Pun Salad

Directed by George Cukor, adapted from a play by Garson Kanin, starring William Holden, Broderick Crawford, and (above all) Judy Holliday, who won an Oscar for her performance. And nominated for four other Oscars. So, objectively speaking, you'd say this is a pretty good movie. And you'd probably be right. But I was more like eh, and it's my blog, so: two and a half stars.

Mr. Crawford plays Harry Brock, a scrap metal dealer, junkyard magnate, thug, and lout. Ms. Holliday is his arm candy, Billie Dawn. They've blown into Washington D. C.: Harry's trying to get a teensy bit of corrupt legislation passed that will further feather his nest, and has purchased himself a cheap Congressman. Intrepid investigative reporter Paul Verrall (Bill Holden) is on his trail; Harry's not too worried.

Harry's a little put out by Billie's obvious inability to make the smallest of small talk with Washington's elite. So, in a not-too-believable plot twist, Harry hires Paul to educate her in history and literature. But—whoa, didn't see this coming—Paul and Billie fall for each other.

Judy Holliday is great, Holden is OK, and people tend to forget that Broderick Crawford was pretty good in his day too. And I don't usually mind that much when a movie is utterly predictable. But (unfortunately) it's more than a tad boring. Worse, it's stupid. When Paul is trying to woo Billie away from Harry, here's one of his arguments (spotted by one of Jonah Goldberg's correspondents):

“The whole history of the world is the story of the struggle between the selfish and the unselfish. All that’s bad around us is bred by selfishness. Sometimes selfishness is a cause, an organized force, even a government, and then it’s called fascism.”