It Should Happen to You Synopsis: When a young woman with dreams of fame rents a billboard to advertise herself, her life changes overnight.
Recently fired from her modeling job, Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) is desperate to make a name for herself. She has dreams of stardom but has no idea how to achieve them. When she meets Pete (Jack Lemmon), a documentarian, he inspires her to keep working for what she wants if she really wants it. Inspired, Gladys decides to buy ad space on a giant billboard at Columbus Square, with just her name painted on it.
This sets off a firestorm of curiosity from people and an annoyance from Evan Adams III (Peter Lawson), the owner of a soap company who had wanted the ad space for himself. Gladys begins to experience the stardom she’s always craved, but is living in the spotlight everything she hoped it would be?
I had never even heard of It Should Happen to You until the day I decided to watch it. It happened to be on TCM, and I loved the synopsis, so I gave it a go. I’m so glad I did. It Should Happen to You is just delightful. Judy Holliday is the star here. Her performance as Gladys Glover is so charming that even when she is naïve and dimwitted, she’s incredibly likable and funny.
This was Jack Lemmon’s film debut, and already you can see his star power. While the movie really is about Gladys, I still wish we had seen more of Pete and his blossoming romance with Gladys. Even so, the moments they do share on-screen are magic.
It Should Happen to You has such a simple yet ridiculous premise – Gladys just wants her name on a billboard for all to see because that’s how she knows she’ll become someone. She’s steadfast in her belief, so much so that she declines Evan Adams’s offer of money just to see her name above Columbus Square for a meager three months.
When the intrigue of the billboard takes off, so does her career, and she loves the spotlight, at least for a while. Holliday is so good at portraying Gladys’s eternal optimism, even when she becomes jaded by what stardom actually means. She’s a woman who follows her dreams but is also strong enough to admit when reality doesn’t quite match what she thought the fantasy would be.
It Should Happen to You does not say Gladys needs a man to be happy. Her love for Pete is her choice, as is what she does with her life and future. Gladys may seem like your typical blonde bombshell, but she’s actually a very strong female character, and I love that she defies the stereotype.
It Should Happen to You is a perfectly cast film with snappy, witty dialogue and superb direction by George Cukor, which is no surprise considering he also directed one of the best rom-coms of all time, The Philadelphia Story. There are so many reasons to watch this film, so make sure you put this on your watchlist. You won’t be disappointed.
Watched: 05/18/2022
Notable Song: Let’s Fall in Love by Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday
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