In 1946 Garson Kanin wrote the stage play Born Yesterday. It premiered on Broadway starring Judy Holliday as an uncouth showgirl mistress to a corrupt junk dealer in Washington D.C. who is intent on bribing a congressman to improve his profits. The play was so successful it became the seventh longest running non-musical play in Broadway’s history with revivals extending well into the 21st Century. All the major Hollywood studios vied for the story rights before Columbia pictures secured them for a hefty price, bested only by the massive fee Universal paid for Harvey. George Cukor took the reigns and came up with a innovative method for developing the characters and instilling the comedic timing needed to make the humorous moments work; He had them rehearse the movie like it were a play and then perform it live in front of an audience drawn up from the studio’s employees. This would allow the actors to gauge the laughter, perfect their timing, and tailor their performance to what worked and what didn’t. The idea worked and the final product came out snappy and sharp, with all of the principal performers nailing the comedic elements as well at the dramatic ones.
Broderick Crawford plays junkyard tycoon Harry Brock. He has moved to Washington D.C. alongside his brassy girlfriend “Billie” Dawn (Judy Holliday), and his crooked lawyer Jim Devery (Howard St. John) with the intention of “influencing” a politician or two. As a legal precaution, Devery is pressuring Harry to marry Billie so she cannot be forced to testify against her husband in a court of law. Harry dismisses this advice as he feels she doesn’t have the brains to double cross him. He does, however, hide his assets from the government by signing them over to her since she is reliable, docile and obedient to him.
Even though his own behavior is much worse, he is embarrassed by Billie’s ignorance and bad manners while hosting a get together in their rented apartment. To remedy this he hires journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden) to teach her manners and educate her and give her some culture. Paul takes the job and soon finds out that Billie knows little outside her sphere and even has a very limited vocabulary. She flirts with him, assuring him that Harry is ignorant of her little affairs as he is more interested in his businesses than in her. Paul declines, though he is tempted, and begins to show her a whole world outside of her limited experience. It’s a slow start but she soon finds things of interest in literature, history, politics and the law and is surprised to discover she is smarter than she, or anyone else, ever knew. It’s not long before she starts applying her new knowledge to her life and begins to see just how corrupt Harry and his business dealings really are.
Originating from the stage, this film is limiting in scope with much of the action taking place inside the apartment. For some films this can come across as stifling and claustrophobic but Born Yesterday avoids that trap by making the most of the set and injecting a lot of energy into the characters, especially Billie and Harry. Judy Holliday has the more difficult role as the blissfully ignorant dancer girl who is just along for the ride. She has to be convincingly callow without coming across as mindlessly stupid. To sell this effect she has a very stereotypical accent that makes her sound ditzy and dumb. The brilliant part of this performance is that throughout the entire transformation of her character she never loses that accent, yet it no longer sounds ditzy by the end. She begins to use proper words, often correcting herself when she gets it wrong at first, then catching it when others around her speak poorly. It’s cute and hilarious when she gets excited over catching Harry use a double negative in a sentence, calling it out to Paul with glee.
Broderick Crawford’s character is boisterous and bullying but there is nothing particularity exceptional here. This is the type of acting that works better on the stage where it needs to project to the back of the audience. It’s not a bad performance, just a bit on the generic side. Broderick was good at playing these kind of roles and had even won an Oscar the previous year for a character who started out honest but allowed power and corruption to overrule that character, descending into a character much like this one here. His role in All the King’s Men had an arc to it that is sadly missing here. The Harry at the beginning of the film is the same man at the end of it. The only thing we feel towards him is disgust when he is constantly belittling those around him, especially Billie. That disgust is intensified when he turns physically violent towards her.
Of the three leads, William Holden is the old man out. Paul is not much of a character for Holden to work with and consequentially there isn’t much he can do with it. He is game and tries to interject some humanity and dry wit into the performance but he is just too weakly written to be much of anything. He shows a lot of patience with Billie early on when she is resistant to learning but whenever any real sparks start to develop between them he shuts it down. He never seems intimidated by Harry and plays it cool even when surrounded by the man and his goons.
Born Yesterday was nominated for Best Picture at the 23rd Academy Awards but there wasn’t a chance it would actually win that year. Between All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard, another William Holden picture, there just wasn’t a chance for a comedy like this. It didn’t matter that Born Yesterday was seen as promoting patriotism and democracy in a post World War II world, it just didn’t have the prestige of those other films. Of the five nominations it did get only Judy Holliday would take home a statue beating out Anne Baxter and Bette Davis, whose nominations effectively canceled each other out, and the favored Gloria Swanson for Sunset Boulevard. It was a surprise win that is even more surprising after some time has passed. All three of those actresses delivered performances that were stronger and more iconic and have more longevity, yet that is not how the voting went at the time.
This is a relatively breezy film that also manages to tackle a serious subject like political corruption and the importance of being educated. It only really bogs down when it spends too much time sight seeing Washington D.C. During these moments it begins to feel like a tour documentary as it shows off the Capital Building, the Library of Congress and other historical sights alongside such famous documents as the Declaration of Independence. A little of this goes a long way and it spends too long in these moments. What saves this from being a complete slog is the sheer innocence Billie conveys as well as the excitement and delight she is getting as she learns so much in such a short period of time. Her character is the biggest reason to see this film anymore. Playwrite Kanin tried for years to get a remake made. That finally came to be in the 1990’s with Melanie Griffith, John Goodman and Don Johnson in the lead roles. It’s fine, but it has many of the same problems inherent in this film. It’s a lot less charming, too. Stick with this original version if you can. Judy Holliday makes this film.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Motion Picture: S. Sylvan Simon
Best Director: George Cukor
Best Actress: Judy Holliday (won)
Best Screenplay: Albert Mannheimer
Best Costume Design - Black-and-White: Jean Louis
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Release Date: December 25, 1950
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Not Rated
Starring: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford and William Holden
Directed By: George Cukor
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