SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

daoldiges Even though I like both Hepburn and Peck I've always kind of resisted seeing this movie for some reason. It was showing at Film Forum here in NYC the other day and I figured it was time that I checked it out. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I think all of the performances are good, not just Hepburn. Peck and Albert were both good and I think the Albert character was funny and provided an essential element to the success of this film. The only part of the film that does not work are the end scenes where the Hepburn character is publicly shared/introduced as a real princess. Royalty was viewed and revered differently when this film was originally released, but today those scenes feel stilted. Otherwise this is a light, carefree, and fun film.

bellino-angelo2014 I must have seen this movie almost 10 times in my life, catching it on TV, and I find myself caught by the story again and again. I love everything about this movie: the actors, the scenario (Rome's background), and the music score. Let me talk about the qualities of this movie: Audrey Hepburn (in her official movie debut) is wonderful, and sparkles all the way trough, and really deserved her Academy Award for Best Actress in 1954. Gregory Peck is fantastic as Joe Bradley, the American journalist that befriends and gives her hospitality in his flat and eventually, after some comic adventures, falls in love with her. And Eddie Albert is just great, as Irving Radovich, Bradley's colleague that tries to photograph the scoop of Princess Anna's visit in Rome. Eddie Albert should have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor because this is one of his best roles, but he lost it thanks to Frank Sinatra for ''From Here to Eternity''.I must add that Albert was good not only in comedy, like in ''Green Acres'', but also in more darker roles, such as the frightened Army Captain in ''Attack!'' and the psychotic colonel in ''Captain Newman, M. D.'', and it's so sad that he wasn't nominated for these two roles!This is also the first comedy produced in America filmed entirely in Italy, and Rome's backgrounds, such as Trevi's Fountain, Piazza Di Spagna and the Colosseum are perfectly fit in the movie. The music is also nice, because it's not with the silly Perry Como songs, but the score is composed by Georges Auric, and fits like a glove the character's actions.My favorite parts are: when Audrey lets the Vespa go and goes smashing trough all of Rome's street-markets, and ends with Bradley and Radovich at the police station; and the ending, when Audrey salutes all the press correspondents and Bradley is the last to leave the room, after thinking of his experience in Rome with a princess.It's one of my top favorite movies, and I recommend this movie to everyone, just for a careless evening in ''Old Hollywood Style''!

jacobs-greenwood Roman Holiday (1953) was filmed on location in Rome, Italy and, per TCM's host, was shot in black-and-white vs. Technicolor for budgetary reasons. Accordingly, since Gregory Peck had already been hired to play an uncharacteristically light (for him) Cary Grant- like role as the male lead, his romantic counterpart would have to be played by a relative unknown (e.g. someone producer-director William Wyler could get cheaply).Enter Miss Audrey Hepburn, who had appeared in barely (or should that be "barely appeared in") a handful of movies since her debut in 1951. But despite her short resume, the actress so impressed her co- star during the course of filming this one that Peck convinced Wyler to put her name above the title with his. Subsequently, the Academy endorsed the actor's assessment when they awarded Hepburn the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.She would go on to earn four more Best Actress nominations, among them the title role opposite Humphrey Bogart and William Holden in Billy Wilder's Sabrina (1954) the following year and as the iconic Holly Golightly (opposite George Peppard) in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), though Hepburn failed to earn a nomination for perhaps her most famous part as Eliza Doolittle in the Warner Bros. musical (adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion) My Fair Lady (1964). She was later voted the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (e.g. for her work with UNICEF etc.).Hepburn's unique, regal beauty made her perfect for the role of Princess Ann in Roman Holiday (1953). The story opens with the young princess at the end of an exhausting, repetitious "public relations" tour of Europe. Having been sheltered all her life, she's quite naturally bored. She'd love to find excitement given her present routine, which is so mundane that a simple faux pas (such as her losing track of a high-heeled shoe before dancing with a head-of- state) causes a stir. Tired of it all, Princess Ann becomes tearfully hysterical at bedtime while going over the next day's agenda with her secretary.Borrowing a plot device from director Norman Krasna's Academy Award winning Original Screenplay for Princess O'Rourke (1943), blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo and screenwriters Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton utilized a hypodermic administered sedative (in lieu of too many sleeping pills) to handicap their princess in this one. But that's not where the similarities end: as Krasna did with his title character (played by Olivia de Havilland), once she's out of her protective custody environment, the seemingly inebriated princess falls into the hands of the unawares male protagonist who, fortunately, is chivalrous instead of lecherous, and the romance part of the comedy begins. From there the plots of these two movies diverge - Robert Cummings is a pilot and the conflict is a familiar commoner-that-wants-to-marry-into-royalty routine whereas Peck plays newspaper reporter Joe Bradley who, after learning the identity of the sleeping beauty that just spent the night in his apartment is Princess Ann, fully intends to exploit the situation by selling her exclusive story to his publisher for $5,000 (he doesn't let on that he knows who she is; the princess says her name is Anya and cuts her hair to keep from being recognized in public) - but the end of Roman Holiday (1953) is remarkably similar to a famous romance drama classic.Princess Ann's whirlwind twenty-four hour vacation in Rome includes Hepburn's spontaneous reaction to Peck's appearing to lose his hand in the Mouth of Truth and several other slapstick sequences: Joe interrupting his photographer friend Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert's first Oscar nominated Supporting Actor role) to keep him from spilling the beans (e.g. that they know her identity) on several occasions, a harrowing ride on a motorbike through several street vendors such that the three of them end up appearing before a local police chief, and a comedic brawl at an open air nightclub where the princess's countrymen find her (and try to compel her to return with them). She and Joe escape via a canal (my daughter laughed out loud when the princess grabbed her nose and jumped into the water), swimming to the other side, which is (at the very least) a more original way to get the two leads wet for their first kiss than the more stereotypical rainstorm, right? But alas, even though they've fallen in love, it's an impossible situation, so it must end.In a twist on Casablanca (1942), it's her (the princess), not him, with a sense of duty that stops the romance in its tracks ... but they'll always have Rome. Upon her return to the embassy, it's clear that she's matured quite a bit (after just one day on the outside) as she alters the bedtime ritual. But he too is noble and later - when they meet again while back in their respective roles, and Princess Ann learns that Joe is a reporter - he conveys that her secrets are safe with him (e.g. he isn't going to write about their exploits together, despite his need for the money), and then Irving gives the princess the pictures he'd surreptitiously taken as mementos of her holiday.Like Grant before him, Peck's understated performance in this romantic comedy went unrecognized in a year in which actors in two different war movies, and two others featuring Romans, were instead. Edith Head won her fourth of eight Academy Awards (from 34 nominations) for her B&W Costume Design (love those striped pajamas!), and Trumbo's widow was eventually presented the Oscar for his Motion Picture Story, which was originally given to Hunter, who'd fronted for the blacklisted writer.The film was also nominated for Best Picture, as was director Wyler, the aforementioned screenplay writers, editor Robert Swink, its B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration & Cinematography. Plus, it was added to the National Film Registry in 1999. At least AFI voters did recognize it as the fourth best love story of all time.

SimonJack "Presenting Gregory Peck … and introducing Audrey Hepburn." So the introductory credits read as the story begins in "Roman Holiday." Although she had been around pictures for four years, Hepburn was a virtually unknown actress at the time. That may have had something to do with her getting the lead role. Produce/director William Wyler insisted that the film be shot on location in Rome. So, its budget was cut, which meant it would be shot in black and white and they couldn't afford a big name actress. So, Hepburn got the role of Princess Ann and it turned out to be her breakout role to silver screen stardom. This was Hepburn's first lead role; and with it, she stormed Hollywood and took the top female honors at the Academy Awards for 1953. She was the third youngest female star at the time to win a best actress Oscar. From then on, she would never appear as less than the lead female in any of her movies until the very last one, late in her career. And, only two male stars would ever again be billed ahead of her – Humphrey Bogart in "Sabrina" of 1954 and Gary Cooper in "Love in the Afternoon" of 1957.The cinema world – movie fans and movie makers, fell in love with Audrey Hepburn in this film. It was a love affair that would last to the end of her career and early death in 1993 from cancer. She was just 63 years old. Hepburn's appeal, besides her talent, was a picture of innocence and wholesomeness that contrasted sharply with the frequent Hollywood fare and promotion of sexual temptresses. Hers was a love of respect, admiration and warmth. She didn't make many movies in her career – just 33. Many of the best actresses have small portfolios. They could pick and choose the good roles and films they would like to be in, rather than take anything that came along just to be working, to make a buck or to keep one's face in front of the public. Gregory Peck was at the height of his career at age 37. He plays American newspaper reporter Joe Bradley who is working in Rome. Hepburn is the Princess of some unknown country. This is her story, about a young previously sheltered princess who has her first experiences out from under the safety and control of a royal umbrella. Fortunately for her, when she sneaks out of her royal lodgings after being given a shot to help her sleep, she runs into Bradley. This is a warmly funny and entertaining film, with Eddie Albert as photographer Irving Radovich being the butt of many of the laughs. At the time, Rome was just becoming a popular setting for Hollywood films. The credits point out that the movie was entirely filmed and recorded in Rome. A nice plus of this film is the scenery around the eternal city. A newsreel used early in the film shows a military parade in Rome that includes the Bersaglieri regiment and one of its fanfara. The Bersaglieri fanfara is an all-brass band that performs on the run in military parades. This is the only movie I know of in which one of these bands is shown. "Roman Holiday" is a delightful comedy romance that the whole family should enjoy.