Born Yesterday
Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford are riveting, jaw-dropping, heartbreaking and mesmerizing in two of the most detailed, lived-in performances I’ve ever seen committed to film in a Hollywood picture. In comparison, William Holden seems smug, condescending and two-dimensional. Holliday and Crawford mop up the screen with him.
Based on a play, it’s still a little stagebound in its execution, and its narrative strategies feel a little rushed and convenient.
Part Educating Rita and part Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The movie has a “serious message” about influence peddling, corrupt congressmen and the effect of corporate power on lawmaking. At the end, it appears that all that is on its way out, due to a popular revolt led by a newly-smart populace and the newspapermen who have educated them.
Glad that was all taken care of 56 years ago.
The picture was remade in 1993 with Melanie Griffith (way too on-the-nose), John Goodman (mmm, maybe) and Don Johnson (coffee-spit-take) . Anyone seen this?
