SYNOPSIS

Junk tycoon Harry Brock gets more than he bargained for when he tries to buy some respectability and sophistication for his brash girlfriend Billie Dawn. He hires political reporter Paul Verrall to educate her so she won't embarrass him during a Washington lobbying trip, but Verrall teaches her more than grammar and diction. He opens her eyes to Harry's crooked business deals and gives her a healthy insight into the dreams that shaped the nation, turning Billie into Harry's biggest enemy and his own ideal woman.

Director: George Cukor
Producer: S. Sylvan Simon
Screenplay: Albert Mannheimer
Based on the play by Garson Kanin
Cinematography: Joseph Walker
Editing: Charles Nelson
Art Direction: Harry Horner
Music: Frederick Hollander
Cast: Judy Holliday (Billie Dawn), Broderick Crawford (Harry Brock), William Holden (Paul Verrall), Howard St. John (Jim Devery), Frank Otto (Eddie), Larry Oliver (Norval Hedges)
BW-103m.

Why BORN YESTERDAY Is Essential

Critics have hailed Judy Holliday's Billie Dawn as the screen's definitive dumb blonde, while noting that during the course of the film she becomes progressively smarter.

Born Yesterday made Holliday a star. Although Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn had resisted the idea of casting her in the film version of her stage hit, the film's success prompted him to come up with other vehicles to exploit her unique mix of brassiness and sensitivity.

Born Yesterday is one of the key films cementing George Cukor's reputation as a "woman's director." Almost all of the focus is on Holliday, to the extent that the picture not only introduced her to audiences as a leading lady but made her a star and brought her the Oscar® for Best Actress.

Born Yesterday marked the fourth of eight collaborations for director George Cukor and writer Garson Kanin and/or his wife, actress-writer Ruth Gordon, one of the most productive director-writer collaborations in film history.

The film was the first of three Holliday made with Cukor, all with scripts by Garson Kanin. On the later two, Gordon also collaborated. Their second film together was The Marrying Kind (1952), followed by It Should Happen to You (1954).

With Born Yesterday, Columbia Pictures became the first film studio to pay $1 million for a literary property.

by Frank Miller