A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) on Netflix
In 1912 Brooklyn, Katie Nolan scrubs tenement floors and sells rags for her family. Her husband Johnny rarely finds work as a singing waiter; their daughter Francie longs for a better school.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb8.0/109,137 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Nolans live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 1912. Katie, a German American housewife, provides for the family by scrubbing the floors of their tenement building and gathering rags for a scrap dealer. Her husband Johnny is a charming Irish American who means well but drifts through life, and what he earns as a singing waiter often goes to drink. Francie, thirteen, idolizes her father; her brother Neeley is twelve. News reaches Katie that her sister Sissy has married for the third time, and Katie cuts her off. Officer McShane, new to the neighborhood, meets Sissy and the children, then Katie. Francie fears the superintendent has cut too many branches from the lone tree in the courtyard. She persuades Johnny to walk her to a school she would rather attend and to write the letter that wins her transfer.
Cast
- B.S. Pullyas Christmas Tree Vendor
Show all 20 cast
- Harry Harvey Jr.as Herschel Knutson (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Production Code Administration refused to approve the screenplay by Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis over the "bigamous characterization" of Sissy, a woman who remarries before her husbands die, then approved it in May 1944 with warnings to tone down Sissy's views on love and marriage.
- Betty Smith's cousin filed a libel suit saying the character Sissy was based on her and that she had suffered "scorn and ridicule"; 20th Century Fox softened Sissy's characterization and settled out of court for $1,500.
- 20th Century Fox first wanted Alice Faye for Katie Nolan; when she was unavailable Gene Tierney was screen-tested, and Dorothy McGuire was cast, only 16 years older than the actress playing her daughter Francie.
- A months-long search for the part of Johnny Nolan considered Phil Regan before James Dunn was signed; Dunn was tested twice and had not appeared in a major studio film for five years.
- The studio considered an older actress for Francie because the part was so demanding, but Elia Kazan insisted on a child performer and Peggy Ann Garner was signed.
- For the film, a full 20th Century Fox stage held a four-story replica of a Brooklyn tenement house, described as the most elaborate and costly set then used, with elevators that let the camera pan up and down the stairs.
- The title tree, identified as an ailanthus glandulosa or "tree of heaven", survived the heat of the Klieg lights during filming and was re-planted elsewhere on the studio lot.
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was the first Hollywood film for Nicholas Ray, who was credited as a dialogue coach.
