It Should Happen to You (1954)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1954
Running Time	83:30
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	George Cukor
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Judy Holliday Peter Lawford Jack Lemmon Michael O'Shea Vaughn Taylor Connie Gilchrist Walter Klavun Whit Bissell Constance Bennett Ilka Chase Wendy Barrie Melville Cooper
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	Frederick Hollander

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Italian Dutch Arabic Greek Hindi Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    While filming in Central Park for a documentary film, budding filmmaker Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemmon) stumbles across Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday). Like him, she has moved to New York from the country, in the hopes of making a name for herself. To no avail, of course. But after their encounter Gladys hits on the idea of renting space on a large billboard on Columbus Circle, using some money she has saved up.

    But soap company executive Evan Adams III (Peter Lawford) wants the space his company has traditionally rented back, and eventually persuades Gladys to trade the space for half a dozen other billboards, all with just her name. He also tries to woo her using his playboy charm. Not only does this annoy Pete, who has designs on Gladys himself, but things get worse when Gladys becomes celebrity du jour with the help of TV host Brod Clinton (Michael O'Shea).

    A mild comedy from director George Cukor, It Should Happen to You is notable today as much for the film debut of Lemmon as it is for the satire of the cult of celebrity, 1950s-style. Lemmon plays much the same character as he does in most of his early career, and seems immediately at home on the screen. He melds well with the slightly scatterbrained character of Judy Holliday, and while the bland Peter Lawford is second-billed behind her it is Lemmon who has the more compelling screen character. Little wonder that his career took off as it did. If you look closely during the opening sequence in the park you will see a young John Saxon, also in his film debut.

    Much of the satire of 1950s advertising is played as farce, and while it may be accurate the satire does not age very well. The film fails to overstay its welcome though and is reasonably entertaining, if no classic.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. I had my doubts as to whether this was the original aspect ratio, but all the evidence seems to be that it was shot flat and matted to 1.85:1 for widescreen projection. The composition of shots does seem to be designed for widescreen and there is no noticeable cropping. In comparison to the full-frame trailer included on the disc the compositions do look better in the widescreen version.

    The transfer itself is quite good. Apart from one or two deliberately soft shots, the video is bright, sharp and clear, with a fine level of detail. Contrast levels are good without any sign of boosting.

    Shadow detail is satisfactory. Grain is visible throughout, though it only seemed excessive a couple of times.

    Film to video artefacts were limited to some telecine wobble and occasional mild aliasing. The only film artefacts were occasional white flecks.

    Optional subtitles are provided in a number of languages. The English subtitles appear in a clear white font and while not all of the dialogue is transcribed verbatim, there is enough to make sense of the story.

    The disc is single-layered.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The default audio track is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, with several alternative dubbed versions in other languages. I listened to the default track only.

    Dialogue is clear and distinct throughout. I had no trouble with any of the dialogue, either due to clarity or volume level. There is no noticeable hiss or distortion. Fidelity is good and the audio comes across just as well as the video.

    I did not notice any issues with audio sync.

    Frankly, I have to admit I did not notice much of the musical score, which is by Frederick Hollander. What I did notice was the fairly innocuous sort of music that you would get in a 1950s romantic comedy. Judy and Jack do get to sing "Let's Fall in Love" at one point.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer (2:35)

    The trailer is presented in full-frame, so you can compare the compositions with the widescreen version. There are a few more artefacts than in the main feature.

    The US Region 1 release seems to have the same widescreen transfer as the Region 4, but it also has the full-frame version on the disc. Otherwise there are no extras. Unless you really want to watch this film in 1.33:1, there is no reason not to get the Region 4.

    A mild but entertaining comedy with a couple of star performances.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The sole extra is a trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall