Aug. 01, 2002 - 12:58 am
this movie suggestion was made to me about a week ago. Born Yesterday was nominated for Best Picture of 1950, but ended up losing to All About Eve (1950). the one big award that it did end up winning was Best Actress for Judy Holliday. i've heard it mentioned that there was/is a fairly big controversy that she won the award over Bette Davis in All About Eve and Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd. (1950).
the story is this. a big millionaire (Broderick Crawford) comes to Washington D.C. in order to influence some laws that are in the works and brings his fiancee along. she's quite a moron and he himself is not much better. his loud mouth and big pocketbook help to keep most people from mentioning his ignorance though. after a congressman comes to visit, he decides that he wants his fiancee to become a bit more cultured and intelligent. he employs a newspaper man (William Holden) he met recently to undertake her education. as Judy Holliday's character (Billie) begins to lose her ignorance, she learns that her situation is not as attractive as she always thought it was. there's something better out there.
weird. two great movies that year for William Holden. and both were Best Picture nominees. the other of course was Sunset Blvd. which you need to see if you haven't seen it yet.
i really liked Born Yesterday though. i think i might have seen most of it before, but had more or less forgotten it. Judy Holliday was wonderful as was William Holden. and i guess Broderick Crawford was good as the loudmouth. he pissed me off, but i guess he was supposed to. it's funny that Judy Holliday looks and seems so stupid in this film. i guess that's why she won the Oscar. she had a recorded I.Q. of 172. she was not a moron.