Daily Archives: June 20, 2015

Born Yesterday
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Albert Mannheimer from a play by Garson Kanin
1949/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/my DVD collection

[box] Harry Brock: Shut up! You ain’t gonna be tellin’ nobody nothin’ pretty soon!

Billie Dawn: DOUBLE NEGATIVE! Right? [/box]

Think what you will about the line-up for the 1949 Best Actress Oscars.  It is impossible for me to think anyone else deserved the award while actually watching Judy Holliday in this movie.

Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) is a self-made man.  He refuses to say he deals in scrap metal, preferring to refer to himself as being in the junk business.  He has travelled to Washington, DC to grease some legislation on scrap steel with strategically placed bribe. His traveling companion is his fiancee of seven years, prototypical dumb blond Billie Dawn (Holliday).  Both Harry and Billie are hardly fit for polite society.  Since Harry is clearly beyond reform, Harry’s lawyer suggests that he get someone to educate Billie on the social graces.

Unfortunately for Harry, he hits on the idea of hiring Paul Verrall, an investigative reporter who dropped by to interview him.  Paul gives Billie an education far beyond anything Harry could imagine and wins her heart in the process.

Despite all the patriotic speeches that come out of Holden’s character, I really love this movie.  Crawford and Holliday are hilarious together and separately.  Not since Jean Harlow and Wallace Beery went at it in Dinner at Eight has there been such a duo.  The almost silent gin rummy game between the two of them makes me laugh out loud every time.  I don’t know who got the idea of casting Holden as an intellectual.  He did his best.  Holliday could be annoying as hell but I find her absolutely endearing.  Recommended.

Holliday won the Academy Award for Best Actress.  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; Best Writing; Screenplay; and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.

Trailer

Clip – from the gin game

In 1950:

John Howard Lawson and Dalton Trumbo were imprisoned and the eight remaining members of the Hollywood Ten were convicted of contempt of Congress.  The passport of legendary singer-actor Paul Robeson was revoked because of his alleged Communist affiliations.  It was not reinstated until 1958.

Studio control of stars further eroded when James Stewart signed a precedent-setting independent (or free-lance) contract for a 45% share in the net profits of the Anthony Mann western Winchester ’73 (1950), and for the film version of the stage comedy Harvey (1950). These and the other films Stewart made for Universal Studios, for which he took no salary in exchange for a share of the profits, proved to be very lucrative.  Stewart was the industry’s top box-office star by mid-decade.

Adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, the family-oriented Treasure Island (1950) was Disney’s first completely live-action feature film.  Marlon Brando made his feature film debut in director Fred Zinnemann’s The Men (1950). Shirley Temple announced her retirement from show business.  Al Jolson died.

Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the U.S. State Department of being filled with 205 Communists. The McCarran Internal Security Act, which among other things required the registration of Communist organizations and provided for investigation and detention of “subversives”, was passed over the veto of President Truman.

The comic strip “Peanuts” by Charles M. Schulz was first published. L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health paving the way for the Scientology movement.  There was a failed assassination attempt by two Puerto Rican nationals on President Truman.

The Way West by A.B. Guthrie won the Pulitzer prize for literature and Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical South Pacific was honored for drama.  “Good Night, Irene” by The Weavers spent 13 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts.

The new decade began with another awful war.  Due to the deteriorating situation in Korea, President Truman ordered American military forces to join in the conflict on the side of South Korea on June 27.  On June 28, North Korea captured Seoul amid horrible slaughter by both sides.  On November 26, troops from the People’s Republic of China moved into North Korea and launched a massive counterattack against South Korean and American forces at Chosin, dashing any hopes for a quick end to the conflict.  On November 30,  Douglas MacArthur threatened to use nuclear weapons in Korea.  He would later be fired by President Truman for such statements.

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The films I will select from can be found here.  I have previously reviewed the following 1950 films on this site:  , , , , , , , , , , , ,  (“Try and Get Me”), , and .  

Montage of stills from the Oscar winners