BORN YESTERDAY
US, 1950, 90 minutes, Black and White.
Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday, William Holden.
Directed by George Cukor.
Born Yesterday was probably funnier yesterday than it is today. But it has become a classic and Garson Kanin's satire on gangsters and their molls with a touch of the Pygmalion transformation of the statue into life has many moments of comedy and pathos.
George Cukor has been considered a woman's director (many films with Katharine Hepburn). He won an Oscar for My Fair Lady and in his seventies directed Maggie Smith in an Oscar nominated performance in Travels With My Aunt. Here he directed a find comedienne, Judy Holliday, and she won the Oscar for best actress of the year. A glimpse of the past.
1. What did the title suggest to you?
2. The theme of the film was the 'Pygmalion' theme, the statue that comes alive and charms its maker. How was the theme worked out in the film?
3. How was Harry a parody of the gangster-film, Damon Runyon type, crook? How did Broderick Crawford's performance convey the reality of the gangster along with the satire on behaviour and attitudes?
4. What did you expect of Billie as you saw her make her entry? Were you prepared for her raucous "What?" Did Judy Holliday portray Billie as the typical 'dumb blonde'? In what way? Did she caricature the part or parody it more gently?
5. How did the sequences of the arrival at the hotel, the interview with Paul, and the visit of the Congressman and his wife indicate the genre, mood and targets of the film?
6. Did Harry come across as a person? How was his life story a parody of the rise of the capitalist new man? How brutish was he? How stupid? How presumptuous? Did he really love Billie? Did he have any regard for his lawyer?
7. Did Billie come across as a person? As an ignorant chorine who was happy that way? Her story about her father, her seeing through Harry, her intuitions about getting what she wanted, her liking the compliments made by Paul?
8. How did Paul effect the change in her? Was it the things she learnt to appreciate or the companionship and interest of Paul? Both? How did she respond to art, culture, etc? Was this
built on her natural feelings and ability to appreciate? "The tyranny over the human mind".
9. What change occurred in Paul? Why? How?
10. What was Harry's reaction to the change? Why couldn't he understand it? why did he fight what he couldn't understand?
11. What did Harry discover about himself and power and possessing things and people?
12. What future did Paul and Billie have?
13. Of what did the comedy of the film consist, witty dialogue, clever performances, hilarious situations, cleverly directed sequences, parody of human behaviour and goals?
