Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday

as Billie Dawn

Won: Academy Award - Best Actress • Golden Globe - Best Actress, Comedy or Musical

Within the time-honored tale of 1950's Best Actress race, two questions present themselves: how in the hell did newcomer Judy Holliday manage to beat out the career-defining work by legendary veterans Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis? Furthermore, was Holliday's victory an injustice?

When Holliday saunters through the first few minutes of Born Yesterday, she's just your usual gun moll...pretty, glammed-up, and bearing a gaze which reads as mostly unimpressed (or is it vacant? or both?) And then, out of the blue, you're hit with it: "WHAAAAAAAT?" It's a brief yet sharp, potent, Donald Duck quack-like sound with enough power to stimulate at least a smile on your face. My feelings towards that first exchange with Billie essentially summarizes how I feel about Holliday's entire performance.


The beauty of this performance lies in how Holliday proves herself to be completely indelible as Billie. Ironically, this is in spite of the fact that she was never the first choice to play the part both on stage and for the film. But if you've seen Holliday's work, take a look at how Melanie Griffith completely butchers the part in the 1993 remake, or the clips available online of Nina Arianda's take for the 2011 Broadway revival; neither can match the fluent magic and charisma that Holliday brings to the film, on display as if with total effortlessness, which is to say that Holliday simply is Billie Dawn. Her work here is a great example of an actor creating a one-of-a-kind rendering which ingrains itself into and remains in the minds of viewers, all future interpretations be damned.

We see them often in old Hollywood films; that of the outlandish, gaudy personalities played by character actors, who steal their scenes but are otherwise limited in screen time. Billie's got many of the attributes that would be typical for a flashy supporting part (she's loud, she's got a funny voice, she's dumb). Holliday's got the challenge of caricaturing these flashy qualities for the laughs needed to sustain the film, while concurrently fleshing out a dynamic, realized character.

What's most impressive is how masterful Holliday's comedic timing is. It is said that director George Cukor made his cast rehearse extensively, going as far as performing in front of a live audience so that Cukor could precision-time the pacing of the film's jokes. Holliday's expert delivery (lines like "He's right, I'm stupid and I like it," "Anything but tutti frutti!," and "What makes you think I'm thirty?!" never fail to get a chuckle out of me, no matter how many times I rewatch them) to the cadences in which she alters her voice for certain lines, down to the many reaction shots she throws out (such as the proud little smirks she gives as she's sassing Broderick Crawford) are demonstrative of the knowledge she has of the character, the material, and what's required to make a mere written line optimally funny.

Sure, she might sound like a baby on helium; but again, what Holliday achieves with her Billie that I found lacking from Griffith and Arianda is in the instantaneous impact of delight just from Holliday being present; she possesses a unique, bubbly air about her that's endearingly naive and playful...her charm locks you in. A testament to how well Holliday plays Billie's exuberance: the film presents a big dramatic moment towards the end, and I was surprised to find how difficult it was to watch the scene; rather jarringly intense in respects to the rest of the film - it's not easy to see watch a happy character boil over into strong sadness, and Holliday powers through this scene with aplomb.

Until the end of time Oscar enthusiasts will debate the result of the 1950 Best Actress race; I've seen some cite Holliday's win as being among the worst, I've seen some treat the win neutrally as though it was a natural result of vote-splitting, and I've seen some praise it. I'm of the latter - this is as excellent a comedic performance that I've seen since I started these reviews. On the outside this is a not-so-intelligent character, and yet I'm of the belief that there's a great amount of comedic intelligence laid in the framework here by Holliday. I also think her mastery of the role is highly underrated. While one might make the argument that Davis and Swanson may have cannibalized the "veteran" vote, I do think that Holliday's win is indicative of a (large enough) contingent of voters who appreciated her commanding comedic prowess.