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Roman Holiday

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For other uses, see Roman Holiday (disambiguation).
Roman Holiday
File:Roman holiday.jpg
Promotional movie poster for the film
Directed byWilliam Wyler
Written byDalton Trumbo (story)
Ian McLellan Hunter & John Dighton (screenplay)
Produced byWilliam Wyler
StarringGregory Peck
Audrey Hepburn
Eddie Albert
CinematographyHenri Alekan
Franz Planer
Edited byRobert Swink
Music byGeorges Auric
Victor Young
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release dates
August 27, 1953
Running time
118 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,500,000 (est.)

Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy. The film introduced American audiences to Belgian-born actress Audrey Hepburn, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Gregory Peck and Eddie Albert co-starred. The movie was directed and produced by William Wyler. It was written by John Dighton and author Dalton Trumbo. As Trumbo was on the Hollywood blacklist, he was not credited; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him. Trumbo's name was finally digitally added to the film's credits when it was released on DVD in 2003.

In the 1970s, both Peck and Hepburn were approached with the idea of a sequel, which would have seen Anya and Joe reunite, but the project never came to fruition. The film was remade for television in 1987 with Tom Conti and Catherine Oxenberg.

Plot

Filmed on location in Rome, landmarks such as the Spanish Steps were used in several scenes.

Princess Ann (Hepburn) is a royal princess of an unspecified country. She is on a widely publicized tour of several European capitals, including Rome. One night, she rebels against the strenuous demands of her official duties, where every minute of her time is scheduled. Her doctor gives her a sedative in order to help her sleep, but she secretly leaves her country's embassy and goes out alone to experience Rome.

The injection eventually takes effect and she falls asleep on a public bench where Joe Bradley (Peck), an expatriate American reporter, meets her, but does not recognize her. He offers her money so that she can take a taxi home, but "Anya Smith," as she calls herself, refuses to disclose where that is, saying that she should be taken to the Colosseum. Joe finally decides, for safety's sake, to let her spend the night in his apartment. He is amused by her regal manner, but less so when she appropriates his bed, leaving him the uncomfortable couch. The next morning, unable to rouse her, he goes to work.

His editor, Mr. Hennessy (Hartley Power), asks him if he had covered the press conference with the princess. Joe lies, making up details of the alleged interview until Hennessy tells him that the princess had suddenly "fallen ill" and the conference had been canceled. Joe sees a picture of her and recognizes the young woman he had left sleeping in his apartment. Hennessy then threatens to fire him, and the two men end up making a bet that Joe can get an exclusive on the princess.

Joe realizes he is sitting on a windfall; an exclusive story about his unsuspecting guest. He offers to show Rome to Anya, but not before getting his photographer friend, Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert), to tag along to take pictures of her without her knowledge.

Hepburn and Peck embark on a Vespa ride through Rome in one of the films comedic sequences.

They spend the day seeing the sights, including the "Mouth of Truth." On a whim, she gets her hair cut short in a barbershop facing the famous Trevi Fountain. She shares with Joe her dream of living a normal life without her crushing responsibilities and restrictions. That night, at a dance on a boat, government agents finally track her down and try to escort her away, but a wild melee breaks out and Joe and Anya escape. Through all this, they gradually fall in love. However, Anya realizes that it cannot be. She finally bids farewell to Joe, without revealing her true identity, and returns to the embassy.

During the course of the day, Hennessy learns that the princess is missing, not ill as the embassy had claimed. He suspects that Joe knows where she is, and tries to get him to admit it, but Joe claims to know nothing about it. Knowing Joe's feelings for Anya, Irving reluctantly decides not to sell his photos.

The next day, Princess Ann appears at the delayed news conference, only to find Joe and Irving among the members of the press. Irving takes her picture with the same miniature cigarette lighter/camera he had used the previous day. He then presents her with the photographs he had taken that day, as a memento of her adventure. Joe lets her know, by allusion, that her secret is safe with them. She, in turn, works into her bland press conference statements a coded message of love and gratitude to Joe. She then departs, leaving Joe to linger for a while, contemplating what might have been.

Cast

Main cast and characters

Gregory Peck
as Joe Bradley		 The role was originally written with Cary Grant in mind. Grant turned the role down, believing he was too old to play Hepburn's love interest. (The studio later convinced Grant to play opposite her in Charade.) Peck's contract gave him solo star billing, with the name of then-unknown Hepburn featured much smaller in the credits. Half-way through the filming, he requested that the producer give her equal billing—an almost unheard-of gesture in Hollywood.
Audrey Hepburn
as Princess Ann ('Anya Smith')		 Hepburn was cast after a screen-test. After she had performed a dignified, subdued scene from the film, the director called "cut", but the cameraman left the camera rolling, showing the young actress suddenly become animated as she chatted with the director. The candid footage won her the role; some of it was later included in the original theatrical trailer for the film, along with additional screen test footage showing Hepburn trying on some of Anya's costumes and even cutting her own hair (referring to a scene in the film where Anya gets a haircut). It is sometimes claimed that Roman Holiday was Hepburn's first American acting job. In fact, she appeared at least once on US television in 1952 — a CBS Television Workshop production of Rainy Day in Paradise Junction .

Other cast members

Peck, Hepburn and Eddie Albert
Eddie Albert as Irving Radovich
Hartley Power as Mr. Hennesy, Bradley's editor
Harcourt Williams as the Ambassodor of Princess Ann's country
Margaret Rawlings as Countess Vereberg, Ann's principal lady-in-waiting
Tullio Carminati as General Provno
Paolo Carlini as Mario Delani, the hairdresser
Paola Borboni as the Charwoman
Alfredo Rizzo as Cab driver
Laura Solari as Secretary
Gorella Gori as Shoe seller
Heinz Hindrich as Dr. Bonnachoven, Ann's doctor
John Horne as Master of Ceremonies
Andrea Esterhazy as Embassy staffer
Ugo De Pascale as Embassy staffer
Diane Lante as lady-in-waiting

Awards

Wins

Nominations

Production

Audrey Hepburn breaks character during a practical joke Gregory Peck plays during filming of the "Mouth of Truth" sequence.

One of the most famous scenes in the movie is when Peck puts his hand into the "Mouth of Truth" (La Bocca della Verità), a stone face in Rome that legend says will bite your hand off if you tell a lie. In the film, when he pulls his hand out it is missing, causing Anya/Hepburn to scream. He then pops his hand out of his sleeve and laughs. Hepburn's shriek was not acting — Peck decided to pull a gag he had once seen Red Skelton do, and did not tell his co-star beforehand.[1]

Shortly after Princess Ann and Joe Bradley meet, she quotes him some poetry and insists it is by Keats. He insists it is by Shelley, and they have a bit of an argument. The quote is in fact from the beginning of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's poem 'Proserpine and Midas'.

The movie was filmed on location in Rome, and at Cinecittà Studios.

Tributes

The film inspired the lyrics of Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast at Tiffany's", but the author, Todd David Pipes, thought that one of Hepburn's other films would make a better song title.[2]

At least two different orchid cultivars share this name, Epc. Joseph Romans 'Roman Holiday' and Blc. Empress Worsley 'Roman Holiday'.

In the manga and anime REC, Fumihiko Matsumaru and Aka Ondo went to see the movie in the first episode.

Miscellaneous

The film is also known for its Vespa footage, much praised by classic scooter enthusiasts the world over.[citation needed] The film is allegedly based on the life of the young Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, though many dispute how closely and if this was deliberate at all. While Margaret was conducting a later-famous affair with Peter Townsend at the time, it was not public knowledge for several years after the film's release. However, Margaret's reputation as a girl who flouted royal traditions seem to justify comparisons between her and the fictional Princess Ann.

References

  1. ^ An Evening with Gregory Peck, a series of retrospective lectures Peck gave in the years before his death, and Remembering Roman Holiday, a featurette on the 2002 DVD release.
  2. ^ British Hit Singles & Albums (Edition 18), Guinness World Records Limited
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