Comment l'esprit vient aux femmes

Judy Holliday rightly won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of dumb blonde kept woman Billie Dawn, a role she successfully played on Broadway in the stage show production. Yet to only mention her would be doing a disservice to the films other strengths as it has many to justify it being labelled a classic of its time.

Billie Dawn is the girlfriend of scrap metal magnate Harry Brock, she's not that bright and Brock uses her as a front for some less than honest dealings. Sure he cares but his treatment of her borders on the repulsive whilst still managing to get the ribs tickled, Brock worries that her dumbness will do down important business issues socially, so he arranges for the calm and well spoken Paul Verrall to be her chaperon and train her to be eloquent and more astute of the world and its history.

The film then becomes your standard Pygmalion story as the nice but dim Billie not only learns about the world she lives in, she also learns about the world SHE HAS been living in, and coupled with the sexual awakening she finds with Verrall this fills out the rest of the story. It's full of delightful scenes that linger long in the memory, and outside of Holliday's brilliant performance, we get a wonderful example of the polar opposite Male love interest, Broderick Crawford as Brock is a maelstrom of shouting daftness, a man that makes you cringe such is his buffoonery. On the other hand we get the serene and well mannered Verrall played with the right amount of pathos by William Holden, and it is with much credit that amongst the loud brash shows from the other stars, he remains more than a distant memory.

The comedy here will make you cringe one minute, and then have you giggling away the next, all the chief characters here engage you in the way they are meant to, the climax may be a bit too condensed for some but it's a fine ending that befits the previous efforts you have just witnessed, and I defy anyone to not laugh at the gin rummy sequence! 8/10

Boisterous and highly enjoyable comedy written by the prolific and talented Garson Kanin and filmed by his regular collaborative director George Cukor, "Born Yesterday" showcases the talent of comedienne Judy Halliday to superb, or should that be "supoib" effect, so much so that she won the Oscar that year (over Gloria Swanson, no less in another Holden-starring feature, the great "Sunset Boulevard").

The story roughly adapts the old Pygmalion / Eliza Doolittle story, a sort of educating Billie, as mobster boss Broderick Crawford, with a finger in every pie and a bought-and-paid-for congressman in his pocket comes to Washington to expand his operation along with his dutiful attorney and tie up another major crooked deal. Staying in the best hotel suite in town, also in tow is his eye-candy "dumb blonde" fiancée played by Halliday, who is pressed for tax reasons into being a silent partner in Crawford's business empire and who duly signs every dodgy contract he places in front of her.

After Crawford bumps into William Holden's journalist, to amuse Billie and get her to better fit in with the higher class of the town's corrupt cognoscenti, he offers Holden the gig to educate her, which Holden does by bringing her books and teaching her history through visits to some of the capital's national monuments. A little knowledge as they say is a dangerous thing and it's not long before Halliday and Holden become an item and, even worse for Crawford, his bimbo doormat literally wises up to her situation and naturally rebels.

A good example of a stage play which cleverly belies its origins by having Holden and Halliday doing the town, the film nevertheless stands or falls on characterisation and dialogue and thankfully it's a winner in both respects. Halliday is a delight as the slowly dawning, now bespectacled former-airhead, seizing with relish on every new word or iota of information she absorbs and with a particular way with a put-down ("Vice-versa!") when she and Crawford are in full argumentative flow. Crawford too is a hit as the boorish kingpin, although I didn't like seeing his character revert to using his hands to get the upper hand over her, so to speak, even as I appreciate the scene's importance as a plot-point given that it actually signals the end of his sway over her. Holden too is fine in the kind of part Jack Lemmon would later make his own as the reliable if slightly put-upon regular guy who becomes Billie's ally.

While the screenplay may slightly overdo its promotion of American capitalism and democracy to signpost Billie's awakening and at the same time, demonise Crawford's criminality, it's still a fast-paced, sharply-drawn and well-realised contemporary comedy with a political edge. There's an interesting real-life postscript too, in that when the left-leaning Halliday was later called by the House Of Un-American Activities to testify before them and name names, she invoked the empty-vessel Billie Dawn character under interrogation to cleverly avoid giving up her friends. Crazy like a fox, indeed.

"Born Yesterday" is a comedy with some serious ideas behind it. The film does a wonderful job in its subtle take about corruption in high places, the role of the lobbyists and influential people in Washington politics. The movie presents an interesting aspect for today's audiences, as things related to the film have been in the news lately, making the film relevant.

The comedy by Garson Kanin ran for years on the New York stage. Judy Holliday had starred on Broadway opposite Paul Douglas. For the movie version Broderick Crawford was selected. George Cukor directed with his well known style and getting excellent performances of this ideal cast.

The film is the gem it is because the great star turn by Judy Holliday, an actress that was unique in everything she did. Billie Dawn was one of the best achievements in the movies. Ms. Holliday was an intelligent actress who knew what made her character work. She made a wonderful contribution with Billie, who in spite of being supposed to be a girl without brains, Ms. Holliday shows her to be a smart no-nonsense woman with more common sense than anyone could give her credit for.

Broderick Crawford made quite an impression as the ruthless Harry Brock, a man that can't see the goodness in Billie. He constantly belittles her and even goes as far as slapping her on occasion, but that is what someone like him would normally do when he can't get his way, or thinks is being threatened by a woman like Billie. Mr. Crawford was a wonderful actor as proved in his appearances in Fellini's "Il bidone", and in "All the President's Men".

The other good performance was William Holden, who as Paul Verrall, transforms Billie from an abused woman into someone that is not afraid to open her mouth against the bully that has been taken her for granted for a long time. Mr. Holden clearly understood the man he was playing and makes a wonderful match for Ms. Holliday.

"Born Yesterday" is a fun film to watch because all the elements that went into it and the inspired direction George Cukor and the ensemble work of the cast, but especially from its star, Judy Holliday.

A brilliant Judy Holliday performance is the main attraction in this witty, brisk adaptation of Garson Kanin's Broadway success. As a gangster's moll who gradually awakens to her civic responsibility, Holliday expands her dumb-broad persona from her previous film with Cukor, Adam's Rib, into a character who's sweet, memorable and surprisingly tough.

Born Yesterday is a suitable companion piece to Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, a much more self-consciously "important" film that imparts similar messages about political corruption and the responsibility of individuals to require ethical governance. The message is arguably more powerfully imparted here - filtered through the perspective of the selfish, spoiled and barely-literate Ms. Dawn - than in the film focused on Jimmy Stewart's eloquent (and intimidatingly ethical) Mr. Smith, an "everyman" who is vastly morally superior to most audience members.

William Holden is relaxed and charming as the Henry Higgins-ish newspaper man tasked with opening Billie's eyes and Broderick Crawford is suitably broad and menacingly raspy as her corrupt, vulgar boyfriend. However, the movie is all Holliday's from the opening scenes, which play on the audience's lack of familiarity with the actress by presenting her as a refined, statuesque beauty in an extended sequence until, at last, she squawks out her first lines in nearly impenetrable, helium-voiced Brooklynese to hilarious effect.

A richly deserved Best Actress Oscar for the newcomer Holliday, despite formidable competition from grande dames Bette Davis (All About Eve) and Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard).

One of my favourite films of all time, this Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday, William Holden vehicle was magnificently written by Garson Kanin and superbly directed by George Cukor.

Cukor did something that is seldom done with any film: He decided to rehearse `Born Yesterday' as if it were a play (which it was on Broadway and of which Judy Holliday performed the role of Billie Dawn 1,200 times) and had a complete theater built on one of the studio's soundstages and filled it with an audience so he could perfectly time the laughs and the pauses so the movie-going public wouldn't miss a thing.

This bit of directing genius is part of what is responsible for the remarkable film that is `Born Yesterday.'

The other part of the equation is the casting of Broderick Crawford as the slimy, junk dealer turned multi-millionaire, Harry Brock.

Rita Hayworth was originally slated to star as Billie Dawn but when she married Ally Khan and put her screen career on hold the producers ran through an entire list of potential candidates… It was only with great reluctance that they finally decided to use Judy Holliday in the role she created on Broadway – not believing she was a big enough `name' to pull in audiences.

Lucky break for them: She went on to win the first Oscar ever awarded to an actress for a comedic role.

Her every movement, glance and word is a study in brilliance of the not-so-dumb blonde, Billie Dawn.

Unfortunately Judy Holliday's career was cut short when she died of breast cancer just a few weeks short of her 44th birthday – who knows what kind of work she could have accomplished had she only lived.

`Born Yesterday' went on to receive five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, but the only award went to Judy Holliday for Best Actress; she also won the Golden Globe in the same category that year.

This is a finely crafted tale of greed, corruption and the ultimate price that must be paid by those that believe they can manipulate the law and the government by for and of the people.

It is a brilliant movie and should not be missed.