Une femme qui s'affiche

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.

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.

Holliday is radiant in this excellent comedy about a nobody who wants to be a somebody. It's the story of an average woman who devises a plan to plant her name on a billboard. She immediately hits it big, doing commercials and public appearances and the only one who sees the danger in it is her boyfriend, played by Lemmon, in his scene stealing film debut.

Holliday, a master of play on words is hilarious in this well made romance-comedy, perfectly paced and directed by George Cukor.

Aspiring model comes to New York and concocts a novel idea to advertise herself - her name on billboards. This is a pleasant little comedy that benefits tremendously from the presence of Holliday. In fact, she's the whole show as the kooky blonde named Gladys Glover, a simple, good-hearted young lady who revels in her 15 minutes of fame. It is lamentable that the actress had such a brief career before her untimely death. Lemmon makes his film debut here, establishing the sensitive, hyperactive good-guy persona that he would go on to play variations of pretty much throughout his career. This was the last of a half-dozen films that Kanin and Cukor collaborated on.

I have a friend who has always wanted to be famous. Not famous for doing something, like writing a novel or acting in a movie or robbing a bank, but simply for existing.

Apparently, there have always been people like my friend, because It Should Happen to You is about a woman who comes up with a scheme for attaining fame unattached to greater purpose.

This movie could be described as likable actors making unlikable characters likable. Holliday, who begins the movie by obliviously tossing bird on a man, is a narcissist. Lemmon is the guy who claims he loves her yet continually harangues her. And sure, Holliday's idea is nuts, but why does Lemmon continually attacks her dream, and, for that matter, why on earth does he like her?

It is a tribute to Holliday that she manages to make it all work, exuding a mix of sex, innocence, softness and steel that suggests someone more interesting than the script is offering.

Holliday is funny and likable, and for that reason I'd say this is worth watching.