Born Yesterday (1950)

Born Yesterday is a 1950 comedy-drama film based on the play of the same name by Garson Kanin and directed by George Cukor. The screenplay was credited to Albert Mannheimer based on the stage play of the same name by Garson Kanin. According to Kanin's autobiography, Cukor did not like Mannheimer's work, believing it lost much of the value of the play, so he approached the playwright about writing the screenplay from his own play. Because of some legal entanglements, Kanin did not receive screen credit. Judy Holliday, in an Oscar-winning performance, William Holden and Broderick Crawford star in the story of an uneducated young woman and an uncouth, older, wealthy mobster who comes to Washington to try to "buy" a Congressman. He hires a journalist to educate Billie, and, in the process, she learns just how deep Harry's corruption goes. The film was produced and released by Columbia Pictures, which was somewhat ironic, given that Kanin frequently stated that the uncouth junk dealer Harry Brock was modeled on Columbia's production chief Harry Cohn, with whom he'd long had a testy relationship.