Dorothy McGuire,
Joan Blondell,
James Dunn,
Lloyd Nolan,
Peggy Ann Garner
... see more 
One-time movie song-and-dance man James Dunn won an Academy Award for his "comeback" performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Based on the best-selling novel by Betty Smith, the film relates the trial... read more
DVD Release Date: February 22, 2005
Stats: 147 reviews
Director Elia Kazan gives us his adaptation of the Betty Smith novel about a young girl coming-of-age in 1900s Brooklyn. Living with an alcoholic father and a workaholic mother, she and her tough little brother try to survive the rough times in their little apartment home. The ... read more
A family living in poverty with a realist mother and a dreamer dad. Touching father/daughter scenes full of their optimism despite their circumstances are well-executed due to the talents of Dunn and Garner. This movie definitely requires a box of tissues.
What an extraordinary film, it's so touching. I could not imagine anyone not being moved by this movie. The entire cast is magnificent. Elia Kazan does an amazing job directing. One if the most remarkable things about the film is that it hasn't dated much at all. Unusual for 1945... read more
This is my absolute favorite coming-of-age story. There is an intelligent young girl living in the city during hard times when folks had some real struggles and were proud, hard-working people doing whatever they can to make ends meet without handouts.
The book is more in depth,... read more
A story of one little girls love for her daddy, a lovable bumb and the stuggles of poverty during the 1940's. When the lovable on coot dies, the mother must figure out how to make ends me for her family and the new baby on the way.
Great story of Francie, growing up in 1900s Brooklyn, poor, with a scrimping mother and an alcoholic father. I bawled when Francie got her graduation bouquet.
i never get tired of watching this. so many different stories throughout that make up this family's life. Peggy Ann Garner (Francis) has such talent
I wept. But not as much as my wife did. An actually very impressive depiction of depression for a 1945 film.
Where Tree is frequently slow, it is offset by the story's significance and pointed up notably by the direction of Elia Kazan. Full Review
Elia Kazan has directed this picture, his first, with an easy naturalness that has brought out all the tone of real experience in a vastly affecting film. Full Review
Faithful adaptation of classic family story. Full Review
Kazan's first film, a sentimental family melodrama, is well acted (James Dunn won a Supporting Oscar), but it doesn't begin to suggest the powerful director he would become in the 1950s. Full Review
Rarely has the dream factory lavished such skill on such destitution and such insistence that people are not really that changeable in nature. Full Review
It's a grim tearjerker told with great love and tenderness. Full Review
This episodic, charmingly sentimental movie is a trifle lengthy but never tedious. Full Review
Kazan's film has a sharp eye for social detail, but avoids giving occulted status to the peeling paper, damp walls and austere kitchen table. Full Review
This family has a great deal of love but a lot of difficulty showing it.
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