Most critics agree this is a bright, biting comedy that keeps the wit and satire of Garson Kanin’s play, and nearly all of them say it belongs to Judy Holliday. Her Billie Dawn is praised for the malaprops, the timing, and the way she plays a woman cleverer than she lets on; several reviews say the film is more or less all about her. George Cukor’s handling of the cast draws steady credit, and William Holden is noted as quietly effective.
The reservations are few and mostly concern the men and the stage. Variety finds Broderick Crawford’s junk dealer loud and boorish, missing the sympathy he had in the theatre, while The Times counts his chemistry with Holliday as a strength. Empire is the lone mixed voice, finding the adaptation overly theatrical, Holliday’s performance calculated on screen, and the heroine merely swapping one dependence for another. The New Yorker notes the politics have dated. The spread is narrow.