Customer Reviews

It Should Happen to You [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Would that I could give this enticing and sadly neglected film a "6" just to encourage people to experience it. "It Should Happen to You" has it all: wit, a sizzling star (Judy Holliday), a fast-paced, slightly dizzy plot, a great director...and a chance to see Jack Lemmon very early in his screen career.

It's Manhattan in 1954 and Judy Holliday plays Gladys Glover, a lower-middle-class career girl who's been hunting a decent job for ever so long until she decides she might as well blow her emergency budget and take a chance on a one-shot approach. Soon a gigantic billboard appears above Manhattan's Columbus Circle: "Gladys Glover" is all it says. In a typical Holliday movie role, much like "Born Yesterday," Our Gal Gladys has street smarts and common sense, plus great intuition and a refusal to be cowed by the conventional "We've never done it that way before" approach. Early on she's established as a handsome heroine if not the most erudite thing in the world.

So after the first billboard causes a stir, our Gladys negotiates cut rates for more gigantic attention-grabbing placards strategically placed in the busiest parts of Manhattan. Clever as a fox, that one, and as in most of her movie parts, Holliday plays this one full-out; it's impossible to take one's eyes off her when she's on-screen. And like her namesake, that saturation advertising makes Gladys' name impossible for any New Yorker to ignore.

Complications ensue when the ads don't generate employment -- but they do generate romantic attention in the form of bumbling-but-lovable co-star Jack Lemmon -- and media attention just at the point when "celebrity" had come to mean "the art of being famous by being famous." Gladys inaugurates events, waves to crowds, and just generally does a good job of staying well known for being so well known. In fact, she's in fatal peril of falling in love with the media-generated image of herself.

And then that one-step-too-many: Gladys joins the panel of a serious TV discussion show for the topic of child-raising, of which she knows nothing. Her blurted response to a question about the facts of life (which I won't reaveal here) is a classic one-liner, a true early sound-bite: ad-lib, concise, funny, and extremely ignorant. One tavern TV regular moans, "I guess today that's all you need."

Leave it to Lemmon (Lord help him!) to explain to disillusioned Gladys the difference between brazenness and bravura, betweeen ignorance and common sense. It's not unlike the "Born Yesterday" situation where the mentor-and-boyfriend-to-be has to smarten up the dumb fox, but in this case we can see the well-meaning/insecure/ slightly neurotic Lemmon persona in the making; he certainly has his work cut out for him. Despite Gladys' stellar human qualities, Lemmon's character has to deal not only with Gladys' strong and somewhat star-struck personality but also with a non-human antagonist: the growing power of modern media to bewitch, distract, and -- or so Cukor hints -- steal Gladys' personality.

"It Should Happen to You" has something for everyone. I wish it were a little cheaper, to encourage people to take a chance on it, but I think the vast majority of those who do will love it. You can count on the indelible Judy Holliday, just as brilliant as in her other 40s-50s screen roles ...

"It Should Happen To You" is the delightful, bubble-headed comedy about Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday), who decides that all one really needs to be famous is a gigantic billboard advertising her name in New York. Well, the trick works and before long Gladys has to choose between the affections of a rich businessman (Peter Lawford), who's romance is predicated on getting Gladys to sell him her advertising space, or a genuine romance with her simple-life boyfriend (Jack Lemmon). As Gladys, Holliday is once again in rare form, delivering the kind of light-hearted, idiotic, yet tender comedic touch that easily made her the darling of such classics as "Born Yesterday" and "The Solid Gold Cadillac". The film is great fun and absorbingly original from start to finish!
TRANSFER: It should happen more often over at Columbia that they give DVD consumers such a nice looking print of their classic films. This film has a wonderfully smooth look to it, with deep blacks and a nicely balanced gray scale. The contrast levels seem to be subdued somewhat. There are rarely traces of film grain and NO digital artifacts or anomalies. The audio is mono but nicely done.
EXTRAS: Sorry - it's Columbia. You get a couple of trailers and that's all!
BOTTOM LINE: I don't know whether Columbia's finally realizing that DVD consumers want pristine versions of their classics on DVD, or if this film simply aged well in their studio vaults - either way, "It Should Happen To You" is a movie that should definitely find its way into your DVD library!

I recently saw this movie again, shortly before Lemmon's death a few weeks ago. It was his first film and he displayed in it a budding talent that would only grow by leaps and bounds in the decades ahead. Lemmon plays the earnest, documentary film maker suitor for Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday). He meets her in Central Park one day while shooting footage for his next film. He is instantly taken with her but she is oblivious to him because she is so taken with making a name for herself, even if there is no accomplishment beyond the fame of her name. Hence, she rents a billboard in 1950s Columbus Circle New York that advertises solely her name. Shortly, wolfish Peter Lawford is after her, trying to get both her billboard and her virtue. Her head gets radically swelled by all these new developments and she neglects Lemmon. Lemmon and she have several wonderful romantic scenes together. One is where he plays the piano in a bar while they sing together "Let's Fall In Love." (Playing the piano like this was actually Lemmon's favorite pasttime in his private life.) Another scene is when he films a documentary for her that tells her what is wrong with their relationship. It is both funny and sad at the same time. Then there is the scene at the zoo where Lemmon very ably apes a monkey, while shooting another documentary, while a plane from Gladys buzzes overhead. Lemmon was very lucky in one respect. For his very first outing in film, he was in a movie directed by the fabulous George Cukor and written by the famous romantic comedy team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. Not every beginner is given such a lofty start but he certainly proved worthy of it. I've read that Lemmon came from an investment banking family in the East and, although that fits his easy grace and manner, one also wonders how he ever fit in as a person with any of them! I've seen this movie several times and loved it each and every time. Truly, this was when they knew how to make romantic comedies and I'd like to see its like being made more frequently nowadays.

The aspect ratio is fake.
The top and bottom of the regular full screen version has been cropped out of the picture to give the illusion your getting a widescreen - what your getting is less picture!
The studios should label the DVD's as they did when they cropped VHS video picture " this film has been modified to fit you tv screen" as in modified to fit a 16x9 tv in this case.
You have already lost one third of the picture when it was modified to full screen, now you loose an additional one third to one fourth of the movies image!
The reason leterbox and widescreen has a demand, is that the audience or consumer wants to view the Movie as it was filmed and framed by the filmaker, and not loose out on portions of the movie that the director intended.
In other words the idea to release in widescreen was for the intention of showing MORE not LESS of the movies image.
The studios believe they can get away with this, since the average buyer does not have a full screen video version to compare with, or the consumer is just unaware.
I compared this DVD to a full screen VHS version, and in many cases where some DVD's come with both Full & Wide Screen on a flip disc, compare them before watching, many of the widesreen sides are just chopped versions of the full screen.
The picture quality is great on this and most DVD's, it is unfortunate though that it has to be a conciliation for cropped picture.

"It Should Happen to You" was one of several movies to feature one of the happiest collaborative groups in the history of screen comedy: actress Judy Holliday, director George Cukor, and the husband-wife writing team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. Add the film debut of Jack Lemmon, at the very height of his youthful charm, and you have a gentle, delightful comedy classic. Judy Holliday specialized in playing "dumb blondes" who actually were much smarter than they or others suspected; through the course of the films, Holliday's characters always learned self-esteem and self-reliance, making Holliday one of the great unsung heroes of Women's Liberation. In "It Should Happen to You," Holliday plays Gladys Glover, a woman so obsessed with becoming a celebrity that she takes her life's savings and rents a New York billboard to display her name. Her action does make her famous--as well as making her the center of a romantic rivalry between Lemmon, an idealistic filmmaker, and Peter Lawford, a wolfish ad executive--but also teaches her some hard lessons about the price of fame. Cukor's direction and the Kanin-Gordon script maintain an airy grace throughout, but the centerpiece is Holliday, an actress of unique warmth and charm whose early death was an incalculable tragedy for the cinema. She and Lemmon have wonderful chemistry; their duet of "Let's Fall in Love" is alone worth the price of this video. This may not have been Holliday's greatest movie--that, probably, is "Born Yesterday"--but it's my personal favorite.

I'd give this movie 1,000 stars if I could. Judy Holliday is a beautiful, comedic treasure and Jack Lemmon's debut is mint. I cannot believe this movie is no longer in print! What, did the company need to nudge it out to make room for one more cheap, silicone-bimbo flick or endless, blow-em-up nonsense we keep getting shoved at us? This movie may not be a million dollar blockbuster, but it deserves to be seen (and not at an exhorbitant [price] for a "collector's copy"). Please bring it back - It deserves DVD status!!!

I watched this as a double-header with another film by the great Judy Holliday, probably her most well-known performance in BORN YESTERDAY, for which she won a much-deserved Academy Award for Best Actress. IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU may not be as well-known, but it certainly should be. Judy's comedic genius as "the dumb blonde" is showcased here, brilliantly. She was definitely a comic GENIUS, and more people need to see this film to get a glimpse into the artistic talent of a woman who, perhaps, was the smartest "dumb blonde" in film history, who used her deceptive "dimwittedness" as a ruse to successfully turn things upside down.

Gladys Clover (Judy Holliday) is a young woman who wants nothing more but to be famous just for the sake of being famous. What is her masterplan to obtain it? Through commissioning a series of billboards with her name, to be displayed downtown for the world to see, of course! This unsual approach to gaining celebrity actually works, and leads to many opportunities in the limelight. What Gladys comes to learn, of course, is that all that glitters is not gold. Along the way, she encounters a young, intelligent would-be documentary filmmaker, Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon), who watches her rise to the top as a billboard superstar, and wonders how long she will manage to stay there. Gladys is also persued by a manipulative young tycoon, Evan Adams III (Peter Lawford), with less than wholesome intentions.

This movie has wonderful humor and a soulfulness quite absent from the movies of today. What you come to learn from watching this wonderful story is how irreplaceable the brilliant Judy Holliday is, and you will definitely enjoy watching her play off of the wonderful cast! This was Jack Lemmon's film debut, and you can tell from the minute he steps on screen that this man was going to go places as an actor. His presence is indeniable. Everyone needs to see this!

When Judy Holliday died in 1967, long before her time, she hadn't been on the silver screen in years. That was a real tragedy for filmgoers, because she was one of the most underrated, under-appreciated actresses of 1940s-50s Hollywood. In 'It Should Happen To You,' a woman comes to New York City wanting to make a name for herself, and starts off big by splashing her name onto Midtown Manhattan's largest billboard. Instant celebrity follows, and she inevitably becomes so well-known that some greedy guys covet her prime advertising spot. But not-so-nitwit Holliday goes on to win the day -- and our hearts. Any movie she appears in is a gem, but the perennial 'wacky blonde' is never so delectable as in this Holliday classic. The actress has a style all her own, that of the street-smart dingbat with a heart a mile wide, and she never disappoints. This video is definitely worth buying, keeping and viewing again and again!

George Cukor's breezy comedy IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU features the lovely Judy Holliday in one of her greatest roles, as well as Jack Lemmon in his movie debut.

The story concerns a young woman named Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) whose compulsion for fame drives her to rent a billboard in Columbus Circle, on which her name is displayed for all to see. Pretty soon Gladys is known all over New York and she becomes an overnight celebrity. Gladys is also faced with a decision of the heart: a choice between her next-door-neighbour Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon) an amateur filmmaker who genuinely loves her; and suave businessman Evan Adams (Peter Lawford) who is only after her valuable billboard!

Fans of Judy Holliday won't be disappointed with this gem. The DVD presents the film in a sparkling anamorphic print, with the original trailer as the only extra. A talent taken from us too soon (just 10 years after this movie). Judy Holliday was definitely one-of-a-kind.

I recently saw the rebroadcast of an archival interview with George Cukor and he absolutely loved working with Judy Holliday. He valued her for her intelligence and he labeled her an intellectual. I know that an actor has to be sober to effectively portray a drunkard and so too, the highly intelligent Holliday effectively portrays a good natured but very ditzy character named Gladys Glover. If she wasn't so bright, she could not have effectively played such a ditzy character. Gladys wants to make a name for herself. She sees that there is prime billboard space available at Columus Circle in New York. That gives her an idea and you can guess what that idea is. Anyway, her name on one billboard gets parlayed into fame and there is a great satirical scene where people seek her autograph simply because her name is known.

Peter Lawford plays a potential love interest who is really interested in her for what she can mean to his corporation's bottom line. Her real love interest is Jack Lemon in his first role ever. In this early performance, we can see the seeds of the quirkiness that charcterized his movie career. This movie is delightful and I recommend it. Incidentally, there are great shots of Columbus Circle as it appeared in 1954. My!! How it has changed!