What 1945 film directed by Elia Kazan is based on Betty Smith's novel?

What 1945 film directed by Elia Kazan is based on Betty Smith’s novel? The answer is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

Released in 1945, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was Elia Kazan’s first dramatic feature as a film director. It adapts Betty Smith’s 1943 novel about the Nolan family, an impoverished but hopeful Irish-American household living in Brooklyn during the early 20th century.

The film centers on Francie Nolan, played by Peggy Ann Garner, as she grows up in Williamsburg. Her mother, Katie, works relentlessly to support the family, while her father, Johnny, is loving and charismatic but struggles with alcoholism and unstable employment. Their hardships are balanced by Francie’s education, imagination and determination.

The screenplay was written by Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis rather than by Smith herself. Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell and James Dunn also star; Dunn won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The tree in the title symbolizes persistence because it grows in an unlikely urban setting, much as Francie pursues a better future despite poverty.