Born Yesterday

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Born Yesterday

1950

1h 43m

Comedy

Drama

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Popcornmeter

95%

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83 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Brassy blonde moll Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday) hits Washington, D.C., with her unscrupulous millionaire sugar daddy, Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), and his sleazy lawyer, Jim Devery (Howard St. John), who has been pressuring Harry to marry Billie by pointing out that a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband. In an effort to make Billie more socially acceptable, Harry hires journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden) to smarten her up -- and sparks soon fly between the pair.

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Critics Consensus

Marrying screwball romance with political satire, Born Yesterday is a substantive romp with a ferociously smart performance by Judy Holliday as an uncouth bombshell.

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SMH Staff

Sydney Morning Herald

Bound to be a smash hit both for the expert fun of the dialogue and for the marvelously comic characterizations given by Judy Holliday and Broderick Crawford.

Oct 13, 2025

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Myles Standish

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

George Cukor's direction apparently has deliberately allowed waiting periods for audience laughter after some of Miss Holliday's best lines, the first time to my knowledge this has been done on screen.

Oct 13, 2025

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John Hobart

San Francisco Chronicle

Thanks largely to a small, very blonde and very deft actress named Judy Holliday, Garson Kanin's famous comedy, Born Yesterday, is now a brilliant movie.

Oct 13, 2025

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Judy Holliday delivers a wonderful performance and perhaps might have deserved that Oscar in a less competitive year..

Rated: 3/4

Oct 21, 2025

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Honolulu Star-Advertiser Staff

Honolulu Star-Advertiser

The film's top merit is the acting of Judy Holliday.

Oct 13, 2025

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Mitch Woodbury

Toledo Blade

Producer S. Sylvan Simon, Director George Cukor and scenarist Albert Mannheimer have done a masterful job in translating the Kanin caper into terms of celluloid.

Oct 13, 2025

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Omar H

classical classic gg!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/15/25

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David H

This really isn't my kind of film, but I enjoyed it. It's a nice escape film, so watch it when you're in the doldrums. It'll perk you up, and it'll make you laugh.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/16/24

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John G

Judy Holliday is what it's all about - funny and charming alternately. Her fiance thug is over-played. The tour of monuments and institutions In DC comes across well.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/05/24

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Alec B

Both Holden and Holliday are great (no surprises there) but it's also a little too self important for what is a pretty silly plot.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/05/24

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William R. P

Is that that woman's real voice? It's painfully annoying

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

07/05/23

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David F

This film about a dumb blonde engaged to a con man scrap dealer who undertakes an education at the urging of her fiance who has made her an officer of his many many criminal entities is the ultimate air-head comedy. It feels like the inspiration for "Legally Blonde", "The House Bunny", and countless other similar films. At times it is very funny and it does teach the important lesson not to underestimate anybody or judge a book by its cover. While it mostly unfolds in a couple of hotel room suites in Washington D.C. where the con man has come to corrupt a Congressman, there are a handful of wonderful on location scenes filmed in the Capitol, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Library of Congress.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/12/23

Full Review

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George Cukor

Director

Judy Holliday

Emma "Billie" Dawn

William Holden

Paul Verrall

Broderick Crawford

Harry Brock

Howard St. John

Jim Devery

Frank Otto

Eddie

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Synopsis

Brassy blonde moll Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday) hits Washington, D.C., with her unscrupulous millionaire sugar daddy, Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), and his sleazy lawyer, Jim Devery (Howard St. John), who has been pressuring Harry to marry Billie by pointing out that a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband. In an effort to make Billie more socially acceptable, Harry hires journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden) to smarten her up -- and sparks soon fly between the pair.

Director: George Cukor
Producer: S. Sylvan Simon
Screenwriter: Albert Mannheimer
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Production Co: Columbia Pictures Corporation
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 26, 1950, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2013
Runtime: 1h 43m

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