Perhaps I was misled by the last Judy Holliday film I saw that this would be a breezy romantic comedy. While it had the skeleton of one, the real meat was a satire/cautionary tale about the perils of seeking fame for its own sake. While the general message might come across as hypocritical or at least naive in our day in age, that's more a sign of how much we've fallen than of the rightness/wrongness of what this film explores. It was more or less enjoyable for the first two-thirds or so before taking a more sinister/melancholic turn that didn't feel as shocking as a certain scene in Born Yesterday. Not as a criticism, but that it deftly handled the tonal shift. It even managed to take a quick but potent potshot at the deliberately constructed "reality" of documentaries. As much as the media would like, their packaged "authenticity" and "reality" is anything but. As for the lust for fame/fortune/power/notoriety, it makes prostitutes of all its acolytes. Democracy just means that everyone can be their own pimp. What is daring, then as now, is to be a true individual as part of the crowd. Anyhow, while this wasn't exactly what I expected, it packed a lot to consider in its 87 minutes.
Review of It Should Happen to You
It Should Happen to You
(1954)
A breezy romantic comedy that masks serious social commentary
19 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers