Maybe it's the fact that all the elements that make BORN YESTERDAY funny are too well known to provoke the kind of laughter that greeted it on Broadway years ago. It all seems a bit stale now, the abrasive performance of BRODERICK CRAWFORD is cringe inducing (he's the worst kind of bully to everyone), and JUDY HOLLIDAY actually gives a pretty one-note performance as "Billie", reciting all her lines in that nasal Bronx manner that becomes tiresome after awhile.
But emerging completely unscathed in all of this is WILLIAM HOLDEN, who is excellent in what on paper must have looked like an awfully dull role and certainly one that's second fiddle to Holliday and Crawford. Yet, he gives the film's most polished and assured performance, never missing a beat in his carefree responses to Crawford's bullying tactics.
The whole comedy is too strident for my taste, consisting largely of Crawford's never ending temperamental outbursts, never for a moment giving the man any sympathy whatsoever. Whether this is the fault of George Cukor's direction or a mistake on Crawford's part, I don't know, but he seems to find no humanity in the role.
The unlikely pairing of Holliday and Holden for the happy ending seems awfully contrived--but then again, let's remember Marilyn and Arthur Miller.
Summing up: Not quite as funny as I remembered it from years ago.
But emerging completely unscathed in all of this is WILLIAM HOLDEN, who is excellent in what on paper must have looked like an awfully dull role and certainly one that's second fiddle to Holliday and Crawford. Yet, he gives the film's most polished and assured performance, never missing a beat in his carefree responses to Crawford's bullying tactics.
The whole comedy is too strident for my taste, consisting largely of Crawford's never ending temperamental outbursts, never for a moment giving the man any sympathy whatsoever. Whether this is the fault of George Cukor's direction or a mistake on Crawford's part, I don't know, but he seems to find no humanity in the role.
The unlikely pairing of Holliday and Holden for the happy ending seems awfully contrived--but then again, let's remember Marilyn and Arthur Miller.
Summing up: Not quite as funny as I remembered it from years ago.