--- title: "Born Yesterday" year: 1950 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/born-yesterday" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 77 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-20T02:03:51.080849+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T02:04:27.701639+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Born Yesterday (1950) Directed by George Cukor · 1h 43m · MPA NR · Comedy, Romance **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 77 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* The best scene is a card game in which nobody speaks, which tells you something about the speeches > Judy Holliday makes a comedy out of a woman deciding to pay attention, and she is worth the evening on her own. Around her, George Cukor’s film of Garson Kanin’s play keeps stopping to read us the Constitution. ## Synopsis Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), a junk dealer made rich by scrap, arrives in Washington with his lawyer Jim Devery (Howard St. John) and a plan to buy Congressman Norval Hedges (Larry Oliver). He also brings Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday), a former chorus girl who says exactly what she thinks at dinner with the congressman’s wife (Barbara Brown). Worried she will embarrass him in front of the people he is bribing, Harry hires Paul Verrall (William Holden), a journalist who came to the hotel suite to interview him, to teach Billie manners and history. Paul takes the job, curious about what Harry is really doing in town. Billie takes to the books more quickly than anyone expected. ## Review George Cukor’s film of Garson Kanin’s play sends a junk millionaire to Washington to buy himself a congressman, and he brings his girl along. Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) shouts. His lawyer Jim Devery (Howard St. John) drinks and signs whatever is put in front of him. Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday), a former chorus girl, says the wrong thing to a congressman’s wife over dinner. So Harry hires Paul Verrall (William Holden), a journalist who has come to interview him, to teach her enough to pass. It is a good comedy with an exceptional performance in the middle of it, and a civics lesson wrapped round the outside that we could have done without. Holliday is the reason to watch. Her voice comes out flat and slightly down her nose, every vowel a small complaint, and she uses it to make a line as plain as telling Harry to drop dead sound like the funniest thing anyone has said all week. She plays Billie as a woman who stopped paying attention years ago because attention was not part of the arrangement. The joke is never that she is stupid. The joke is that everyone else has assumed she is. The best scene has almost no dialogue in it. Billie and Harry play gin rummy in the hotel suite, and she beats him hand after hand, humming, shuffling with a little flourish, laying down her cards without looking up, while Crawford’s face darkens by degrees. Cukor lets it run, and Charles Nelson’s editing keeps the two of them in the frame together rather than cutting away to help the joke along. We laughed harder than at anything else in the film, and we laughed because nobody was explaining anything. Harry Horner’s production design gives the film one main set, a hotel suite with too much gilt and too many doors, and Joseph Walker lights it evenly, so that it looks like what it is: a stage with the fourth wall taken off. Jean Louis does the rest of the storytelling. Billie starts in satin and mink and a hat like a sea anemone, and as Paul’s books take hold the clothes get plainer, the shoulders straighter, the hats smaller, so you can tell how far she has got before she opens her mouth. Friedrich Hollaender’s score stays out of the way for most of the 103 minutes, which is right, and then does not, which is the problem. Because the film goes sightseeing. Paul takes Billie round the monuments, the Jefferson Memorial, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the music swells while she reads the inscriptions and the comedy goes quiet. Paul is written as a decent man who reads aloud from the Constitution, and Holden, who is good at decency, cannot find anything funny in him. We felt lectured, and by the second monument we felt the film had confused Billie’s education with ours. Albert Mannheimer’s screenplay keeps the play’s shape, long stretches of talk in the one room, and the film breathes properly only when it stays there. Crawford plays Harry at one volume, and some critics have held that against him. We thought the volume was right for the first hour, when the film needs a man nobody has ever said no to, and wearing by the second, when the script asks Harry to change and gives Crawford nothing to do but get louder. The second half turns on a decision of Billie’s that we will not describe. It is well built and a little neat. Cukor’s gift was for actresses and for letting a scene play at its own speed, and both are on show here, as they were the year before when he directed Holliday in *Adam’s Rib*. Most critics rate the film a little higher than we do, and we understand why: Holliday is that good. We simply wish the film had trusted her to make its point and spared us the guidebook. Watch it for Holliday: the card game, the walk across the suite in the new suit, the moment she reads something and stops. When the monuments start, go and put the kettle on. *Fi1m score 76, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics agree this is a bright, biting comedy that keeps the wit and satire of Garson Kanin’s play, and nearly all of them say it belongs to Judy Holliday. Her Billie Dawn is praised for the malaprops, the timing, and the way she plays a woman cleverer than she lets on; several reviews say the film is more or less all about her. George Cukor’s handling of the cast draws steady credit, and William Holden is noted as quietly effective. The reservations are few and mostly concern the men and the stage. Variety finds Broderick Crawford’s junk dealer loud and boorish, missing the sympathy he had in the theatre, while The Times counts his chemistry with Holliday as a strength. Empire is the lone mixed voice, finding the adaptation overly theatrical, Holliday’s performance calculated on screen, and the heroine merely swapping one dependence for another. The New Yorker notes the politics have dated. The spread is narrow. ### Reviews we read (8) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, THR Staff (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film bright, infectious, and delightful entertainment that retains the play's sharp wit and penetrating satire. They single out Judy Holliday's triumphant performance as Billie Dawn as the element that makes the film work, noting it is all about her. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/born-yesterday-judy-holliday-movie-1236074706/) - **The New York Times** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the Columbia screen version of the Garson Kanin play one of the best pictures of the year, praising its firm social implications, Judy Holliday's priceless performance, and George Cukor's direction that balances humor and moral. Broderick Crawford's portrayal of the brutish junk dealer is singled out as particularly effective in its sting and corruption. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1950/12/27/archives/the-screen-in-review-born-yesterday-is-reborn-on-film-in-columbias.html) - **The Times**, Wendy Ide (85/100, inferred): The review celebrates Judy Holliday's Oscar-winning performance as the central comic force in this romantic comedy. It highlights the strong chemistry between Holliday and Broderick Crawford, along with Holliday's expressive range from hilarity to poignancy. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/business/article/classic-film-of-the-week-born-yesterday-1950-k5dwz8vl6rq) - **Time Out**, GA (80/100, inferred): Cukor's screen version of Garson Kanin's play is still a delight despite its celebration of American democratic ideals. The critic singles out the sharp, witty script and Cukor's handling of the performances, especially Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/born-yesterday) - **The New Yorker**, Penelope Gilliatt (70/100, inferred): The review celebrates Judy Holliday's performance in the George Cukor film as one of her best, highlighting her alert skepticism, comic timing, and the way she portrays Billie Dawn as an intelligent survivor who masks her brains. It notes the film's sweet affection for American survivalists while acknowledging some dated political elements. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1970/07/25/the-current-cinema-15) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The bright, biting comedy adapts easily to film, with Judy Holliday repeating her stage success and almost alone making the picture through her delightful malaprops and artful delivery. William Holden is quietly effective, though Broderick Crawford's junk dealer comes off as merely loud and boorish without the sympathy of the stage version. [Read](https://variety.com/1949/film/reviews/born-yesterday-2-1200416705/) - **Empire**, David Parkinson (55/100, inferred): The critic praises the story and cast but finds the adaptation overly theatrical, with Judy Holliday's performance retaining stage traits that feel calculated on screen. The empowered lead loses some appeal and merely shifts dependence from one man to another. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/born-yesterday-2-review/) - **HeyUGuys**, Sabina Stent (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a pleasure from start to finish, praising Judy Holliday's fantastic, funny, sweet and endearing performance as Billie Dawn that proves there is no such thing as a dumb blonde. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/born-yesterday-review/) ## Details - **Director:** George Cukor - **Director:** George Cukor - **Screenplay:** Albert Mannheimer - **Cinematography:** Joseph Walker - **Editor:** Charles Nelson - **Music:** Friedrich Hollaender - **Production design:** Harry Horner - **Costume design:** Jean Louis - **Producer:** S. Sylvan Simon - **Cast:** Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn; Broderick Crawford as Harry Brock; William Holden as Paul Verrall; Howard St. John as Jim Devery; Frank Otto as Eddie; Larry Oliver as Congressman Norval Hedges; Barbara Brown as Mrs. Hedges; Grandon Rhodes as Sanborn - **Runtime:** 1h 43m - **Certificate (MPA):** NR - **Release (the US):** 26 December 1950 - **Genres:** Comedy, Romance ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 *Checked 2026-09-20.* Also available in: US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1951: Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Actress (won) ## If you liked this - *Adam's Rib* (1949): Cukor and Holliday the year before, with Hepburn and Tracy arguing in court and at home. - *Ball of Fire* (1941): A showgirl teaches eight professors slang; Stanwyck is the one doing the educating. - *Pygmalion* (1938): The original lesson in how a woman learns to talk and then talks back. - *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington* (1939), Fi1m 84: The same monuments, taken entirely seriously, and a filibuster you will forgive. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mr-smith-goes-to-washington.md) - *Educating Rita* (1983), Fi1m 71: Julie Walters reads her way out of a hairdresser’s in Liverpool; funnier and sadder than it sounds. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/educating-rita.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/born-yesterday