Thursday Minute
No. 85 | April 29, 2010

Deal Me In 

Our theme this week
Card games at the movies

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
Tuesday         —   Rounders (1998)
Wednesday    —   The Sting (1973)

Born Yesterday (1950)

Two sexes can play that game.  The game of cards in Born Yesterday is gin.  The lesson is:  don’t underestimate the dumb blonde.

Her name is Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday), and she’s not nearly as dumb as you think.  She accompanies her crude and crooked tycoon boss Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) while he’s in Washington to peddle influence (we have made progress:  these days it takes a more refined class to buy off politicians).  Meanwhile, Brock hires a tutor (William Holden) to give Billie an “education.”  What she learns, among other things, is to think for herself.

The performances carry the picture, and Holliday, in reprising the role she played on stage, steals the show.  What’s more:  she stole the Academy Award for Best Actress, competing in a year against two of the most sensational performances in the history of movies.  Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard) and Bette Davis (All About Eve) never did finer work, but went home empty-handed on Oscar night.  Schneider!

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Born Yesterday
George Cukor, director
Adapted from Garson Kanin’s play
Trailer

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Born Yesterday
Judy Holliday, William Holden, Broderick Crawford
The Gin Game (scene starts at 3:50)

The Gin Game (scene continues for first minute)

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Quote of Note
“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.”
—Rick (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca (1942)

…58…59…60.