Film: “It Should Happen to You” starring Judy Holliday and Jack Lemmon

Jack Lemmon had to wait 30 years before he landed his breakthrough role in George Cukor’s “It Should Happen to You.” In retrospect, the reward was worth the wait. He played opposite the late great Judy Holliday.

In “Happen,” at best a B-plus rom-com, Holliday plays Gladys Glover, a down-on-her-luck Manhattanite who’s been fired from her job as a girdle model. “A half-inch too big,” she complains to Pete Sheppard (Lemmon), a documentary filmmaker whom she encounters while walking through Columbus Circle. Pete explains that his job is taking 8 mm movies of random and interesting New Yorkers he meets—like her.

Gladys notices a large billboard overlooking Columbus Circle that is available for rent. (Fun fact: The address on the billboard is 383 Madison, former home of BBDO Advertising.) She has visions of her name on the billboard, and improbably manages to secure it—for only $700. Within a few days the sign is up and she is thrilled.

However, it turns out the Adams Soap company, which has traditionally booked the sign, is angry to learn that somebody else has gotten the space. She is called to a meeting where Evan Adams III (Peter Lawford at its sleaziest) attempts to induce her to give up the sign by offering her more money. Gladys refuses until he agrees to post six more of the same signs around town.

New Yorkers are intrigued by the “Gladys Glover” signs. In Macy's when she gives her name, dozens of people flock to get her autograph.

Meanwhile, TV host Brod Clinton (Michael O’Shea) senses a publicity campaign in the making, and asks her to appear on a local television show called “The People Speak.” Her candor and unpolished charm seem to win over audiences. But Pete, who watches the show, realizes she is being ridiculed. This upsets him—because he is starting to fall for her.

Pete invites Gladys home to meet his parents in Westfield, New Jersey but she bails at the last minute. Why? Apparently, Evans Adams III has invited her up to his swanky East River penthouse apartment to discuss a cross-country “business proposition.” He starts to get handsy right away and she excuses herself soon after.

Gladys soon realizes that what she really wants is to step away from the media frenzy and into a nice, anonymous, happy-ever-after life with Pete.

Written by Garson Kanin, the film has the ebullient Miss Holliday doing what she does best: playing the role of a New Yorker whose ditziness conceals her native Queens smarts (Holliday was no dummy; she reportedly had an IQ of 172.) But perhaps just as importantly, “Happen to You” established Lemmon’s reputation for playing the nerdy-but-lovable everyman up until his death in 2001.

In his review of the film for the NYT, Bosley Crowther described newcomer Lemmon as someone possessing "a warm and appealing personality. The screen should see more of him.” And now you can. The Jack Lemmon Film Festival is on through May 29 at Film Forum.

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