Does anyone else find yourself touched by James Dunn's character of Johnny Nolan, despite knowing what a terrible husband and father he is in objective terms? I think it is his pained awareness of his own failure and his heroic, foolish determination to try to right things that make him seem noble, if fatally weak. As Katie Nolan says at one point, despite everything, people loved him.
Regarding James Dunn, I've sought out several of his other films, looking for that ragged nobility and self-awareness that he brought to his part in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The closest, (and these films are not nearly as good ATGIB), were Bad Girl (Frank Borzage-1931) and another Vilma Delmar story, Bad Boy ( John Blystone-1935). A youthful Dunn in the 1930s.
In both, Dunn plays a cynical fellow ensnared by the emotion of love and the striving for something better in life that comes with it. Director John Blystone was hardly as sensitive an observer of life or as skilled a director as Frank Borzage, but I suspect that Dunn's work in ATGIB should be credited to the then desperate actor and his director, Elia Kazan's empathy with him. James Dunn played a character very close to the bone in this film, and he did it beautifully. With Peggy Ann Garner in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I find him very appealing in spite of his tragic flaws. He's a dreamer, and they
often make for troublesome or unreliable providers. But they are charming and
if only their wit and charm earned their bread they could be appreciated simply
for the romance and dash of zest they add to the lives of everyone they meet.
I recently watched BAD GIRL and thought how interesting the two characters
are to compare. The former was much more resourceful and in fact, an amazing
provider---it was the wife this time who didn't seem quite appreciative enough.
Yet there are traces of the same man in each performance---especially the quality
of desperation.
BAD GIRL reminded me a little of PENNY SERENADE, too.
"There's only one thing that can kill the movies, and that's education." -- Will Rogers
I have empathy for both Johnny and Katie (and for Francie most of all). That's the greatness of this movie. I've always been a Johnny all my life, but since the birth of my daughter, I feel like I've turned into a Katie. It's so much harder to be the parent who must discipline, or the one who keeps things going at home. You get all the hard work, and none of the fun. It's terribly frustrating and makes one sharp, even when you don't mean to be. It's hard to turn off the voice in your head that worries, and you want to impart all you know, so that the kids will know what to do when confronted with the harsh world.
Kingrat, I'll mention a couple of scenes at the beginning that I find very telling. The way these scenes are directed show a lot about how the movie will play out...with a single perspective that incorporates many. Francie's perceptions are finer tuned than other people's. Perceptions are not always the truth in this town, but the kids see a sort of underbelly of life. Rarely, an adult will have insight into others. Those with insight have a rare gift to give. Most of the adults make mistakes about the people who inhabit their world. It makes for a very human and painful place for Francie, one where the least little word can make her give up, or strive harder.
For me, there is something horrifying about the way shy Francie is forced to bring the junk to J. Farrell MacDonald to get more pennies. She is kind of pimped out, and you can tell she hates it and hates him. Kids are rather ruthless, they might not like someone because they smell funny or they are odd. But that's not all to the scene, Kazan is leading us to see things from several viewpoints. It's not that MacDonald is an evil man, he's actually quite nice to her, but we see how uncomfortable he makes her, pinching her cheeks and talking to her in a sweet way. She's also got a kind of dignity that makes her hate stooping to such tricks to get money. MacDonald really captures how this man is really not very nice to anyone else, only to Francie. Maybe he has girls of his own, maybe he's a weirdo, who knows? There are multiple ways to see him.
In another scene, Francie goes into the drugstore and starts dreaming about something in the shop, I can't remember what. A pinched woman clerk thinks she is a shoplifter. We can see how this woman is probably plagued all day with people taking things, but we also see how cruel she is. Francie is innocently dreaming, not at all like this woman pictures her. It hurts to see her prejudice against Francie, and then we are relieved to see Francie draw herself up with dignity at the woman's stern look. And somehow, Kazan conveys that this sort of thing happens all the time. We are just sensitive to it, because we already care for Francie, we have been put in her shoes.
The following is a verbatim transcription of an interview I read with Ted Donaldson who played Neeley in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) based on Betty Smith's novel. This passage was found in Growing Up on the Set: Interviews With 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television by Tom Goldrup, Jim Goldrup (McFarland, 2002)
"[Elia] Kazan sat us around a huge oaken table that you could imagine the Vikings having a banquet on. He sat at the head of the table and talked about the script, and for three days he established the relationships of the Nolan family. We read the script. We read it again and worked on the different scenes, and on the fourth day of we started shooting. And it was not only the relationships, but the place. The atmosphere, the furniture. Early in the film Peggy Ann Garner and I come into the kitchen. We had come upstairs with pails of water, and Dorothy McGuire is at the sink washing dishes. Years later I was stunned by it when I watched it on television, I thought, 'By God, I know that sink, we know what that floor feels like, we lived there. This is our place.' That's something you sense more in a stage performance because it is alive.
"I think A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was one of the greatest pieces of ensemble acting in the history of American film. Peggy Ann Garner's performance as Francie Nolan was one of the two or three greatest child performances ever given. I have always liked Dorothy McGuire, but I think her Katie Nolan was the best thing she ever did on film. Joan Blondell was always terrific, but this film gave her a chance to show a much more vulnerable side, and she really rose to the occasion. She really makes me cry in this film. James Dunn won the Oscar for best supporting actor. It was a beautiful performance. It was the role of his life. The scene in which he sings 'Annie Laurie,' Francie and Neeley are very affected by their father singing that, and so is Katie because she hears heim, comes in from another room, stands at the doorway and recalls older times, times of more promise. There is a big closeup of Johnny singing that breaks your heart. It was the first time that I have ever heard this song. I've got to say that the expression you see on Peggy Ann's face and mine--we kept within the confines of the scene and the characters but that was Peggy and me reacting to James Dunn singing 'Annie Laurie.' We were supposed to be terribly moved by it. And we were. But we were affected as Peggy and as Ted. I'd never quite had that experience before.
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"Yes, we were good. Damn right we were good. But that was Kazan. And that's why he produced a film--apart from Leon Shamroy's gorgeous black-and-white photography--where from the first frame on you are back in 1912. You are absolutely there all the way through and it never falters, not for a second. That is why it is a very beautiful and satisfying film."
Great interview. It's no secret that A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN is one of my very favorite films. I've written about it before and as I'm sure I've pointed out before, the sad thing is that while it's been available on DVD for years in Europe (region 2 discs, not playable on most DVD players in this country) it never had it's own release here. One was planned several years ago, but Fox pulled it at the last minute. It finally did get a release, but only as part of the massive eighteen disc Elia Kazan Collection set which even at Amazon's discounted price is still almost $160.
If there ever was a film that deserved its own release it's A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. Fortunately, it's getting multiple plays on TCM and it can be recorded from them, but a DVD and Blu-Ray release is what's needed and needed soon.
I recorded it off of my DVR and watched it today and it is a wonderful and touching movie to watch ... this is the first time I seen it and I'm thinking about watching it again on Saturday to get a better feel of the movie. I find this movie enduring for the first time i seen it.
That was a beautiful quote, Moira, thanks for posting it. It's one of my very favorite films as well.
Watching the other night, that scene at the piano that Ted Donaldson describes so well really struck me very hard. Not in the usual way, for James Dunn's stunning performance, but for the faces of Francie and Neeley, shown beyond him, watching as he goes into that dark place of the soul. I think the scene actually is made even more powerful by the look on Neeley's face - confused, moved and actually a bit frightened. He stares, unmoving, while emotions play out on Francie's face, and Johnny's...it is a frightening scene in it's intensity, and Ted Donaldson so captured that feeling of not understanding the adult world, and being afraid of it.
