A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (DVD)

This classic drama, the debut film of director Elia Kazan, focuses on the Nolan family in their Brooklyn tenement. Young Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner) comes of age at the turn of the century, while her alcoholic father (James Dunn) dreams of schemes to improve the family's fortunes and her mother (Dorothy McGuire) steadfastly manages to hold the family together. Francie dreams of greatness, and as the old tree in front of their tenement is about to be cut down, she takes her first steps towards independence.