IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1954) ** This is what used to pass for a goofball comedy. It was a simpler world then, though not as simple as so many simpletons thought. The crowds, the herd was simpler to amuse, simpler to amaze, easier to mystify. It must have struck many as a radical proposition--before the final curtain for Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe, before success stories like Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Fonda headed towards the third act--that an "average" American would like a simple husband and privacy more than the bright lights of the big city, and everything that those lights can promise and deliver. It's all pretty obvious from the 21st century, and easy to say that smarter people have fallen for dumber things than that (only Peter Lawford's semi-sleazy if ultra-honest [subjective perspective] appears worthy of much more than passing comment, and such qualities aren't ever particularly worthy of more than passing comment. So as excited as the grocery store masses must have been over the plight of Judy Holliday, and as credible as she is in a role that looks a lot easier than it is, it mainly just strikes me as boring. The same thing's happening out every window, to everyone who hasn't figured it out. Be true to yourself, find yourself, be yourself, and put money in the collection plate and buy my ten video self-help guide on the way out. Jack Lemmon doesn't strike me as that much of a catch either, for that matter. There's a real temptation that Judy might have been better off trying to inject some integrity into Peter rather than work with Jack on his problems expressing compassion. Again, these are common problems and common concerns, and when the characters don't speak to you, who cares much anyway?
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