it appears the OP already has.

[quote]Girls who pine for useless father's - please.

Oh, dear.

I loved the book as a kid. My (Brooklyn-raised) dad read it fairly recently, with his book club, and loved it as well. So yeah, it's not just for kids. And the movie is exceptional for its time -- beautifully acted, and it doesn't run away from the book's ambivalences. It's not about "girls who pine for useless father's" [oh dear], but about a girl's changing perceptions of her parents as she grows up.

The version of the book I had in childhood was bond together with another Betty Smith novel, "Maggie-Now," which I vaguely recall as also being about a girl/young woman with a feckless drunk of a father, but one who's a lot more about grifting and bullying than charm.

I read the book as well when I was in my early teens.

This was the only book I had to put down because of the emotional response I was having to Papa. I read a LOT and a ton of totally inappropriately heavy, scary or sadistic books (loved Bret E. Ellis, Stephen King, Palahnuik), as well as any true crime I could find, the grislier the better.

Papa and the drink totally destroyed me.

R10 You missed the point of the movie (and book). The father was an alcoholic but not useless, as evidenced by the number of people who came to his funeral and mourned him.

Insurance or dresses? Dolls or milk?

Oscar winner...

Loved the remake, "Big Wood in Brooklyn", but I think it only played at the Adonis.

I read the book when I was 15 and loved it... like another poster above I went on to read her other books.

I'm an old movie fan and I like the 1945 movie too.

I get this confused with Our Vines Have Tender Grapes.

Elia Kazan was a McCarthy/Nixon proto-Trumpian fascist puppet! I turned my back to the TV screen when the Oscars honored him as if his entire career hadn’t been sell-ibrated enough. Boo!

That high school graduation scene!

Guaranteed sobbing at our house every time.

Had some great poignant scenes . The stereotypical Irish drunk father well played . Ditto the graduation scene .

Was James Dunn a drunk in real life? I vaguely remember him in afternoon reruns from a sitcom he did in the 1950s (I think he and Frances - Aunt Bee - Bavier played siblings!) but couldn't name another thing he did after winning that Oscar.

Just looked up the sitcom title - It's a Great Life.

[quote] Had some great poignant scenes . The stereotypical Irish drunk father well played

My father's father. It was shortly after his death when my mother's mother suggested I read the book at her summer cottage by the lake, in the woods. No TV reception there. Only radio. Lots of reading.

my understanding went unspoken.

[quote]Loved the remake, "Big Wood in Brooklyn", but I think it only played at the Adonis.

I preferred South Dakota Ricardo's version, "A Tree Grows in Havana."