Une femme qui s'affiche

A 1954 comedy starring Judy Holliday & Jack Lemmon (in his film debut) directed by George Cukor (The Women/A Star is Born). A woman strolls along the park where she meets cute w/a documentarian who takes note of an argument she's having w/a fellow park denizen. Holliday is a recent transplant to New York where she feels moorless but when she sees a sizable blank building wall for rent (for ads & such), she strikes upon the idea to take over the space w/her name the sole occupant. At first the landlords want to buy back the space since they have a more lucrative offer (from future Rat Packer Peter Lawford) but a price is not agreed upon so the agency offers Holliday a trade for at least six other spaces throughout the city causing a stir amongst the inhabitants to find out who this person is. Now a celebrity model, she finds herself at odds w/the attention her scheme has gotten her which alienates Lemmon & forces them to define their relationship. Holliday, who I only know from Born Yesterday (which I still haven't seen), shines in the role w/her guileless street smarts complementing her winsome looks to perfection. Lemmon is more low key here than we'd come to find him in later years but makes enough of an impression to see the star he'd become.

A true comedienne is something of a rarity. Judy Holliday will always be remembered as one of the stage and screen's finest comediennes. The problem facing top comedians has always been finding the right material to suit their talents. More often than not they find themselves saddled with inferior material, (Bob Hope, Peter Sellers, Jerry Lewis….the list goes on).

In her brief screen career Judy Holliday was fortunate in having vehicles that managed to show off her talents. Yet there remains a nagging sense that even a movie as successful as "It Should Happen to You", does not quite do Holliday justice. It's pleasant and amusing viewing, but ultimately Holliday deserved more.

A young Jack Lemmon proves an almost perfect foil for Holliday. In his very first screen role he is a pleasure to watch. As the years passed Lemmon began to lean more and more on his famed idiosyncrasies.

The theme of "It Should Happen to You" is as relevant as ever in its dealing with the public's fascination with vacuous celebrity. Clearly not much has changed over the past fifty years.

There's just something about a ditzy woman miraculously making herself a name that always seems to be a winner. I loved the way Gladys and Pete interacted throughout the entire story, through friendship, frustrations, unreturned feelings, and finally contented love.

It is certainly a feel-good movie, and accomplishes this task rather well. Recommended for all you touchy-feelies out there.

The Garson Kanin screenplay isn't out of his top drawer, but it has a cute idea at the heart of it, one that has become more timely with the passing years: Celebrity can be bought. Judy Holliday plays a nobody who wants to be a somebody, and with the help of a cynical agent and a clever marketing ploy, she becomes one. Indeed, with the media machine grown so disproportionately huge since, this movie cries out for a remake. But who could ever match Holliday's musical, clinically precise line readings, or her wide-eyed facial expressions? There really is only one of her.

Jack Lemmon, in his movie debut, is likeable and accomplished, and some amusing faces turn up in supporting and cameo roles -- Constance Bennett, Ilka Chase, Peter Lawford. There's some gritty New York location filming, approximately where Lincoln Center is now (and where "West Side Story" was shot years later), adding to the verite motif in the subplot (Lemmon plays a documentary filmmaker).

With Cukor's sure direction, everybody seems to be having a wonderful time. So will you.

This movie was made at a time when Reality TV wasn't in the vocabulary, yet it foretold the future, in this tale of a young woman (Judy Holliday) who longs for fame and hates being unknown, prompting her to rent billboard space, so everyone in New York City will know the name Gladys Glover! She gets her wish and discovers it's not all she thought it would be.

Jack Lemon was on the road to fame with his portrayal of Pete Sheppard, the young man Gladys meets in Central Park, who's soon a tenant in her west side apartment building, then her boyfriend, then the guy she loses and must win back (in a reversal of the usual boy-meets-girl routine).

Peter Lawford plays the other man in the picture, wealthy Evan Adams, whose family company wanted the billboard space Gladys rented and made a deal with her, launching her "reality" career, and sparking Evan's interest in the new "star", though his intentions are not exactly honorable!

There are some great location shots, a chance to see some scenes of New York City in the 1950's. This is a fun and entertaining movie.