This 1950 comedy-drama doesn’t quite overcome its stage origins, and its political satire may feel tame by today’s standards, but it’s elevated by Judy Holiday’s irresistible performance as a smart dumb blonde.
I was curious to see Judy Holiday in this movie after watching a video about the 1951 Best Actress Oscar race from Be Kind Rewind, a YouTube channel that’s become my unofficial go-to as far as Old Hollywood and its leading ladies are concerned. That year’s ceremony saw one of the all-time great Oscar upsets when Holiday took home the little golden man over Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson, screen legends who both gave an iconic performance in All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard, respectively. Surely, this was a case of unforgivable snub and injustice??
In George Cukor’s film version of the stage play, Holiday plays Billie Dawn, a former chorus girl now engaged to a wealthy, corrupt and uncouth businessman, Harry Brock. Billie accompanies her fiancé to Washington D.C., where he takes up an entire wing in a luxurious hotel and proceeds to cultivate valuable “friendships” with powerful politicians. The only hiccup is that Billie is rough around the edges to put it mildly, and does not exactly fit into the refined social circle of congressmen and their wives.
What Billie needs is a makeover, and luckily Brock just met the right man for the job, an idealistic Washington journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden). He hires handsome Paul to spend time with Billie and teach her about culture and politics, seemingly without any concern for the two growing too close in the process. Naturally, it leads exactly where you’d expect, but the surprise is that Billie and Paul lock lips sooner than you’d think, as if the film was eager to get the whole romance thing out of the way early on.
The real focus here is on Billie’s education and her growing reluctance to put up with her thuggish fiancé and his morally dubious practices. Contrary to Brock’s low opinion of her, Billie is far from stupid. It’s more that until now she’s been indifferent about educating herself, as long as she can get everything she wants, including two mink coats, without thinking too hard about anything much. It’s a credit to Cukor and everyone else that, while milking comedy from Billie’s intellectual blunders, the film is never condescending towards her.
Despite taking an occasional trip around Washington D.C.’s tourist attractions, the movie still has a feel of a filmed stage play, and its political commentary maybe doesn’t have the same bite it had in the 1950s. The writing however is still sharp and witty, and the cast is solid even if no one can match Judy Holiday; to be fair, that would have been a tall order as she’s the unquestionable captivating centre of the film. Billie is brash and coarse, and her high-pitched voice is initially grating, but she’s also immensely funny, sweet and endearing. Holiday has many wonderful scenes of purely physical, non-verbal comedy, such as the extended card game where Billie’s intelligence and powers of concentration really show through. I missed her presence whenever she was off-screen even for a short while.
After watching Born Yesterday, I’d still give the Best Actress Oscar to Bette Davis, but I can absolutely see why Holiday’s smart, bright and infectious comedic performance charmed the pants off the Academy voters.
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