Revisited
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Film and Television Discussion
PygmyLion — 12 months ago(April 04, 2025 06:37 PM)
I watched this movie a number of years ago and enjoyed it. I would probably have given it ***1/2 (out of 4) then.
Very recently I read the book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith and watched the movie again. A lot of movies from the 30's and 40's came from popular books of the time, but the books have been largely forgotten and all we have is the movie. Here we have a book that was a best-seller and has become a bit of a classic. This leads me to add the criterion of how good a rendition of the classic book is the movie to my rating of the movie. My answer would be not particularly good.- One minor complaint is that Johnny Nolan, the father, was 34 when he died and known to be particularly attractive. The actor they chose for him, James Dunn is 44 at the time of the filming, and while nice looking not as attractive as I'd expect.
- The movie seems to want to cram a lot of events into the particular period when Francie was around 14, some that occurred years before and some years afterwards. Further, a number of these events seem to be juxtaposed in time. Also, the writers seem to inject some opinion like lines that are not in the book.
- The name of the story is "A Tree grows in Brooklyn". While there is mention of a tree growing out of a crack in the concrete early in the book, and the author returns to it on the last page - how it had been cut down and the stump burned - but it still grows back, the "tree" in the title obviously refers figuratively to Frances Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner). The story is about Francie. In the book, in the summer following her father's death and after her mother gives birth to a 3rd child, Francie (at 14) is able to find a good job as a newspaper clipper, where her strong reading ability allows her to succeed, and make a wage that allows the family to live comfortably. After that business dies with the U.S. joining WWI, Francie finds another decent job as a teletype operator. Finally 2 and a half years after the father's death, the mother marries McShane. This frees up Francie and she studies with the help of her boyfriend for the entrance exams at the University of Michigan, which she passes - and the novel ends with her preparing to leave Brooklyn for Michigan. So Francie despite a lot of hardships, grows up well in Brooklyn. This latter stuff does not occur in the film.
So in the end, I would have to just give the movie 3 stars, ***, now.
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Paul P. Powell — 7 months ago(August 30, 2025 08:43 PM)
The specie is colloquially nicknamed '
Tree of Heaven
' but in reality it is an invasive vector which hurts native American tree varieties. Considered a
pest
by silviculture experts.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player