"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" has turned up on the screen quite cleaned up and edited, but the sordid spirit and the pat honesty are still very much in evidence. If the story is inclined to bore the avid action fan with its straightforward excess of emotion, then the indictment probably spares Hollywood and goes back to Betty Smith.

In the elemental plot of the Nolan family growing up in Williamsburg, there is a great opportunity for characterization at the happy expense of the narrative force which the cinema more often emphasizes. Peggy Ann Garner and Ted Donaldson come through with character jobs as Francie and Neeley that without a doubt redeem any of the picture's tedium.

James Dunn makes a comeback playing Johnny, the singing waiter, who is supposed to win the family bread but somehow forgets on the way from bar to bar. He is Irish enough, but behind that genial smile a little more substantial warmth would not go amiss. He is certainly adequate, and so is Dorothy McGuire, though she is branded for life as "Claudia."

There is one annoying feature about "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn": its plug for realism in writing and its pointed advice to would-be writers that only the familiar makes good subject matter. This is something of an apology for the story's stark style, and it's certainly not a new idea. Aside from such personal irritations, however, there is an extremely compelling theme of little people trying to rise from their distress that the most unsociological person will not fail to see clearly, and admire. ssh