What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A hit in New York, a reasonable success in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Baltimore and other big cities, but a flop almost everywhere else in the U.S.A., It Should Happen To You poses some interesting questions not only about picture tastes from capital to capital and city to country, but also about fame/notoriety and personal satisfaction/fulfillment.To deal with the former questions, this is a movie that could aptly be described as sophisticated. Often this word is loosely used to mean sexy or voyeuristic. To me sophistication implies a mental or physical activity that has little if anything to do with eating, dressing, fighting, loving or surviving. Most movies primarily concern themselves with at least one of these essentials and are therefore unsophisticated. The Cruel Sea, surviving. Breakfast at Tiffany's, loving. Gone With the Wind, all five.It Should Happen To You is not primarily concerned with loving, although romance enters into its plot and affects its outcome. Nor is it concerned with physical survival. Its heroine wants more than house and home, clothes and husband. She wants success, not the sort of success recognized by a farmer or businessman, but simply recognition.It's been my experience that people who live on the land or are immersed in their work or the simple daily struggle to raise a family or earn enough money for necessities, have great difficulty coming to any sort of terms with, let alone appreciation of the need for recognition, outside of an immediate family or close community level. As for an artistic viewpoint regarding life and living, this is beyond their ken altogether. Writers, artists, composers, sculptors, even scientists, researchers and inventors are necessarily "mad", unless what they are about has a close commercial application. A writer of best-selling pulp novels or a discoverer of cheap, non-polluting fuel who has sold his patents to a suppressing oil company, would be regarded as rare examples of artists and scientists fit to join the human race. The concept, "Art for art's sake", is incomprehensible.Having no sympathy with, or understanding of the heroine of It Should Happen To You, much of the rural or working-class audience cannot understand the plot's basic premise, let alone appreciate the sly digs at television and "fame". A pity because Judy Holliday as usual gives a great performance, virtually carrying the acting burden of the movie entirely on her own demure shoulders. True, she does receive good support, and Lemmon makes an appealing hero in a debut that is somewhat removed from his usual characterizations.As we might expect from Cukor, his handling is both fluent and culture-conscious. The most memorable sequence is that in which the typical TV panel show is mercilessly pilloried. When I saw the movie at a weekday matinee, few members of the largely shopping housewives audience laughed. Yet the manager told me that the opening Saturday night crowd had "rolled in the aisles".

There's always plenty going on beneath the surface of a Garson Kanin script. And here, as in the eternally underrated Tom, Dick and Harry and The Rat Race, his real subject is the American Dream. Judy Holliday, who originated the lead in Kanin's Born Yesterday on stage and won an Oscar for it on screen, plays Gladys Glover, a newly-unemployed model whose plan to make a name for herself involves just that: plastering her name across a Columbus Circle billboard. It brings her fame, but as beau Jack Lemmon suggests in one telling, prescient exchange, she hasn't done anything to warrant it. And anyway, isn't it OK to be part of the crowd? The dialogue is absolutely scintillating, the satire spot-on and the performances from Holliday and Lemmon (in his big screen debut) spectacular.

While the performances in this film certainly had their good moments, none of the characters were particularly likable.Jack Lemmon's Pete is manipulative and casually sexist, trying to bring Judy Holliday's character Gladys down to earth, basically dangling that holy grail of marriage just past her fingers, but saying that he would not offer it, or take her seriously, until she behaved herself like a good girl. She says to him, "don't be the one to burst my bubble", but he takes no notice and is petulant and possessive.Then again though, those dreams Gladys has- just to be known, not for anything at all, just KNOWN. They aren't very noble dreams. It's good that she wants her autonomy, but she plays the dumb blonde shtick and comes across as irritating, vacuous and greedy, and is soon exploited by unscrupulous, slimy businessmen. I think there's an intended message here that women couldn't hope to win in the 1950s and they were silly to even try.But it was Peter Lawford's character that was the worst. As the rich owner of a soap manufacturing company, he's practically psychopathic. I don't know how anyone could have interpreted his advances towards Gladys as romantic or warm. He's a man who won't take no for an answer. The scene where he follows Gladys into her home despite her saying goodbye numerous times made me very uncomfortable- many women will recognise that situation, where you don't want to be rude and so the man takes advantage of your politeness and pushes his luck despite understanding full well that he's not welcome. The scene in his apartment where she expects a business meeting and he expects her to prostitute herself makes me even more uncomfortable. You can see the fear on Gladys' face as she cringes away from his kisses (a good performance there from Holliday) and there are definite undertones of rape. It made me feel sick. Without the Hays Code restricting what could be shown and said, imagine that scene played more explicitly today- you would not be able to consider the film a comedy.The ending of the film is supposed to be happy but I think it's rather a tragedy. Gladys and Pete, newly married, are in his car. Even from the brief scene it is made clear that she's been broken into submission. He makes all the decisions- we'll find a motel and go straight to bed, and then get back on the road early- and with a faint voice she asks if they couldn't possibly have breakfast before they leave. Yes, she's a good girl now.

From the moment Lemmon makes his first appearance, we know a fresh comedic star has arrived. With more nervous tics than a first day kid at school, he and the ditsy Holliday make the perfect cute, funny couple. What an imaginative premise, too. Since everything else is advertised, why not put your own name up there on a billboard for all to see. That way, it gets passed around and you become famous for no good reason at all. Holliday is the perfect actress to pull a wacky shenanigan like that. I especially love it when that pack of smug businessmen pounce, figuring anyone who looks like that and sounds like that must be stupid—(note the meaningful feather jutting from her hat, ready to skewer the unwary). Of course, judging by appearance proves a big mistake as they soon find out. It's also the secret of her comedic success, as the tour-de-force The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956) demonstrates in laugh-filled spades.Peter Lawford certainly looks the part of the predatory playboy with enough moussed hair to warrant a drilling platform. But his romantic scenes with Holliday plug up the pacing. Too bad, Ernie Kovacs didn't have the part—just the thought of Holliday and him in a romantic interlude opens up all sorts of rich possibilities. Also, I wonder what the satirically minded Frank Tashlin would have done with the advertising passages so ripe for his brand of spoofing. Nonetheless, Holliday's bright idea is way ahead of her time, considering all the no- talent celebrities clogging up today's headlines. Anyway, the movie remains a delight, thanks to two of the best comedic talents in the business. Fortunately, their stars will continue to shine wherever this charming little diversion is shown.