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Born Yesterday

File:Born_Yesterday_(1950_poster).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Born Yesterday

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1950 film directed by George Cukor

Film · TMDB

7.3

Uncouth, loud-mouth junkyard tycoon Harry Brock descends upon Washington D.C. to buy himself a congressman or two, bringing with him his mistress, ex-showgirl Billie Dawn.

Released: 1950-12-26103 minDir: George CukorComedy, Romance

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

Themes

  • washington dc, usa
  • congress
  • tycoon
  • based on play or musical
  • political satire

This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.

Ratings

IMDb

7.5/10

13,646 votes

Year
1950
Runtime
103 min
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance

via IMDb

Key facts

Directed by
George Cukor
Screenplay by
Albert Mannheimer Garson Kanin (uncredited)
Based on
Born Yesterday , by Garson Kanin
Produced by
S. Sylvan Simon
Starring
Judy Holliday Broderick Crawford William Holden
Cinematography
Joseph Walker
Edited by
Charles Nelson
Music by
Frederick Hollander
Production company
Columbia Pictures
Distributed by
Columbia Pictures
Release date
December 25, 1950 ( 1950-12-25 )
Running time
102 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Box office
$4.15 million (US and Canada rentals )

via Wikipedia infobox

~15 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Born Yesterday is a 1950 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor, based on the 1946 stage play of the same name by Garson Kanin. The screenplay was credited to Albert Mannheimer. According to Kanin's autobiography, Cukor did not like Mannheimer's work, believing it lacked much of the play's value, so he approached Kanin about adapting a screenplay from his own play. Because of legal entanglements, Kanin did not receive screen credit.

The film tells the story of an uneducated young woman, Billie Dawn (played by Judy Holliday, in an Oscar-winning performance), and an uncouth, older, wealthy junkyard tycoon, Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) who comes to Washington, D.C., to try to "buy" a congressman. When Billie embarrasses him socially, Harry hires journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden) to educate her. In the process, Billie learns how corrupt Harry is, and eventually falls in love with Paul.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Born Yesterday” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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