Born Yesterday

George Cukor's Born Yesterday is a well-observed parable of transformation that unravels the ways we can be conditioned, or have conditioned ourselves, to aspire to less than we are capable of.

Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday in an Oscar-winning performance) has never been asked, or asked herself, to be anything more than entertaining eye candy, believing her life as the girlfriend of extremely wealthy but boorish Harry lacks nothing. When the two of them have to appear socially in Washington, D.C., Harry hires a reporter (William Holden) to teach Billie a few educated-sounding cocktail phrases. The result is the unleashing of a Pandora's Box of intellectual discontent.

As played by Judy Holliday, Billie's transformation from dumb blond to blond awareness makes the movie a joy to watch, and far more interesting than the 1993 remake. For those of us just heading into single motherhood or just getting over a divorce, it's a wonderful story about how easy it is to get stuck in the role that others expect you to play and how important it is to unlearn it.

Directed by George Cukor; Columbia Classics; 1950; available in DVD