Our next Mother's Day movie is Elia Kazan's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, from 1945, one of the very few adaptations that's actually better than the novel it's based on. It tells the story of a family at the turn of the century, through the eyes of the 12 year old daughter (Peggy Ann Garner), who idolizes her cheerful but alcoholic father, and eventually learns to appreciate her hard working, determined mother. This film actually focuses quite a bit at first on the father character (James Dunn, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this), but Dorothy McGuire plays the long suffering, world weary mother with grit and steel that show the family's survival has depended on her all along. It's she who carries the family's burdens on her shoulders, and she who helps them to overcome them. It's one of Kazan's best films, and a tearjerker if ever there was one.
3 Scenes from the film:
