''It Grows on Trees'' is a 1952
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Arthur Lubin
Arthur Lubin (July 25, 1898 – May 11, 1995) was an American film director and producer who directed several ''Abbott & Costello'' films, ''Phantom of the Opera'' (1943), the ''Francis the Talking Mule'' series and created the talking-horse TV se ...
starring
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...
in her final screen role.
Plot
The story is about a couple who discover two trees in their backyard that grow money. One morning a few days after Polly Baxter (Dunne) purchased a couple of trees and planted them in her backyard, a $5 bill floats in through an open window, spurring a curious turn of luck to her family's ongoing financial concerns.
As she continues to collect more in the following days and weeks, Polly finds that the money is actually growing on the new trees that she planted and keeps that discovery from her husband Philip (
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger (November 7, 1903 – February 5, 1991) was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King (director), Henry King's ''Twelve O'Clock High'' (1949).
E ...
). Polly finds ways to use the money, while her husband wants it to be turned in to the police.
The neighbors, the media, the bank, the
I.R.S.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...
, and the
U.S. Treasury
The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...
all get involved. Comedy ensues as the Baxters struggle with newfound ethical dilemmas; e.g., is this money legal or counterfeit, and what happens when the money dries up like an old leaf? All the time, however, Polly maintains that the world is full of wonder, if only people would believe.
Cast
*
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...
as Polly Baxter
*
Dean Jagger
Dean Jagger (November 7, 1903 – February 5, 1991) was an American film, stage, and television actor who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Henry King (director), Henry King's ''Twelve O'Clock High'' (1949).
E ...
as Phil Baxter
*
Joan Evans as Diane Baxter
*
Richard Crenna
Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American film, television and radio actor.
Crenna starred in such motion pictures as ''The Sand Pebbles'', ''Wait Until Dark'', ''Un Flic'', ''Body Heat'', the first three ' ...
as Ralph Bowen
*
Edith Meiser
Edith Meiser (May 9, 1898 – September 26, 1993) was an American author and actress, who wrote mystery novels, stage plays, and numerous radio dramas. She is perhaps best known for bringing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories to radio in the ...
as Mrs. Pryor
*
Les Tremayne
Lester Tremayne (16 April 1913 – 19 December 2003) was an English actor.
Early life
Born in Balham, London, he moved with his family at the age of four to Chicago, Illinois, where he began in community theater. His mother was Dolly Trema ...
as Finlay Murchison
*Forrest Lewis as Dr. Burrows
*
Frank Ferguson
Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1906 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor with hundreds of appearances in both film and television.
Background
Ferguson was the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a native Scottish ...
as John Letherby
*
Bob Sweeney as McGuire
*
Malcolm Lee Beggs
Malcolm Lee Beggs (1907 – December 10, 1956) was an American stage, television and film actor.
Biography
The son of actor/director Lee Beggs and stage actress Doris Singleton, he began performing professionally on the stage at the age of 5. He ...
as Henry Carrollman
*
Dee Pollock
Finis Dee Pollock (September 24, 1937 – December 27, 2005) was an American film and television actor. He was known for playing Billy Urchin in the American western television series ''Gunslinger''.
Life and career
Pollock was born in Alhamb ...
as Flip Baxter
*
Sandy Descher
Sandra Kay Descher (born November 30, 1945) is an American former child actress of the 1950s.
Life and career
Born November 30, 1945, in Burbank, California, Descher is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Descher. She has a younger brother, Michae ...
as Midge Baxter
Production
The film was based on a story by Leonard Praskin and Barney Slater. They took it to
Arthur Lubin
Arthur Lubin (July 25, 1898 – May 11, 1995) was an American film director and producer who directed several ''Abbott & Costello'' films, ''Phantom of the Opera'' (1943), the ''Francis the Talking Mule'' series and created the talking-horse TV se ...
who liked it and showed the story to producer
Leonard Goldstein
Leonard Goldstein (May 28, 1903 – July 23, 1954) was an American film producer who produced mainly low-budget films, making multiple films at a time.Vogel p.51
Biography
He started as a theatre booking agent in Los Angeles and moved to New Yor ...
at Universal. The studio agreed to finance and in September 1951
Irene Dunne
Irene Dunne (born Irene Marie Dunn; December 20, 1898 – September 4, 1990) was an American actress who appeared in films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She is best known for her comedic roles, though she performed in films of other gen ...
agreed to star. They working title was ''There's Nothing Like Money''. By November the title had changed to ''It Grows on Trees'' and the movie was going to start after Lubin finished ''
Francis Goes to West Point
''Francis Goes to West Point'' is a 1952 American black-and-white comedy film from Universal-International, produced by Leonard Goldstein, directed by Arthur Lubin, and starring Donald O'Connor, Lori Nelson, Alice Kelley, and Gregg Palmer. The dis ...
''.
Dunne wanted Dean Jagger as co star after seeing him in ''
My Son John
''My Son John'' is a 1952 American political drama film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Robert Walker and Dean Jagger. Walker plays the title character, a middle-class college graduate whom his parents suspect may ...
''. Joan Evans was borrowed from Sam Goldwyn, who had borrowed Peggy Dow from Universal for ''I Want You'' the previous year.
The filmmakers had to negotiate with the Treasury Department who had strict rules on the creation of fake money. They agreed to money being created for the film but had several conditions which needed to be complied with, such as not showing the money in close up and sticking back together any money that had been cut up.
Lubin said his main job as a director was to "watch the tempo" and make sure the actors looked as though they "believed every word they're saying."
Lubin said that Dunne was "a doll" and "that whole picture was charming. It was made during the 1952 election and there was a lot of politics in the story about money growing on trees. I think the front office sort of ruined the comedy in it. There again, theatre owners were making decisions rather than producers."
Lubin bought the screen rights to ''The Wisdom of the Serpent'' by
Adela Rogers St. Johns
Adela Nora Rogers St. Johns (May 20, 1894 – August 10, 1988) was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies but is best remembered for her groundbreaking exploits as "The World's Grea ...
, hoping to film it with Dunne, but it was never made.
Reception
In 2019, Stephen Vagg wrote in ''Diabolique'' magazine, "It is effective and entertaining though very “Eisenhower era” and I kept wishing Dunne's husband was played by a movie star rather than Dean Jagger."
Radio adaptation
''It Grows on Trees'' was presented on ''Radio Theater'' November 16, 1953. The one-hour adaptation starred
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
and
Marcia Henderson
Marcia Anne Prestlien (née Henderson; July 22, 1929 – November 23, 1987) was an American actress. She made her Broadway debut as Wendy in the musical ''Peter Pan'' (1950), for which she won a Theatre World Award. Henderson also appeared in fi ...
.
[ ]
References
External links
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It Grows on Treesat
TCMDB
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
Its Grows on Treesat Letterbox DVD
Review of filmat Variety
{{Arthur Lubin
1952 films
Films directed by Arthur Lubin
American black-and-white films
Universal Pictures films
1950s fantasy comedy films
American fantasy comedy films
Films scored by Frank Skinner
Films about trees
1952 comedy films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films