I caught another odd interesting movie on TCM a while back: “It Should Happen To You.” Quick synopsis: Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday), down on her luck, meets lively interesting documentarian Pete (a young Jack Lemmon), who tries to cheer her up, and who (incidentally) finds her fascinating. Then Gladys gets an idea: why not invest in a billboard? It will be in Columbus Circle in Manhattan and it will just say her name: GLADYS GLOVER. If nothing else, it will make her feel better about herself.
Things go wild. Evan Adams III (a young and sickeningly handsome Peter Lawford) tries to buy the billboard away from her for his family’s soap company; then, of course, he falls for her. He makes a bargain: if he can have the Columbus Circle billboard, he’ll give her six others, strategically placed throughout Manhattan.
People start to recognize her name. How can they not? It’s plastered all over the city. A cynical reporter does a story about her - just another crazy New Yorker - but realizes quickly that the audience likes her goofy sincerity. Soon she’s on TV, with 1950s celebs like Ilka Chase and Wendy Barrie and Constance Bennett. Lawford’s soap company makes her their spokesmodel. Gladys is suddenly famous, and enchanted with the idea of being famous.
Poor Jack Lemmon is sulking at the sidelines this whole time. Finally, of course, being good-hearted, Judy realizes that her fame is based on nothing, and renounces it, and marries Jack.
Is any of this resonating with you? Is the name “Kardashian” occurring to you, or “Paris Hilton”?
The movie works for a couple of reasons. First: Judy Holliday. The woman couldn’t turn in a bad performance. She always played the same character, of course: uneducated but smart, quick, funny, deadpan. Jack Lemmon is at his young/goofy best too (this was his first movie). Also there’s the writing: it’s a Garson Kanin screenplay (supposedly inspired by a comment he made to his wife Ruth Gordon during a downtime in their careers, when he pointed up at a prominent Manhattan billboard and told her that her name would be up there someday), and the dialogue is very sharp. He knew how to write for Judy Holliday (she was in both “Adam’s Rib” and “Born Yesterday”), and I would love to know how much of the dialogue came from Garson’s typewriter and how much was pure Judy. It’s also a nostalgia romp for old-timers like me, with the black-and-white cinematography of Manhattan. (I swear there are whole streets and avenues that haven’t changed since this movie was made; at one point Partner sat up and pointed at the screen and said: “Bickford’s! I remember eating there!”)
But, for me, it was mostly about the anatomy of fame.
Lots of old movies are about the perils of fame: “Meet John Doe,” “Nothing Sacred,” “A Face In the Crowd.” It makes one realize that Hollywood has not changed, nor human nature, nor our appetite to be rich and famous, nor our appetite to be close to the rich and famous.
The movie has a silly squishy ending. It also has a very mawkish song. I’m just warning you, in case you see it.
But do see it.
It will make you laugh a couple of times, but it will also make you think.
A little.
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