Born Yesterday’s philosophy – a fusion of Greek myth and allegory; specifically, Pygmalion (by way of Shaw) and Plato’s Cave – is not only timeless but timely. At one point, William Holden’s character says “I want everybody to be smart. I want 'em to be as smart as they can be. A world full of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in.” This is as true now as it was more than 70 years ago – perhaps truer; as recent events, such as the covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have made abundantly clear, the world is still a very dangerous place full of ignorant people.

This film is not only about the beauty and richness of the written and spoken language, but also about the power of words and thoughts. An uncouth, older, wealthy junkyard tycoon, Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford) comes to Washington in order to bribe a congressman. Brock brings along his “fiancee” (more like lover; and although he does intend to eventually marry her, it’s only because a wife cannot be forced to testify against her husband) Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday), an uneducated young woman. When Billie embarrasses him socially, Brock hires journalist Paul Verrall (Holden) to tutor her.

Billie is willfully ignorant (“[Harry] thinks I'm too stupid, huh? … He's right. I'm stupid, and I like it … I'm happy. I got everything I want … There's somethin' I want, I ask … So, as long as I know how to get what I want, that's all I wanna know.”), and in that sense she has more in common with the prisoners of Plato’s allegorical cave than with Eliza Doolittle; accordingly, Paul doesn’t settle for improving her vocabulary and diction, but encourages her to read, learn, think, and ask questions, while director George Cukor challenges the audience to do the same.

I seldom use the term ‘must-see’ to describe a work of art (after all, art is not supposed to be a chore), and Born Yesterday can certainly be enjoyed on its aesthetic and technical merits alone, but I would be remiss if I didn’t stress that this is a film that comes as close to compulsory viewing as any I’ve ever seen. Nine out of 10 times it’s surely going to be like casting pearls to swine, but I would still recommend it to as many people as possible, hoping that at least one of them will be like the person who received the seed that fell on good soil.