"Look at that tree. See where it's coming from. Right up outta that cement! Didn't nobody plant it. Didn't ask the cement to grow. It just couldn't help growing so much it just pushed that old cement out of the way....Why, they could cut that ole tree right down to the ground, and a root would push up someplace else in the cement."
-- James Dunn, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Hollywood paid tribute to the grit and determination of America's immigrants in this 1945 family drama. Set in Brooklyn in the early part of the 20th Century, the film depicts the troubles of the Nolan family as they deal with poverty and the death of the father, Johnny (James Dunn). The story had a special meaning for director Elia Kazan. Not only had he emigrated from Turkey with his Greek-born parents when he was 4, but he also felt like an immigrant in Hollywood. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was his first film there after establishing himself as one of Broadway's best young directors.

Betty Smith set her novel in the same neighborhood of Brooklyn where she had grown up as the child of German immigrants. Like the film's young protagonist, Francie, she had switched to a better school, where she discovered an interest in writing. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was her first novel and triggered a bidding war among Hollywood studios before its 1943 publication. Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox won the rights for $55,000. He trusted the project to Kazan, whom he put under the guidance of experienced producer Louis D. Lighton. They transformed Smith's sprawling novel, which covered two decades in the lives of the Nolan family, into a tighter tale centering on the few months during which Francie moves to a new school and loses her father. The novel had included the parents' courtship and Francie's later years, ending with an indication that she would marry and attend college even though she had been forced to drop out of high school to support her family.

Zanuck was taking a chance on Kazan, as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was a major production for the studio. The tenement reconstructions built on the 20th Century-Fox lot were among the most elaborate and expensive sets ever built at the studio. To accommodate Kazan's vision of the action, the art department built a four-story brownstone to serve as the Nolan family's apartment building. Kazan had cameras placed on elevators so he could shoot scenes moving from floor to floor in a single take. Since he had never made a Hollywood film, Kazan had to rely on cinematographer Leon Shamroy to help plan the shots, while Lighton and Zanuck supervised the editing.

Kazan's main contribution was casting and supervising the actors. James Dunn, who won an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actor for playing Francie's father, had been a musical star at Fox in the early days of talking movies. He was relegated to B movies because of his drinking, which almost cost him the role in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Studio executives didn't want to take a chance on him. Zanuck, Lighton and Kazan were in his corner, however. After testing the actor twice, Kazan was convinced he was so much like the character that he would register naturally on screen. The director also fostered a paternal relationship between Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner, the 12-year-old actress cast as Francie. Knowing that Garner was concerned about her father, who was serving in the Air Force during World War II, he captured her concern for him on camera in her scenes with Dunn.