{ "id": "ep1g1rnf34", "slug": "a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film", "title": "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) is Elia Kazan's first feature film, a Twentieth Century-Fox adaptation of Betty Smith's novel starring Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn, and Peggy Ann Garner, which won two Academy Awards.", "snippet": "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) is Elia Kazan's first feature film, a Twentieth Century-Fox adaptation of Betty Smith's novel starring Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn, and Peggy Ann Garner, which won two Academy Awards.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-before-2000", "markdown": "# A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945 film)\n\n*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* is a 1945 American black-and-white melodrama directed by [Elia Kazan](https://www.edgepedia.org/elia-kazan), his first feature film, adapted from Betty Smith's bestselling 1943 novel about the Nolan family struggling in the Williamsburg tenements of Brooklyn in the early 1900s.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [2](https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/news/book-film-tree-grows-brooklyn) It stars [Dorothy McGuire](https://www.edgepedia.org/dorothy-mcguire) as [Katie Nolan](https://www.edgepedia.org/katie-nolan), James Dunn as Johnny Nolan, Katie's charming but irresponsible alcoholic husband and Francie's father, Peggy Ann Garner as twelve-year-old Francie, Joan Blondell as Aunt Sissy, and Lloyd Nolan as Officer McShane.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tree_grows_in_brooklyn)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / debut | Elia Kazan's first feature film, after establishing himself as a leading Broadway director[2](https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/news/book-film-tree-grows-brooklyn) • [4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/) |\n| Studio / rights | Twentieth Century-Fox paid $55,000 for the screen rights after a bidding war that began before the novel was published[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) |\n| Release | February 1945; wide release February 28, 1945; 128 minutes (AFI also lists a 132-minute figure), black and white, mono sound[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tree_grows_in_brooklyn) |\n| Principal cast | Dorothy McGuire (Katie Nolan), James Dunn (Johnny Nolan), Peggy Ann Garner (Francie Nolan), Joan Blondell (Aunt Sissy), Lloyd Nolan (Officer McShane), Ted Donaldson (Neeley Nolan)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) |\n| Key crew | Producer Louis D. Lighton; screenplay Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis (Anita Loos uncredited); cinematography Leon Shamroy; music Alfred Newman; editing Dorothy Spencer; art direction Lyle Wheeler[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) |\n| Academy Awards | James Dunn won Best Supporting Actor; Peggy Ann Garner received a special Oscar as the year's best child performer; the screenplay was nominated[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) • [4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/) |\n| Preservation | Selected for the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2010[6](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and adaptation\n\nThe film follows the crucial year in which Francie Nolan ceases to be a child: she learns that her charming, drunken, incompetent father may be dearly loved but not worshipped, endures his death, and, with the help of a kind teacher, begins to turn her fantasy-building into the tempered imagination of a writer.[8](https://time.com/archive/6774820/the-new-pictures-feb-19-1945/) Although it runs more than two hours, the film covers only about the first half of the novel, ending with Francie's graduation from grammar school.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1945/03/03/1945-03-03-048-tny-cards-000015784) The ailanthus \"tree of heaven\" pushing up through the pavement serves as the film's governing metaphor for growth against odds, and the constructed Brooklyn exteriors, fire escape, and courtyard tree function as an emotional landscape as much as a setting.[10](https://sightlines.media/film/30177/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945) A scholarly analysis in the journal *Adaptation* identifies windows, doorways, and stairways as the film's central visual elements, liminal spaces where its most intense moments of emotional harmony and discord occur.[11](https://academic.oup.com/adaptation/article-abstract/7/3/307/2641998)\n\n## From novel to screen\n\nBetty Smith's novel was an immediate best-seller on publication in 1943 and proved particularly popular with servicemen; it had sold around three million copies by 1945.[7](https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-isnt-a-feel-good-new-york-story) According to a June 24, 1943 *Hollywood Reporter* news item, the screen rights became the focus of a bidding war among several studios before the book was even published, and Twentieth Century-Fox obtained them for $55,000.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN)\n\nFox initially intended to star [Alice Faye](https://www.edgepedia.org/alice-faye) as Katie Nolan; when Faye proved unavailable, [Gene Tierney](https://www.edgepedia.org/gene-tierney) was tested for the role, and [Jeanne Crain](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeanne-crain) was also considered, with Fred MacMurray mentioned for Johnny Nolan.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) The studio searched extensively for an actor to play Johnny; Phil Regan was reported as the leading contender in December 1943, but James Dunn, tested twice, was signed in April 1944 after it became clear no top box-office name would be available.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) Fox executives opposed casting Dunn, concerned about his alleged alcoholism, but studio head Darryl Zanuck approved him for the role of the Irish singing waiter.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) Dorothy McGuire, who had only one film in release when cast, was borrowed from David O. Selznick's company; she was only thirteen years older than the twelve-year-old Garner.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn)\n\n## Production\n\nFox gave Kazan a generous budget, and the sets were elaborate and costly. A 19 May 1944 news item described one set as \"the most elaborate and, mechanically speaking, costly set to be used\" on the studio's lot in several years: a full stage was taken up by a four-story replica of the Nolans' Brooklyn tenement house, with cameras on elevators to capture action on all floors in one take.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) According to Richard Schickel's biography of Kazan, Fox devoted several acres of the back lot to recreating six blocks and 218 buildings of old Bedford Avenue, complete with a horse-drawn trolley car.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/) Kazan, nervous on his first film assignment, later said that producer Louis Lighton and cameraman Leon Shamroy coached him step by step through the aspects of filmmaking that differed from the theater.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/)\n\n**Kazan's direction of the cast** drew on his stage method of connecting personally with actors before shooting. He encouraged Garner, anxious about her father serving in the air force, to use that emotional vulnerability for the part, and deliberately fostered a bond between Garner and Dunn off screen so that their on-screen father-daughter chemistry would carry the film's emotional weight.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) [Nicholas Ray](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicholas-ray), later the director of *Rebel Without a Cause* (1955), accompanied Kazan to Hollywood; his role is described variously as Kazan's assistant or dialogue director.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn)\n\n## Censorship and legal disputes\n\nThe Production Code Administration initially refused to approve the screenplay because of \"the bigamous characterization of Sissy,\" objecting also to the light tone taken toward her marital escapades. On April 26, 1944 it suggested the portrayal would be acceptable if her previous husbands had clearly died before she remarried, and it approved the script on May 4, 1944 with further warnings that Sissy's views on love and marriage be toned down.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) The Legion of Decency also forced the removal of a scene in which Sissy, who works in a condom factory, tries to explain to the children what one is; [Joan Blondell](https://www.edgepedia.org/joan-blondell) called it the best scene she ever played.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn)\n\nSmith's cousin Sadie Grandner filed libel suits against the book and the film, alleging that Aunt Sissy was based on her with slanderous implications. The studio, fearing liability, deliberately toned down the character, and in February 1946 Grandner, filing under the name Sadie Kandler, dropped her claim against the studio in exchange for $1,500.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN) • [5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film opened in early 1945 to widespread critical approval and strong box office, appearing on a number of lists as one of the top ten films of the year and ranking among the top-grossing films of 1945.[5](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn) • [4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/) The *New York Times* praised the pictorial embodiment of Smith's story; the *New York Daily News* proclaimed Joan Blondell \"little short of wonderful\"; and much of the enthusiasm went to Garner's \"startlingly honest\" performance.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/) TIME called it \"much more true-to-life than most movies\" while faulting the studio-bound recreation of the city, and singled out Dunn's performance as \"the most sensational comeback in years.\"[8](https://time.com/archive/6774820/the-new-pictures-feb-19-1945/) Wolcott Gibbs in *The New Yorker* found the characters unlikely and tedious but judged the acting better than the text.[9](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1945/03/03/1945-03-03-048-tny-cards-000015784) [James Agee](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-agee) was the notable dissenting voice, objecting among other things to the film's self-consciously realistic reconstructions of old Brooklyn.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/)\n\nThe film's afterlife has been durable. It became a family favorite for its heartwarming aspects, though critics have noted its lack of overt sentimentality, and it was one of the films chosen for the Library of Congress National Film Registry, entering the list in 2010 for its cultural merit.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/) • [6](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/) ACMI's collection notes that Kazan's first film was praised at release for convincing performances and the richly detailed studio recreation of working-class life.[12](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/94502--a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-ntsc/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/24635-A-TREE-GROWS-IN-BROOKLYN)\n2. [Book Into Film: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Berkeley Public Library (2012)](https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/about/news/book-film-tree-grows-brooklyn)\n3. [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tree_grows_in_brooklyn)\n4. [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) film notes, Toronto Film Society](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-2/)\n5. [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Turner Classic Movies article by Emily Soares (2008)](https://www.tcm.com/articles/218012/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn)\n6. [Complete National Film Registry Listing, Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-film-preservation-board/film-registry/complete-national-film-registry-listing/)\n7. [\"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn\" Isn't a Feel-Good New York Story, The New Yorker (2024)](https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-isnt-a-feel-good-new-york-story)\n8. [The New Pictures, Feb. 19, 1945, TIME](https://time.com/archive/6774820/the-new-pictures-feb-19-1945/)\n9. [Best-Seller, The New Yorker, Wolcott Gibbs (February 24, 1945)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1945/03/03/1945-03-03-048-tny-cards-000015784)\n10. [A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) analysis, Sightlines](https://sightlines.media/film/30177/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945)\n11. [Burgchardt & Diffrient, 'Between Window and Frame', Adaptation 7(3), 2014](https://academic.oup.com/adaptation/article-abstract/7/3/307/2641998)\n12. [A Tree grows in Brooklyn [NTSC], ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/94502--a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-ntsc/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released before 2000*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/a-tree-grows-in-brooklyn-1945-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is Elia Kazan's first feature film, a Twentieth Century-Fox adaptation of Betty Smith's novel starring Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn, and Peggy Ann Garner, which won two Academy Awards." }