Just caught this movie and thought it was okay...
The line about Billie coming home with a bloody nose if she was late was kind of off-putting though.
The whole "I'm going to beat her up again" vibe is a little strange in a romantic comedy.
I think that right about there is where we got a brief look at the real dark side of Harry. And when he wound up and hit her a couple of times to force her to sign those documents, I really flinched!
I think that this was a "dramatic comedy" - I don't think that the violence was meant to be taken in stride as comedic, even for back then. In fact, as a contrast, she explicitly explained how her father had never hit her once in her entire life. I really think that this was meant to show that Harry was not just a tough guy but a really wrong guy.
I'm not used to seeing 50's movies that bridged comedy and drama and this definitely put me off. The scene where Harry hits her is obviously not comedic, but the line later about beating her senseless was shocking. I agree it was used to show what an ass he was and also to help define her transformation, when she came home and insisted on talking to him alone to show him she wasn't scared anymore.
I still liked the movie, but afterwards the main thoughts I had were about the violence (actual and implied)
It's to Cukor's credit, as well as that of the American movie-goers of 1950, that serious dramatic themes could be so well woven into a film usually seen as a comedy. It also says something about the state of the American cinema today that something so honest would be unthinkable, as several above young posters made clear.
You know you should surrender
But you can't let it go...
Violence in comedies today is completely acceptable, just so long as it is against men; especially if it is from women to men.
shareDomestic violence is unacceptable in any context. I understand that this story is over 60 years old, but given that Born Yesterday was billed as a romantic comedy in both the stage and movie versions, Harry's hitting Billie and threatening her with more abuse if she doesn't "shape up" makes me wince and it makes me angry. This story was aimed at mature, sophisticated audiences, and I wonder if Harry's behavior didn't make some first-run viewers uncomfortable, too. Harry is a cruel, cowardly tyrant and I have never found anything sympathetic about his character.
I can understand why Billie was grateful to Harry for plucking her out of the chorus line, and in the beginning I'm sure she enjoyed all the creature comforts his ill-gotten gains could buy her. I've seen this movie two or three times and after every viewing I wonder if Billie would have ever found the strength and confidence to leave Harry had Paul not come along. The irony of course being that Harry pushes Billie straight into Paul's arms.
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You took the words right out of my mouth. Harry is a bad guy and that's obvious from the start. The domestic violence scene only makes the Harry character seem that much more odious. I don't understand the idiots out there who want to pretend that domestic violence doesn't happen nowadays. It happened back then and it still happens nowadays. I think modern day Hollywood has ruined the movie industry with all of the political correctness infesting today's movies. Those old movies like Born Yesterday are a lot more realistic than the fantasy dreck being pumped out by the movie industry of modern times.
share@ridgerunner
I think modern day Hollywood has ruined the movie industry with all of the political correctness infesting today's movies. Those old movies like Born Yesterday are a lot more realistic than the fantasy dreck being pumped out by the movie industry of modern time
I call BS on that---Hollywood simply changed with the times, just like society did,and reflected that. And what you call "political correctness" is the fact that people of color and women have not only gotten a little more power in the film industry, but to challenge the racist sexist stereotypes in the movies, which needed to be challenged. Usually, when people whine about that,what they really mean is that they miss the times when only white men were running everything,and they didn't have to worry about such "pesky" things as civil rights and feminism challenging the white hegemony of the status quo. And frankly, the movies were pretty damn unrealistic until about the mid-60s or so anyway. The late '60s and /70s was when the movies finally grew up, matured and started showing life as it really was, not as it should be or was supposed to be. And nobody said anything about pretending that domestic violence dosen't happen nowadays---like the other poster said, it's always gone on and always will---it's just a matter of when and where people do something about it, or try to stop it.
Hollywood, like the rest of the country has changed for the worst, especially once you scumbag libturds started with your whining and carrying on and making excuses for black criminals, homosexual weirdos and other assorted trash of society. Hollywood has moved to the far left and in the meantime the movie industry is dying because of it. Nobody in their right mind wants to be preached to by a bunch of empty headed left wing extremists.
shareAnd then you elected Broderick Crawford as your President.
shareYeah, actually I was hoping to be preached at by an empty-headed right wing extremist.
shareThere aren't any empty headed right wing extremists. However, you left wing liberals are proving more and more that you have rocks in your skulls instead of brains.
shareSo you interviewed every right-wing extremist and concluded that they are all misunderstood geniuses, including Timothy McVeigh and Dylann Roof. Got it.
shareMcVeigh and Roof were oddities. However their behavioral patterns are much more common among the scum the left embraces like the muslim murderers who want genocide against all Christians and Jews and the idiotic fools who have been rioting, looting and attacking voters who voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election. It's pretty obvious that the left is made up mostly of uncivilized rabble-rousers who act like spoiled brats when they don't get their way.
shareLet me show you the flaw in your logic by repeating what you've said, with a few changes.
A.) There is no such thing as an empty-headed left-wing extremist
B.) Yeah, there are bad people, like Stalin, Castro, Charles Manson, the people who burned down Ferguson, MO, Arthur Bremer, Osama bin Laden.
C.) However, none of those examples really count, because they were just oddballs. "Excitable boys," as Warren Zevon would call them. If anything, their penchant for violence and tyranny makes them seem more like right-wing extremists.
(Drops mike.)
I call BS on that---Hollywood simply changed with the times, just like society did,and reflected that. And what you call "political correctness" is the fact that people of color and women have not only gotten a little more power in the film industry, but to challenge the racist sexist stereotypes in the movies, which needed to be challenged.
I'm Politically Incorrect and .I'm Pride! All stereotypes are founded in reality.
shareYes, that was a very risky thing for her to do.
shareWhat are you on about? Harry is clearly shown to be the bad buy in hitting her. She leaves him immediately afterward. Men are still shown abusing women in movies to this day, but it is portrayed as villainous. Just as it was here. This movie is modern and forward-thinking in that respect.
shareOf course it's unacceptable, but that's the point. It doesn't glamorize violence, it's supposed to show what a brutal, ruthless a-hole Harry is. And if initially we feel that Billie is being disloyal to him, that scene totally removes whatever sympathy the audience may feel for Harry.
________________________________________
Get me a bromide - and put some gin in it!
Harry is a bullying hoodlum. How would you expect a bullying hoodlum to behave?
shareIt is uncomfortable. The whole point to him being abusive was to show how he is bad man. That's why she mentioned her dad being "bigger man" (he was loving and kind) than him who was ugly heart brute.
shareThe whole point to him being abusive was to show how he is bad man.
Shows that money can get you pretty much any woman you want, and you can do anything to them you want.
Sickening that women still allow themselves to be used like this. Women will always be running behind men if they are chasing after abusive men.