Born Yesterday – William Holden Golden Boy Blogathon

I’m a bit late with this one, but between the insane week and celebating my daughter’s birthday, I did what I could! In honor of William Holden’s birthday anniversary on April 17th, I’m participating in the Golden Boy Blogathon, hosted by The Wonderful World of Cinema.

If you purchase this film, I may earn a commission as an Amazon affiliate: DVD, Bluray, or rent/stream!

I saw Born Yesterday years ago and was jazzed to revisit it for this blogathon. Judy Holliday won an Oscar for her performance as Billie, reprising her role from Broadway. Even though she wasn’t first choice (which seems insane), she got the part with some help from Katharine Hepburn, who created buzz about her stealing the spotlight in Adam’s Rib. William Holden is in fine form here too… he is handsome, passionate about the history of the US, but also pretty calm and mild mannered. His character presents a stark contrast against Billie’s tycoon boyfriend Harry, who is just a jerk.. he says he loves her, but then controls her, calls her stupid and even slaps her around.

Synopsis:

Crooked billionaire junk dealer Harry (Broderick Crawford) comes to D.C. to bribe congressmen. While it’s never fully fleshed out exactly what his business entails fully, he sounds and looks like a gangster, so it’s easy to picture him as a thoroughly corrupt crook. Especially since his lawyer has Billie (Holliday) sign multiple papers, never telling her what they are. And for most of the movie, she doesn’t care and just does what Harry tells her to. From the beginning you want her to tell him off. He’s SUCH a brute.

So anyway, since Harry is mixing with all sorts of politicians and their wives, he decides that Billie needs some refinement. She can’t follow what they’re talking about and just wants to sing along with the radio, which is pretty cute, but Harry doesn’t think so. Especially when she keeps beating him at gin in this scene… hahaha. This is also a huge clue that Billie really IS smart.

They meet D.C. journalist Paul (Holden) to help “educate” her. The sparks start flying immediately and the scene below happens really quick. Then, he takes her to different government tourtist locations (which are kind of date-like and the two fall in love), gives her books, and jumpstarts her brain into realizing she’s not dumb like everyone keeps telling her.

And now she cares, so she realizes what Harry is doing is wrong and refuses to sign any more papers. Again though, what exactly these papers are, we never find out. However, we do find out that she contorls a bunch of his company. When she refuses, Harry smacks her around (super cringy) and she gives in. The scene is hard to watch, but then her exit, her usual brassy self helps bring the mood back up. She goes to Paul and they hatch a plan to steal back the papers and confront Harry.

Of course, Harry does not take this well and tries to strangle Paul, but he gets away and the two lovers leave victorious!

The Players:

William Holden and Judy Holliday

Let’s take a momen to appreaciate how handsome William is shall we? Siiiiiighhhh.. okay, now that’s done. Seriously, the glasses are a good look on him. He’s just so kind and level-headed, which is a huge contrast to Harry. You want him to sweep her off her feet and take her away from all the bad she’s had to endure.

Broderick Crawford and Howard St. John

I’m not as familiar with Broderick, but Howard, I remember from Strangers on a Train and Lover Come Back. Here he plays Harry’s lawyer, who is also kind of crooked, but also fun to watch. He’s beaten down by Harry, but kind of droll about the whole thing, making comments and warning Harry that he needs to marry Billie because “wives can’t testify against their husbands.” Harry eventually takes his advice and tells Billie they’re going to get married, but, of course, by then it’s too late because she wants Paul and nothing more to do with Harry.

Background Trivia:

Friendships all around!

Even though Broderick played such a jerk, he bonded with both Judy and William. When they went to D.C. to film on location, Judy insisted on taking the train. It was a four-day trip, but Broderick came along with her and they had to do something to pass the time, right? So they played gin-rummy like their characters in the movie. Not only was Billie skilled at gin-rummy, apparently so was Judy because by the end of the trip, she’d won $600 (the equivalent of almost $8K today! What?) and instead of being annoyed, Broderick became her friend!

As for William and Broderick, they both disliked the head of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn, a whole bunch, so that helped them bond. They would play tricks on him, running up room service bills when they stayed in Washington and ordering large glasses of Scotch at lunch, so he would worry they’d be too drunk to keep filming.

What if…?

Marilyn Monroe had played Billie?

Rumor has it that Marilyn’s screen test for this film was excellent, but Harry Cohn wouldn’t even go to the projection room to watch it. He was probably bitter about Rita Hayworth, his first choice for this, giving him trouble. Marilyn could have been really solid here, I think. She plays the dumb blonde so well, but she has that depth that would make a convincing transition.

Or Rita Hayworth?

Rita was Cohn’s first choice and she was set to play the part, but then she married Prince Aly Khan and she put her entire career on hold, much to Cohn’s chagrin, I’m sure. While Rita is a stellar actress, I can’t picture her here.

Or Celeste Holm?

Celeste was also considered. She has the comedic chops that would do well here, so that might have been interesting to see her in this role. I really love her in both Pal Joey and High Society.

Or Jean Arthur?

The author of the play, Garson Kanin, wrote the part of Billie for Jean, but she dropped out just a couple of days before opening night. Judy was cast instead. She was considered again for the film version, but turned it down.

Or Lana Turner?

Lana is obviously gorgeous, but I’m not sure about this choice either. They were going to attempt a deal to borrow her from MGM, but that never came to fruition.

Not that all of these ladies aren’t talented, but why would they look any further than the woman who played Billie on Broadway? Seems silly now!

If you like alternative history or biographical/historical fiction, I write that as well under the pen name Dottie Fray.

Check out the other entries in the William Holden Golden Boy Blogathon!

If you purchase this film, I may earn a commission as an Amazon affiliate: DVD, Bluray, or rent/stream!