A gem in Brooklyn and a blizzard hits

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is not one of those films I have ever seen on tv in an afternoon , so trolling through ebay the other night, I was excited at finding a copy for peanuts. So on break at work, I set my laptop up and watched it.
It is a little gem of a film that relates the trials and tribulations of the Nolans, a turn-of –the-century Brooklyn tenement family. The father (James Dunn) is a charming drunk who dreams his life away, whist the mother (Dorothy McGuire) is the true backbone of the family, who holds everyone together against every crisis and hardship. Director Elia Kazan’s film reinforces the power of women, family and home to a needy American audience at the end of World War Two, and does so quite beautifully…………helped, of course, by a strong cast of women,namely McGuire, the fabulous Joan Blondell as Aunt Sissy and talented Peggy Ann Garner as the delicate Francie Nolan.

This afternoon the cold snap is well and truly here! so it is lovely to be sat in front of the fire watching Sunday films. Aunt Judy is coming for dinner later, which is nice in a way, seeing that it is Mothering Sunday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother, but I am slightly miffed as the weather has put pay to my clearing of the allotment for a couple of days