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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was on Born Yesterday (1993 film). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with MOVIEPEDIA, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. |
Born Yesterday is a 1993 American comedy film based on the play of the same name by Garson Kanin. It stars Melanie Griffith, John Goodman, and Don Johnson. It was adapted by Douglas McGrath and directed by Luis Mandoki.
It is a remake of the 1950 film of the same name that starred Broderick Crawford, Judy Holliday (in an Oscar-winning performance), and William Holden.
Plot[]
Businessman Harry Brock takes his girlfriend Billie Dawn to elite parties with politicians. Billie's background as a showgirl makes her uncultured, and she innocently makes socially inept remarks on political issues. Harry thinks she can be taught, so he hires a reporter Paul Verrall to show her the ropes.
While educating Billie, Paul kisses her, but Harry doesn't suspect anything. Paul teaches Billie a few sentences to make her appear intelligent, and she impresses people at a party. Harry congratulates Paul for Billie's improvement, but Billie feels like a ventriloquist dummy. Paul slowly falls in love with Billie.
Harry routinely asks Billie to sign some papers, creating companies in her name, which she is unaware of. After studying with Paul, Billie starts to read the documents Harry offers her to sign. This makes Harry angry and he slaps her, but she signs them anyway. Harry also shouts at a senator, incurring the disapproval of Billie.
Billie goes to Paul thinking she may have signed illegal documents. She helps Paul break into Harry's safe and steal the documents. Paul skims through the papers and learns that all the companies are in Billie's name. He also finds evidence of Harry illegally bribing senators.
Meanwhile, Harry is shopping for a wedding ring, and comes to the hotel room with flowers, and proposes to Billie, but she rejects his proposal. Harry then goes to look at the documents in his safe, but finds them missing. Billie reveals that Paul took the documents to publish in his paper. Paul arrives and kisses Billie, who declares that she wants to marry Paul.
She tells Harry that she will return his companies back to him at the rate of one a year. She also urges him to get back the bribe money from the senators and wind up his illegal business activities.
Cast[]
- Melanie Griffith as Billie Dawn
- John Goodman as Harry Brock
- Don Johnson as Paul Verrall
- Edward Herrmann as Ed Devery
- Max Perlich as JJ
- Fred Dalton Thompson as Sen. Hedges
- Nora Dunn as Cynthia Screiber
- Michael Ensign as Phillipe
- Benjamin C. Bradlee as Alex Duffee, Sect. of the Navy
- Sally Quinn as Beatrice Duffee
- Celeste Yarnall as Mrs. Hedges
- Rondi Reed as Victoria Penny
- Kate McGregor-Stewart as Mrs. Hulse