A Tree, Grows In Brooklyn (20th Century-Fox), coming from a big Hollywood studio, is man-bites-dog news. Instead of sweetening up Betty Smith's exuberant best-seller and furnishing ten sure laughs for every carefully shock-absorbed tear, such ex-New Yorkers as Tess Slesinger, one of the writers, and Elia Kazan, the director, have turned it into a sober and reasonably truthful story of life among the lowly.
In the process of translation, it must be granted, some of the fun and richness of the book are lost. It would be a pleasure to see more of full-blown, man-hungry Aunt Sissy (bountifully played by...