Born Yesterday: George Cukor

George Cukor has long been derided as a director who cleaved too closely to his literary sources. Some accused him of not working hard enough to translate his sources into the language of cinema. His 1950 film Born Yesterday doesn't help his case, but there are other reasons why the film fails besides his literalist translation of the original play by Garson Kanin. The film, a kind of updated Pygmalion, follows the education of Emma 'Billie' Dawn (Judy Holliday), the fiance of corrupt tycoon Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) by journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden) while the couple are in DC to "influence" politicians. Despite her uncouth mannerisms, Billie reveals a ferocious intellect after applying herself to her studies. By the end of the film, she has so educated herself that she manages to blackmail Harry to prevent him from bribing US Congressmen. She also falls in love with Paul, but her transformation is the most important part of the film, not her fledgling romance. Herein lies one of the film's main problems: it resorts to cheap moralization. While Billie is partially transformed by her exposure to great works of literature by writers like Alexander Pope, the majority of her conversion takes place during prolonged sequences where Blake takes her on tours of Washington DC to visit such nationalistic shrines as the Jefferson Memorial and the US Constitution. As a result, her metamorphosis is less intellectual than moral. She thwarts Harry's plans in the end primarily because of morale outrage that he would pervert the noble and honorable system of American government. What should have been the story of an individual's salvation through the application of her own talents and intelligence (it is subtly implied during a scene where she and Harry play gin rummy that she harbors a latent genius-level intellect) is tossed aside in favor of a deification of the US political system. She blossoms not because of her own talents, but because of her exposure to the forces of justice that birthed America. As a result, a potentially empowering piece of feminist cinema is spoiled.

6/10