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It Should Happen to You

It Should Happen to You
It Should Happen to You VideoCover.png
DVD Cover
Directed by George Cukor
Produced by Fred Kohlmar
Written by Garson Kanin
Starring Judy Holliday
Peter Lawford
Jack Lemmon
Michael O'Shea
Music by Frederick Hollander
Cinematography Charles Lang
Edited by Charles Nelson
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
  • January 15, 1954 (1954-01-15)
Running time
86 minutes
Country United States
Language English

It Should Happen to You (1954) is a romantic comedy film starring Judy Holliday and Peter Lawford, and notable as the first major screen appearance of Jack Lemmon, who was then an aspiring young actor. The film was directed by George Cukor and filmed on location in New York City. Screenwriter Garson Kanin originally intended the script as a vehicle for Danny Kaye, but Kanin's wife, Ruth Gordon, suggested casting Judy Holliday instead. The title was initially A Name for Herself.

Lemmon had a contentious meeting with studio boss Harry Cohn, who feared that critics might use jokes about the name "Lemmon" in headlines panning the film. He wanted Lemmon to change his name to "Lennon." Lemmon countered that if he did that people might confuse his name with "Lenin" and associate his name with communism, a very real concern in the 1950s.

The script, by Garson Kanin, is about a naive young woman named Gladys Glover who yearns for fame. Strolling through Central Park, she meets a young handsome man named Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon). He is a maker of documentaries (apparently equipped only with a handheld 16mm camera). He is taking brief shots of people in the park. He films Gladys feeding pigeons and introduces himself.

In a rapid piece of exposition, we learn Gladys has been in New York City for two years, coming from a job at a shoe factory in Binghamton, New York. She has just lost her job as a model of girdles, because her hip size is 3/4" larger than it should be, and still has the $1000, which she "saved up." Gladys is discouraged at having gotten nowhere in two years and she wants to make a name for herself. It is clear Pete is taken by Gladys. He gets her address by offering to drop her a postcard when the documentary is finished so she can see herself in it. "Really?" she says, "I'd give my right arm to see myself in the movies." "You don't need to give me your right arm," says Pete, "just give me your right address." Pete encourages Gladys to follow her dreams: "Where there's a will there's a way, and where there's a way there is a will." The two then part ways.


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