What is the measure of success? Is it accumulating wealth? Is it rising to prominence in a business? Is it having a lot of followers and friends on social media? Is it following your dreams? Is it gaining a position of power? Is it owning your own house? Is it starting your own business venture? Is it starting a family? Each person has his own measure of success, but that may not agree with someone else’s opinion.
Today’s Moment of Movie Wisdom is from “Born Yesterday” from 1950. It takes place 55 minutes into the 102-minute film. Racketeer’s moll Billie Dawn (Judy Holliday) is at a museum with Paul Verrall (William Holden), her cultural tutor. Taking a break from the art tour, they sit on a bench and discuss an essay about Napoleon he recently assigned to her. Paul quotes the essay, explaining that its writer thought it would be better to be a simple French farmer than the mighty but miserable Napoleon. He illustrates the point by stating that her “fiancé,” Harry Brock (Broderick Crawford), is one person who would rather be Napoleon than a happy peasant.
In the film, millionaire junkyard owner Harry Brock goes to Washington, D.C. to arrange a cartel with a bought-and-paid-for senator (Larry Oliver). He brings along his soulless alcoholic lawyer, Jim (Howard St. John), his cousin and stooge (Frank Otto), and his “fiancée,” former chorus girl Billie Dawn. When Jim brings over the senator and his wife (Barbara Brown), Harry is embarrassed by Billie’s unrefined speech and cultural ignorance. Against Jim’s better judgment, he hires political journalist Paul Verrall to privately tutor her.
Billie agrees to the arrangement eagerly because she is very attracted to Paul, although she is basically uninterested in learning. Harry thinks Paul just accepted the job because of the handsome salary, and Billy thinks he is interested in her. While these both are factors, his main interest is to find out more about Harry’s sneaky dealings and expose the corruption and graft in his corporation. He goes about this, however, not by rummaging through Harry’s papers but by stimulating Billie’s intellect. She quickly grows to love learning as much as she loves the man who introduced it to her.
The Scene
After arguing that she isn’t tired during the art tour, Billie collapses on a museum bench. She asks for clarification on a reading assignment Paul gave her, “After Visiting the Tomb of Napoleon,” written by Robert G. Ingersoll in 1882. He states that there is no particularly deep meaning to it, but she argues that there must be. Pausing for a moment of thought, Paul begins reciting the pertinent part of the essay:
“And I said I would rather have been a French peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather have lived in a hut with a vine growing over the door and the grapes growing purple in the kisses of the autumn sun. I would rather have been that poor peasant with my loving wife by my side, knitting as the day died out of the sky, with my children upon my knee and their arms about me. I would rather have been that man and gone down to the tongueless silence of the dreamless dust than to have been that imperial impersonation of force and murder known as Napoleon the Great.”
Its Significance
Billie is on her learning journey during the museum scene; Paul has already made a huge impact on her. She now has glasses, so she has learned to love reading. She also has enjoyed seeing the cultural sites in the capital. She truly wants to understand the material Paul shares with her, but the essay about Napoleon goes over her head even after he explains it to her. By this point in her intellectual development, she understands why the simple life is far superior to a life of selfish power. However, it isn’t until later that she comprehends how many people don’t agree.In the next scene, Billie tells Paul that some recent reading made her think of Harry. “He works so hard to get what he wants, for instance, but he doesn’t know what he wants.” This profound observation about her greedy companion is a clever callback to the scene when she first met Paul. At that point, Billie had admitted she was stupid but flippantly reasoned, “As long as I know how to get what I want, that’s all I wanna know!” “As long as you know what you want,” Paul replied, baffling her. However, by this later scene, everything starts to make sense to Billie.
Knowing What You Want
Judy Holliday won Best Actress at the Academy Awards for her performance as Billie Dawn. It was one of the most controversial wins in that category because she beat two far more acclaimed and dramatic performances, Bette Davis in “All About Eve” and Gloria Swanson in “Sunset Boulevard.” These two ladies certainly delivered show-stopping, Oscar-worthy performances, but that doesn’t mean that Judy Holliday’s Oscar was undeserved. Comedy is also a nuanced genre, but Judy’s performance as Billie is so much more than just funny; she has some very dramatic scenes. The most impressive thing about this role is the character transformation she portrays. The story isn’t about Paul Verrall or Harry Brock, although they are important players; the story really happens to Billie.When the movie starts, Billie seems reasonably happy with her life. However, throughout the story, all the “wondering and worrying and thinking” makes her increasingly discontent because she starts realizing things about herself and her life. When Harry notices this, he asks if there’s something she wants that she doesn’t have. With a look of wise resolve, she replies, “I want to be like the happy peasant.” After a moment of confusion, Harry barks, “Alright, I’ll buy it for you!”
Those with wisdom understand that a loving little family is more valuable than a murderous empire. Yet the Harry Brocks of the world will continue to try to buy what their wealth and power can only destroy.
