Powerful

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Aspiring model comes to New York and concocts a novel idea to advertise herself - her name on billboards. This is a pleasant little comedy that benefits tremendously from the presence of Holliday. In fact, she's the whole show as the kooky blonde named Gladys Glover, a simple, good-hearted young lady who revels in her 15 minutes of fame. It is lamentable that the actress had such a brief career before her untimely death. Lemmon makes his film debut here, establishing the sensitive, hyperactive good-guy persona that he would go on to play variations of pretty much throughout his career. This was the last of a half-dozen films that Kanin and Cukor collaborated on.

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.

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.

This is supposedly Jack Lemmon's first starring role and from the moment he appears you know it's going to be a great picture. (How ironic that such a great actor should debut using a movie camera!) Add to that the spark of Judy Holliday and the sparks start flying like a diamond in the sunlight. But, sadly, they are black and white sparks.Hopefully, that won't be offputting to too many people. But I'm afraid it will be. It's genuinely funny and endearing. Perfectly cast as you hate Peter Lawford for the skank I've always felt he was and immediately fall for Lemmon and Holliday. But because of one stupid decision to make the picture in black and white when (in 1954) it was common to make color movies...Especially when the script and stars are so colorful. Well, it's sad.So watch it, enjoy it and let the color of love at first sight brighten it up for you in spite of the lousy idea to shoot it in black and white.