"Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

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otterhere
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"Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

Post by otterhere »

My goodness; I can't believe there isn't a thread running about this amazing movie! I was reluctant to watch it (the 1945 version with Peggy Ann Garner) because I so loved the book, but what a great film!!!

I don't cry at most movies -- almost never unless there's an animal in it (cry buckets over "The Yearling," lol) -- but this one clutched my throat.

What an affecting performance, the "Johnny Dunn" was unforgetable...

Anyone else???

Questions: who agrees that Sissy was madly in love with Johnny, lol, and why did the mother of "Katie Nolan" seem to have a RUSSIAN accent???
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Post by feaito »

I'd like to see this film, I've read it's excellent.
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knitwit45
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Post by knitwit45 »

I just watched the movie for the first time, also.

I don't think Sissy was in love with Johnny Nolan, I think she knew what a sweet guy he was. She had "been around" 4 times that she admitted to, and I think she knew what a true-blue fellow looked like. Johnny was flawed, but he loved his family, and Sissy could see that, even if Katie couldn't.

Katie's desperation to provide for her family can only be understood (I think) by some one who has gone through it themselves. The fear of not being able to provide for your children is overwhelming, and colors how you see everything and everyone. Katie knew she was supporting 3 children, Johnny and the two kids, and when she found herself pregnant, it was devastating.

Peggy Ann Garner and the boy who played her brother were so unaffected and real. Peggy's character was supposed to be a little over the top, because the child had to escape into fantasy to be able to bear the reallity of her life.

What a lovely movie.
Thanks TCM!
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MissGoddess
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Post by MissGoddess »

Mildly Spoiling

I love it, it's by far my favorite Kazan movie and one of the best slices-of-life stories ever of that era. I ADORE Joan Blondell in this and think casting her as "Sissy" is just beyond splendid. Everyone is marvelous and it's hard to pick a favorite scene, though I do so love the "proposal" scene and how quaintly old-fashioned it is. Sigh. I do love such ritual and tradition, I was indeed born too late. I'm like Francie. :)

Or when she asks Neely if she's "good looking" and he says "you'll pass". Love it!
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
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moira finnie
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Post by moira finnie »

Well, this is, as Miss G. and a few others probably know, one of my favorite movies ever. The only problem with trying to watch it again is that I get too choked up. I feel as though I know these people by heart if not in reality.

Otterhere asked:
Questions: who agrees that Sissy was madly in love with Johnny, lol, and why did the mother of "Katie Nolan" seem to have a RUSSIAN accent???
I don't think that Sissy is in love with Johnny. Sissy has tried (and failed several times)to find a man who can take care of her (physically and financially). Sissy takes some pride in her attractiveness and she can appreciate her brother in law's loving nature and his weaknesses because she shares his fault. Sissy and Johnny are both--something that is known in Katie's guarded heart of hearts--often weak individuals, yet redeemed periodically by their exceptional loving natures, which make them both two of the most cherished family members, as well as the most vulnerable and idealistic. I think that Johnny and Katie Nolan are deeply in love, despite everything. Katie has shut down emotionally due to his alcoholism and maintains her stubborn pride to keep herself going. She needs to be cold in order to help her children to survive--something that her daughter only understands much later. Katie also loves her son Neely more than her daughter, which they both acknowledge tacitly. Katie feels very guilty about this, but cannot help it.

In Betty Smith's book it is explained in much more detail that Katie and Sissy's mother is from Poland. Her mother, Mary Rommely, a devout, even slightly fanatical Catholic, feels that her impoverished daughter Katie will succeed ultimately because of her literacy, her children's ability to go to school and the parsimony that she has taught her daughter will help her and her children to survive. The grandmother does not respect men in general and has little use for Johnny Nolan or any of the men that Sissie was involved with over time.
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Post by MissGoddess »

Thank you for sharing that insight into the characters in the book,
Moira. For some inexplicable reason, I never got around to reading
it despite my one time obsession with reading books that inspired
movie adaptations. I bet I'd enjoy it.

I understand Katie and Sissy so well, I sometimes feel like both
of those types reside in me and I'm like a split personality, lol.

The first time I ever heard "Annie Laurie" was as a kid watching
this movie. It reduced me to tears then and still does today,
and I think I will always think of it as James Dunn sang it, with
that flawed, wonderfully emotional catch in his voice.

What a movie.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education."
-- Will Rogers
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Post by mrsl »

I love this movie too, but I'm not as kind as all of you. I believe most mothers have their favorite child, but they don't let the children know it as Katie did. I felt more for Peggy Ann Garner than I did for Mom. Its so sad when a child has to pry love from a parent. The saddest thing was that Mom had to work every minute to keep the family unit fed, clothed and with a roof over their heads while Papa drank up anything he earned or won, and as usual, everybody found excuses for his behavior. I know I sound like I didn't like it, but truly I did, and at the end, I only wished Papa had left earlier and Lloyd Nolan had come in earlier to make their lives more livable.

Anne
Anne


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* * * * * * * * What is past is prologue. * * * * * * * *

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otterhere
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Post by otterhere »

Oh, I would disagree... I think "sainted son" is a pretty well-known syndrome; did you have a brother, LOL? Also, "Daddy's girl" isn't a cliche for nothing... But aside from maybe actually preferring Neely over Francie, I think a lot of Katie's "harshness" was her fear that Francie was too much like Johnny and was the result of a (maybe subconscious) effort to quell those tendencies -- such as when she demanded that Francie "talk straight out" instead of spinning webs of fantasy; that's what Johnny did, and look what happened to him? So maybe, out of love, she was trying to discipline her. Clearly both Francie and Sissy appreciated Johnny's softer, more whimsical side while Katie, again maybe because of the privation that resulted from it (if they were wealthy, it might not have mattered or she might've even enjoyed it) resented and feared those traits (such as "imagination"). It was Francie's salvation that the teacher showed her how to use that as a force for good. The "Annie Laurie" scene, where Johnny -- so hurt and misunderstood -- rebuffed Katie's overture, and the hurt that caused Katie, then the pain in his voice as he finished the song, was truly powerful. As much as a coming-of-age film as this was, it was also a heartbreaking insight into how a couple, even a couple in love, can fall apart and come apart ; damage and ultimately lose one another. They love each other, yet are helpless to stop the process. Their evening of "reconciliation" ended in yet another hopeless fight; we've all been there. They were just, at the end of the day, too different. Their very distinct views of "Flossie's dress" really said it all.
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Post by moira finnie »

I think Katie envied Johnny and Francie's closeness and felt very guilty about her instinctive favoring the boy, which wasn't unusual for any period of history nor necessarily a feeling that the mother wanted to feel. That seems to be one of the strengths of this movie. Almost every character is presented with compassion. Their emotions are acknowledged not as good or bad, but terribly human.
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knitwit45
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Post by knitwit45 »

when Katie was telling Johnny that Francie would have to quit school, she knew and said that Francie would find a way back, but Neely would fail at life if he didn't have that edge of a primary school education. I think if she favored him, it was because she knew he wasn't as bright or as driven as Francie, and would need all the help possible to succeed and rise above the poverty they were enduring.
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Post by jdb1 »

I seem to remember that in the book Francie actually does have to leave school, but manages to go back and graduate from high school. Not sure -- does anyone else remember? It's no myth that the son's welfare and success were considered more important than the daughter's, and it would have been not at all unusual at that time (and even much later) for the girl of the family to quit school and the boy to be able to continue. It was the man who was expected to support the family, and the woman whose primary function was wife and mother at home. Why, then, should she need a higher education?

I agree with Moira that Katie was envious of Francie's relationship with her father; Katie well knew that she was not an imaginative or creative person, but that contrast of personalities is one of the themes of the book. Francie is the humble tree who is able to take root and flourish under adverse conditions, but perhaps she doesn't yet realize, at the time of the story, that her mother is just as nurturing as her father was, but in a different way. Remember also that the story is really being told from Francie's viewpoint, and there is much she didn't understand about her parents' relationship until she got older. For the purposes of this movie, many of the adults' conversations which Francie probably would not have heard, or understood if she had, are included.
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Post by moira finnie »

Which scene gets to those who like this movie the most?

When Johnny Nolan goes to say good night to Francie, knowing that she'll probably be forced to give up school now that another mouth to feed is coming?

When Katie begs her daughter to read her compositions to her while her mother is in labor?

When we see Katie listening to "Annie Laurie" on the piano despite herself?

When the librarian insists on Francie taking home "When Knighthood Was in Flower" as well as the serious book she is reading as part of her project of working her way through the library? And the follow-up scene of the noisy tenement surrounding Francie as she dreams on the fire escape, lost in the world of her book?

When Katie goes to the saloon looking for her husband and finds that James Gleason (the proprietor) is a gentle man?

When the kids go out to catch a Christmas tree that is thrown at them by the somewhat callous purveyor?

When Sissy takes Francie to her desk at school to find the flowers and the girl discovers who they are from?

Man, just writing these out is getting to me! I think it's hard to choose one scene.
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otterhere
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Post by otterhere »

Definitely when Francie gets the flowers from her father; I lost it there...

But when he went to say goodnight to her (the last time), I believe he knew it was "goodbye forever." Can't decide if he commited suicide by standing out in the cold and snow looking for a job until he got pneumonia, but all that talk about insurance money for funerals sure made me wonder if, like George Bailey, he hadn't decided he was worth more dead than alive. It sure looked from that scene like he knew he'd never see her again. I'm always left somewhat unsure about these ambigous "accident/suicide" incidents (as with Alice in "Room at the Top").
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Post by MissGoddess »

The "Annie Laurie" scene. I always break down at that part (among others).
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otterhere
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Post by otterhere »

The "goodbye to Francie" scene immediately followed Katie telling him about the baby, then squashing his joy at that event by essentially emasculating him by detailing how SHE was going to handle things...

I think that was the end of him and that Katie, in effect, "killed him," whether that drove him to suicide or made him so very desperate to become the breadwinner again that he was going to get work or die trying.

Did I get that right?
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