It’s time to talk about our next  movie in the Autumn of Lemmon feature.

It Should Happen To You stars Jack Lemmon, Judy Holliday, and Peter Lawford and was suggested to me by someone on Instagram.

I loved this movie.

So funny, sweet, moving, thoughtful and just delightful.

Also, Jack’s first movie where he was in a lead role. Right before Phffft, which I watched last week.

Both Phffft and It Happened to You were released in 1954.

Here is a little description for you: “After a struggling actress in her early thirties with dreams of becoming a star rents a billboard to advertise herself, her life begins to change overnight.”

Judy Holliday portrays Gladys Glover, who is out of work and gets the idea to rent a billboard she sees to advertise herself. What is her talent? Well, she really doesn’t have any talent at all. She becomes famous because her name is on a billboard.

This movie fits right in today because that is happening a lot these days – people with no real talent becoming famous.

Jeffrey Stafford on TCM.com concurs with  my thoughts, or I concur with his. You know what I mean.

”With a proliferation of television reality shows transforming unknowns into instant celebrities, the idea of someone becoming famous without possessing real talent or performing some remarkable deed is so commonplace today that George Cukor’s satire looks prophetic in retrospect,” Stafford wrote.

On the same day Gladys decides to rent the billboard she meets Jack Lemmon’s character, Pete, who is an aspiring documentary filmmaker.

Pete films her on his camera while she’s in Central Park and they have a cute little meeting and then go their separate ways. The two meet again when Pete rents an apartment next to Gladys’s.

By now, Gladys’s name is on the billboard and her purchase of the space on the billboard has riled the ire of Peter Lawford, CEO of the Adams Soap Company, which usually books the space.

Evan Adams III (Peter Lawford) decides to try to talk Gladys into giving up her billboard space, but she refuses, even as he attempts to wine, dine, and date her. What she does finally agree to is giving up the space for six other spaces around the city with her name on them.

The movie was directed by George Cukor who also directed Holliday in The Marrying Kind in 1952. That movie was also set in New York City and Holliday payed a comedic actress as a naïve newlywed with an idealistic view of marriage. I have not seen this one yet, but hope to soon.

Of the film, George Cukor said in an interview with author Gavin Lambert , “The idea of becoming a great celebrity without being able to do anything is a very important notion. Publicity can really do it, too. Today it makes Presidents. It’s really the name of the game.”

Before starring in It Should Happen to You, Jack had acted for a brief time in television, which caused him to overact a bit. Cukor suggested, “less is more”, which Jack took to heart for that movie and future roles.

“I’ve learned my craft from that advice,” Lemmon said in a book about Cukor by Gene D. Phillips. “ It’s the hardest thing in the world to be simple, and the easiest thing in the world to act your brains out and make an ass of yourself.”

A bit of other tidbits about the movie and actors:

• Holliday was already recognized as a unique comic actress in films  since winning an Oscar for her hilarious portrayal of Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday (1950). She first played that role on Broadway.
• Holliday was 30 pounds overweight when she started filming after having only recently given birth to her son. The extra weight sent her on a diet but also depressed her. She had a sense of humor about it, though, once sharing about a photoshoot for glamour shots for the Columbia publicity department and how she had to as the photographer what he’d been eating to get the sexy look he wanted. He said he’d been eating a thick, sizzling steak. “Judy’s mouth began to water and her eyes became liquid. “That’s the look I want!” the photographer shouted” (from Judy Holliday by Gary Carey).
• Holliday and Lawford briefly dated during filming of the movie.
• Garson Kanin’s screenplay for It Should Happen to You was originally titled A Name for Herself
• In the early stages the movie was actually being developed as a script for Danny Kaye.

If you haven’t seen this one, search it up however you can, sit down with your favorite snack and beverage and just enjoy. You won’t regret it.

 If you’re a bit of a romantic, I think you’ll especially like where the two actors sing “Let’s Fall In Love” together. What’s nice about this movie is that it has a little bit of everything. Humor, romance, and a bit of a serious message as well.

Read more about the film here: https://www.tcm.com/articles/87904/it-should-happen-to-you

Next up in my Autumn of Lemmon is: The Fortune Cookie with Walter Matthau and Jack.

My complete list of movies for this feature:

Phffft (September 18)

It Should Happen To You (September 24)

The Fortune Cookie (Oct 2)

The Apartment (Oct. 8)

My Fellow Americans (Oct. 15)

The Notorious Landlady (Oct. 22)

The Odd Couple (Oct. 29)

Irma Dey Deuce (November 5)

Save the Tiger (November 12)

Sources:

https://www.tcm.com/articles/87904/it-should-happen-to-you

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Should_Happen_to_You

If you are interested in more reviews or blog posts about old movies, you can find a link to my past reviews at the top of the page and you can also visit The Classic Movie Blog Association.