Born Yesterday (1950): A Review (Review #1965)

BORN YESTERDAY

If Born Yesterday is remembered today, it is because Judy Holliday pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Academy Awards history. In a field with Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in All About Eve plus Gloria Swanson's comeback for Sunset Boulevard, for the relative newcomer in a comedy to come in and beat out those powerhouse dramatic performances now seems strange. Nevertheless, Holliday won, the film's only win out of five nominations. It will be another time when I rank the five nominated performances (Eleanor Parker in Caged seems always to be an also-ran). For now, let us look at Born Yesterday. Pleasant, knowing and charming, Born Yesterday still looks like a filmed play but works in the tale of a woman's mental awakening.

Boorish junk king Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) comes to Washington, D.C. to get some favorable legislation from any Congressman he could get by hook or crook. With Brock is his showgirl girlfriend and seven-year-fiancée Emma "Billie" Dawn (Judy Holliday). Billie is the perfect pigeon for Brock and his crooked attorney Jim Devery (Howard St. John), for she signs whatever Deverey puts in front of her without bothering to read it. As such, Billie is totally unaware that she is essentially a front, with a lot of Harry's holdings under her name to avoid government intrusion.

After a get-to-know-you meetup at Harry's suite with a congressman and his wife goes wrong, the loud and bellicose Harry doesn't blame himself for the fiasco. He blames Billie and decides that she needs to be polished up to be a classier broad. For that, he turns to crusading reporter Paul Verrall (William Holden), who has come to do a profile on Brock. In exchange for $200/week, Verrall is to educate Billie on proper speaking and make her presentable. He would have done it for free, and Billie thinks he's a sucker for not asking more. "I'm stupid and I like it," she tells him on their initial meeting.

She might like it, but Billie is not stupid. As Paul begins to guide her into learning about the world outside her own, Billie Dawn has a dawning of her own. She learns not just words but also about government and the crooked ways of Harry Brock. No longer willing to be the ditzy blonde bombshell, Billie soon starts looking into what she is signing. She also has fallen in love with Paul, feelings that are reciprocated. Will that, however, be enough for the two people Harry dismisses as the "dumb chump and crazy broad"? 

Judy Holliday had originated the role of Billie Dawn on Broadway, but the studio was not convinced that she should recreate her performance on film. Ultimately, it proved a winning formula for both Holliday and Born Yesterday, as she is exceptional as this seemingly simple girl who is smart enough to know that she is not smart. She makes Billie into a delightful character, one whose whole motto can be summed up in what she tells Paul early on.

"I've got no questions," she tells him when he asks if she has any questions about their working together. Billie is not a bad person. She seems good natured and has a vulnerable side. Billie, attending an outdoor concert with Paul, has a monologue about her fraught relationship with her father, who cut off most contact with her when she went off with Harry. Surprised to have received a letter from him after seven years, she comments that she would love to see him again, but that he still opposes her essentially being Harry's mistress. For something often seen as a comedy, this was a strong piece of dramatic acting.

Holliday was charming and sweet as Billie, but she also revealed that she was not a dumb blonde, merely an unaware one. Once she started studying things, asking questions of and to herself, we saw the evolution to someone able to realize that she had been a patsy for far too long. A particularly effective moment is when she stubbornly refuses to sign more documents, aware of what is going on and wanting nothing to do with the "cartels". Brock responds angrily but goes too far, slapping Billie repeatedly in a moment that took out all the fun and frivolity that there was. Seeing her in tears, rubbing her cheeks as she signs, is a deeply disturbing sight.

I do not know how that played both on stage and/or in 1950. I can say that today, it would not play, especially if Born Yesterday is billed as a comedy. For the most part, it is. Holliday has a great way with barbs, even when directed at herself. When asked about the Supreme Court, she asks in her slightly nasally tone, "What is it?". Later, when Paul asks what she thought of his latest column, she replies, "I think it's the best thing I ever read. I didn't understand one word". When confronting both Brock and Devery, she tells them that Paul told her that this was the biggest swindle since the teapot...something. It is obvious that she wants to know more now but still struggles to phrase it correctly. 

Broderick Crawford is equal to Holliday as the loud, bullying Harry Brock. Shouting and raging all over the place, Crawford's Brock is equally ignorant but unlike Billie, he uses what few smarts he has for his own selfish reasons. It is not as if there are not some good qualities with him. He takes great pride in having started working at age 12, and in how he started out his wheeling and dealing by hoodwinking others. However, when asked to name what is a peninsula, he offers that "it's that new medicine". Holden is the straight man in this set-up, and he is fine as the intelligent intellectual who falls for the pretty young thing. If he has any flaws, it is that Paul is rather fond of his big words when he could compress it to something simpler.

As a side note, while Garson Kanin (surreptitiously adapting his stage play with credit going to Albert Mannheimer), may not have seen it, I saw Born Yesterday as a variation of Pygmalion. Here is the educated man, taking the uneducated woman and transforming her into a new figure while falling in love with his own creation. It may have, intentionally or not, inspired the Goldie Hawn vehicle Protocol, another tale of a ditzy blonde removed from things outside herself who grows after reading and understanding how she is the government. 

I think that, despite director George Cukor's best efforts, Born Yesterday could not escape its stage origins. Even the on-location footage of Paul and Billie wandering through the nation's capital, Born Yesterday still is staged and acted as if it were a play. The hotel suite is the primary location for events, and the blocking too looks as if it were being performed in front of an audience.

Born Yesterday is light, amusing fare. It is a good film about how knowledge really is power. With strong performances all around, I think people will end up loving Billie Dawn, who turned out is a smart cookie. 

DECISION: B-