ELIA KAZAN

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBBB

USA, 1945.  Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.  Screenplay by Tess Slesinger, Frank Davis, based on the novel by Betty Smith.  Cinematography by Leon Shamroy.  Produced by Louis D. Lighton.  Music by Alfred Newman.  Production Design by Lyle R. Wheeler.  Costume Design by Bonnie Cashin.  Film Editing by Dorothy Spencer.  

The book that has been clasped to many an earnest child’s breast was brought to the screen with vitality and vivid emotional detail in 1945, lorded over by young Peggy Ann Garner‘s performance in the lead role. She plays a mistreated young girl growing up in working-class Brooklyn whose life is affected by the goings-on in her grimy apartment building and surrounding neighbourhood, none more memorable to her than her miserably unhappy alcoholic father (James Dunn) and her patient and hardworking mother (Dorothy McGuire).

Academy Award:  Best Supporting Actor (James Dunn)
Nomination: Best Screenplay