deuchler

The film "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is one of the finest pictures to come out of the late World War II period. There was a gnawing need for nostalgia at that time. "The boys" were overseas, the war had been dragging on for over four years, and people needed to see strong characters and have a warm-hearted family drama pick up their spirits. The message was "you can make it through this---this too shall pass." At glossy MGM they created a Technicolor "Meet Me In St. Louis." But at Fox they gave newcomer Elia Kazan his chance to make it big with what had been a popular bestseller several years running. Set in 1912, the story portrays the immigrant experience, of which Kazan was personally familiar. The performances are dynamite. Dorothy McGuire is so young but she nails Katie Nolan in what I think is McGuire's best performance. And who else but Peggy Ann Garner could play Francie? Though many are critical that the book gets short-changed, I find it amazing that Kazan was able to slip so much detail into his film. It's brimming with period charm and the glow of actual old memories. Yes, they were deeply, relentlessly poor. But you see how families struggled together---like when the grandma and aunt come to deliver the baby. They couldn't afford a midwife. Joan Blondell is great, too. But why does Sissy in the film call all her men "Bill"? In the book it's John, I think. Is it too close to a whore's "john" or too close to Johnny, Francie's dad?

"Cabin in the Sky" is always a delight to watch. The loving performances are still so fresh. And as Minnelli's debut "project" it's fascinating to notice how he cut corners yet achieved a respectable though low budget MGM musical. (Minnelli even recycled the twister footage from "Wizard of Oz," complete with corn cribs and Kansas prairie in the background, during the film's climactic nightclub episode.) By 1943, most MGM musicals were in Technicolor, not black and white.

It's obvious the film script and lyrics were upgraded and rewritten from their Broadway roots so there were less stereotypic images and songs (the original lyrics to the title song include the "darkie dream" of "eating fried chicken every day.") The "cabin" is not a hovel but rather charming in that typical MGM glossy way. Yet much does remain that is somewhat problematic. The number "Shine," sung by "Domino Johnson" in the nightclub, for instance, is a derogatory "coon song" of 1910. (A "shine" was a racist term for an African American.) Yes, Ethel Waters and the other women who are not good-looking babes are laundresses but they're not portrayed as the typical movie mammies or Aunt Jemimah types. They wear '40s length dresses and kerchiefs, not mammy bandanas. The pretty women are all vamps and tramps, hanging out in Jim Henry's nightclub, jitterbugging their asses off. The males are shown as gamblers, cheats, and philanderers. Only the angels speak standard English. Illiterate "Little Joe" cannot even sign his name for the telegram delivery guy.

Yet as a variation on the FAUST legend, this well-developed story is fascinating. I first used the film in a Mass Media class about 40 years ago when I was a beginning teacher to illustrate "screen racism" to my classes at an African American Chicago high school. The power of the performances was so captivating, once the word got out I had other kids coming by my room during my lunch to watch the musical, too. Where else, in the late '60s, could anyone see a film that featured so many all-time great black performers like Duke Ellington, Butterfly McQueen, Mantan Moreland, Willie Best, and all the others. At that time, during the beginnings of the Afrocentric cultural awareness movement, older images of blacks like the "Amos 'N' Andy" TV program and some of the all-black musicals, were banned from television. Thank God for film!

The movie may illustrate some of the problems connected with portraying racial themes in old Hollywood of the studio period, but to this day each time I watch it I appreciate the performances more and notice new details that captivate and inspire me. Watch for Ernestine Wade (who played Kingfish's wife Saffire on TV's early '50s "Amos 'N' Andy") in the opening church service scene sitting in the front row wearing a Tyrolean style hat. Dorothy Dandridge's challenging mother Ruby is a couple rows behind her with a silly hat and some little boys sleeping under her arm.

I have been somewhat haunted by this bizarre show for a half century. In the '50s there was no other kids' program like it, to be sure. I think lots of us were drawn to its rather twisted, surreal aspects. The little mouse (Squeaky) and the black cat that always meowed "Nice" were odd enough, but Froggy the Gremlin lived in the clock and always mocked whatever guest showed up. We '50s kids just loved the little fellow. He was so nasty and such a smart-ass. I had a bright green rubber Froggy from Woolworth's and was so fond of him. I wish I still had it. The transition after Smiling Ed died of a heart attack was rough and odd for us. Of course, we children were not told he had passed away. Just suddenly gravel-voiced character actor Andy Devine was in his place. But we knew and liked Andy as "Jingles" on the WILD BILL HICKOK show--with Tony the Tiger selling cereal. Shows usually had one key commercial that was hyped at several points, whether it was cereal or shoes--Buster Brown's. I would love to see some of the old serials of the Indian boy Rama (or was it Gunga?) who had a way with elephants. There were always savage tigers threatening the village and hordes of native "beaters" would go out into the bush making noise to drive him out. I remember once there was an evil maharajah and Rama helped two beautiful young women run away from him. It was quite the thrilling episode. The show had such a surreal quality that it still seems fresh to me. I would love to see a videotape, if one exists. The same few seconds of a wildly enthusiastic audience of kids leaping up and down and screaming with joy and approval was cut in between every major moment. Even as a kid fifty years ago I knew that was too weird.