Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Garson Kanin's script here might not measure up to his best scripts like the classic Adams Rib and Born Yesterday, but with George Cukor directing, and a fine cast, this one is worth checking out. Judy Holliday as Gladys Glover, with Peter Lawford and Jack Lemmon in hot pursuit of her affections is a love triangle worthy of the screwball type of comedy that this is scripted for. The plot has to do with Gladys wanting fame, and so she rents a billboard in downtown NYC and just puts her name on it in big letters. Then Lawford (Evan Adams III) wants the billboard Gladys has rented for 90 days and desperately makes a deal to get it by giving Gladys 6 other signs downtown. From there Glady's with the help of an agent spiral her to fame and fortune. Meanwhile Lemmon (Pete Sheppard), a documentary film maker who gets to know Gladys before the bill board but gives her the idea to do it, is also after her affections.While Lawford is okay, Lemmon gets the better role here. His chemistry with Judy (Gladys) is better than Lawfords. Luckily the script agrees with the camera here and so there is a typical happy Hollywood ending for the film. As for the way of getting fame by using publicity, well that is still in use years later with people creating fame the same ways, only with newer technology. There are a lot of faces in this one a movie buff will known, chief among them is Constance Bennett who was Marion Kirby in the Topper film series. This is a good film with a talented cast. There were not enough films made starring Judy Holliday but then she died tragically from breast cancer in 1963 at the young age of 43. In a way this makes her forever young in films, and her personality shines here, like it does in most of her sweet 16 career roles.

George Cukor's "It Should Happen to You" (1954) bears a resemblance to a film he made four years earlier, "Born Yesterday" (1950) which also stars Judy Holiday and is based on written material by Garson Kanin. Both films are on fire in the sense that they are comic splendor, leaving no one cold after the fun's over. The difference is that "It Should Happen to You" is even wilder, funnier, and crazier. After all, the story is out of its mind: a young woman wants to be famous and therefore rents an expensive billboard in New York City. This eccentric set-up is wrapped in the conventional form of romantic comedy that Cukor knows best. It's not difficult to guess based on this that "It Should Happen to You" is a media satire. While this is true, I should emphasize how unpretentiously and lightheartedly the film does this. Unlike one might deduce, the film isn't a story about an individual seeking for immortality; rather, it's a story about an individual seeking for fame -- maybe just for a while, but after that while, for another as well. To Francois Truffaut, a profound appreciator of the film, "It Should Happen to You" was a film about the absurdity of the mechanism of celebrity, showing how much easier it is to acquire the position than justifying it; revealing also the insignificance of fame altogether. Although this might be the moral of the film, it's not that black-and-white (let alone the fact that the film doesn't seem to care much about this) as the protagonist is still keen on taking a peek at a billboard for rent. As a media satire, "It Should Happen to You" is about image. It's about simulation, as followers of Baudrillard would put it: signs that signify nothing, lacking substance and reference to something real. It's about names that mean nothing. This is what fears the woman who wants to be something instead of nothing. She is "Miss Nobody of 1953," as Truffaut put it.Somehow, however, this seems to be irrelevant. What is most important is how well the film holds up. Truffaut admired the film's ability to keep its rhythm and keep the audience smiling despite an utterly absurd topic. In this sense, Truffaut thought of comedy as a veritably difficult genre to tackle. After all, it's not that hard to make up a good war story which will satisfy the standard critic who admires "Citizen Kane" (1941) but despises "The Lady from Shanghai" (1947). It's harder to make something truly cinematic (not to imply, of course, that "Citizen Kane" would not represent this). To Truffaut, "It Should Happen to You" is a masterpiece. Even if one had trouble accepting this judgment, it would be easy for one to accept that Cukor is a master of his art (in the word's widest sense, meaning also work and craftsmanship). "It Should Happen to You" is simply a very well made film.

IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU is a fluffy comedy about a girl (JUDY HOLLIDAY in another dumb blonde role) who fancies seeing her name on a billboard even if she has to put it there herself. PETER LAWFORD is the head of a corporation that wants to use the empty billboard to advertise their soap product. JACK LEMMON, in his film debut, plays the kind of role he would play many times over throughout his career--a carefree guy in love with an empty-headed woman.It's true that none of the characters are particularly likable, but these three go about their paces with such personal charm that you tend to forget their characters are really pretty obnoxious people.George Cukor directs with skill and the result is a likable enough comedy that manages to keep the laugh meter busy for most of its running time.Summing up: Harmless fun with Judy Holliday at her best and Peter Lawford proving that he should have attempted more light comedy roles.

IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU! is perhaps the most ironic film title ever in cinema, since the film examines the downside of being famous. I suppose it makes a good marketing ploy, directly addressing the audience, but it's so false that the only way it could ever work is either 1. as a satire or 2. referring to having the amazing Jack Lemmon (in his film debut) as a boyfriend.IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU! follows down-and-out model Gladys Glover who wants to be "somebody" at whatever cost, so she splurges her savings to rent a billboard just to put her name on it. After some entanglements over who gets the space, she becomes a celebrity over ludicrous circumstances. Her sweet documentary-filmmaker boyfriend Pete just wants her anonymous, wonderful self, and is understandably hurt when Gladys turns down dates in order to advance her "career." It is at the peak of her fame that she realizes that her celebrity is everything she's never wanted.This is a film that could've fallen apart with so many other directors, but George Cukor was a master at that light comedic touch that keeps the movie sparkling, and also shows an early promise of the sharp look at celebrity that would be even more piercing with A STAR IS BORN only a year later. This was his third collaboration with Judy Holliday, and they seem to be among that elite group of a successful bonding between actor/director. The role of Gladys could so easily come off as unlikable (and she is at times in a naive way) during her determined rise to fame. The reason why the character is so endearing is because of Holliday's childishly wondrous performance, which captivates and enlightens. Her scenes with Jack Lemmon are magical, especially in that scene where they're both at the piano, he's talking, she's singing. It's marvelous and even exciting to see two actors with such an easy cadence interacting together, and those two had a very effortless chemistry. One of the main characters that I'd doubt will stir up much is attention is the provincial village of New York City itself, which is so beautifully photographed by Charles Lang it's as though you've walked into a postcard. From the opening romantic scene in Central Park to even the second-unit shots of Columbus Circle, this is a great example of a city becoming so integrated with a film it's impossible to imagine one without the other.Andy Warhol once predicted that "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU! deconstructs the mystique of celebrity and also accurately confirms Warhol's statement, which continues to be true with every new season of "American Idol." While many other films may have been sharper and harsher in their aim, few were this funny and warm-hearted with their characters.