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Judy Holliday
stars as Billie Dawn, live-in girlfriend of the brutish Harry
Brock (Broderick Crawford), a corrupt millionaire junk dealer
whose crooked dealings bring him to Washington, DC to meet
a congressman he's attempting to buy. Embarrassed by Billie's
lack of sophistication in the company of such important people,
Brock hires journalist Paul Verrall (William Holden) to tutor
her in the social graces. Instead, Verrall launches into a
general education of Billie, who soon comes to realize just
how much of a pawn she's been in Brock's machinations.
Like all
great comedies, BORN YESTERDAY is more than just a bunch of
funny lines and situations: it's thought-provoking, at some
points painfully dramatic, and every moment of it rings true.
Judy Holliday is such a wonder to behold in her Oscar winning
re-creation of her smashing Broadway success as Billie Dawn,
it's absolutely mind-boggling to realize that she was never
the first choice for the role. The play was written by Garson
Kanin for another great actress of the time, Jean Arthur.
When Arthur fell ill and had to bow out a few weeks before
opening, Holliday was hired to replace her and became a huge
success in the role. However, when Columbia purchased the
rights to the play, they didn't feel that Holliday was a big
enough name to carry the film.
Legend has
it that Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, who had seen
Holliday in the play on Broadway, were so appalled that Columbia
would not cast Holliday (who were actually planning to use
Rita Hayworth!) that they arranged for Holliday to have the
role of the would-be murdering wife in ADAM'S RIB to show
Columbia how good she could be on film (if you have any doubts
about that story, watch ADAM'S RIB - particularly the scene
in which Hepburn interviews Holliday for the first time: though
the scene is quite long, the camera never leaves Holliday's
face). So I suppose we have something else to love Tracy and
Hepburn for!
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
The film
is presented in it's original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1.
The print itself is in excellent condition, although it is
a bit grainy (in some scenes more than others). I did a side-by-side
comparison with the laserdisc, and as so often happens, the
grain was noticeable on the LaserDisc, but of course was more noticeable
with the increased resolution on the DVD. However, the grain
is pretty much limited to the backgrounds.
The DVD
made the LaserDisc transfer look quite washed out. Overall the picture
on the DVD is very good. Black level is excellent, as is the
contrast and, for the most part, the shadow detail. And the
DVD's picture is a good deal sharper than that of the LaserDisc,
with no edge-enhancement. I noticed something I found a bit
peculiar in a scene near the beginning of the film, when they
first meet the congressman and his wife: Brock is wearing
a black suit with light pin-stripes which are quite evident
in closer shots of him: however, in shots where he's a little
farther away from the camera (group shots), the pin-stripes
had disappeared into black. I thought this might be a problem
with the digital transfer, but I checked it against the LaserDisc
and the same was true on it, so apparently this was unavoidable.
But these are relatively minor things in a transfer that overall
really is very good.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
The sound
is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, and is also quite
good. There's very little music in the film, and given the
mono recording and the age of the film the music did have
that mono-muddiness that is so often the case (particularly
in the opening credits), but the dialogue (and there's a lot
of it) is absolutely clear throughout. One thing, though:
the volume level was unaccountably low, so get ready to crank
up the volume a bit.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Included
are "talent files" : very brief bios of the three stars and
director George Cukor, and "selected filmographies" (read:
incomplete filmographies). Vintage advertising, which consisted
of a step-through gallery of 7 posters and lobby cards There
is a re-release trailer for the film, as well as original
theatrical trailers for HIS GIRL FRIDAY, and PICNIC and BELL,
BOOK AND CANDLE (which is due out on DVD from Columbia in
March), both of which are in Widescreen.
Parting Thoughts
BORN YESTERDAY
is a wonderful film with a not-to-be-missed performance by
July Holliday, and the DVD pretty much does it justice, offering
a transfer that's a cut above the previous Laserdisc.
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