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Cats: Set Your Recorders|
There are some movies that I used to call irresponsibly sad. Stella Dallas and The Fighting Sullivan’s are two examples. Also in this catagorey is the beautiful A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. As a parent I have a tough time with these films. As a father of a son I cannot watch The Fighting Sullivan’s ever again. As a father of a daughter, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn breaks my heart. Each time I watch it like an idiot.
Set in the tenement working class pre World War One Brooklyn the film centers around the Nolan family. Katie Nolan (Dorothy McGuire) is the matriarch, desperately trying to keep the family from financial ruin and the street. Her husband Johnny Nolan (James Dunn) is a troubled unsuccessful singer with a bad alcohol problem but has a very strong bond with his daughter Francie (Peggy Ann Garner) who worships him.
Francie is a smart girl who is desperate to get into a better school. It is as if she knows that the only way out if this life is through education. Reading her way around the neighborhood she has developed a relationship with the local librarian who fosters Francie’s appreciation but it is her father that truly supports her desire for more. The scenes between father and daughter are touching and tragic. Johnny Nolan loves his daughter and encourages her and has established a bond but it is not strong enough to keep him from the bottle and a path of self destruction.
Francie’s relationship with her mother is nowhere near what it is with her father. Katie Nolan has become the mother of two kids with a third on the way with no financial support on the horizon. Unable to depend on Johnny she has become a taciturn, seemingly cold-hearted and distant matriarch. Especially in the eyes of Francie who is quick to side with her father against her mother.
This picture was Elia Kazan’s second film, his first film had been produced eight years earlier. I do not know what Mr. Kazan did during those eight years but he created a near masterpiece. Everything from the script, cinematography to all the performances are Oscar worthy. Mr. Kazan moves his camera through the tenement sets in such a way that we feel the claustrophobic atmosphere choking these places. So even though the film is shot in glorious black and white we still feel the loss of any green that the tree provided before it is chopped down.
Although it seems that Francie is the center of the picture it is the loss of the tree, that metaphor of hope, almost becomes the theme of the film. We and Francie hope that Johnny gets discovered as the singer that he so desperately hopes to be. We hope that Francie gets into a better school. The tree grew against terrible odds but it survived and grew, just as Francie grew and will continue to do so. We hope so anyway.
I know that 1945 was a tough year oscarwise but this picture was nominated for only two Oscars; one was for best screenplay, the other was for best supporting actor. James Dunn won the best supporting actor award for his performance. The screenplay lost. Peggy Ann Garner won the Juvenile Award for best child performance of 1945. Dorothy McGuire should have been nominated at least. Only 27 at the time she created a character that looked and felt like someone twice her age. Without being stereotypical she played the weariness as something this woman constantly battles, the will to never give up. Joan Blondell as Katie’s sister is a breath of cool fresh air in that tenement every time she is on the screen. She too was robbed of at least a nomination.
Saturday February 8th at 8:00PM on Turner Classic Movies.
