It is easy to love Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, like many stars of the truly glam era, they seem ethereal and always looks so close to perfection. How I wish they can restore this in full color. As a rebelling princess tired of the life in a golden bowl, she stows away for a night hoping to experience what it is like to be a normal girl. Gregory Peck is the opportunistic news agency guy assigned to a beat and in the beginning didn't really had an inkling as to who she was. Well, there lies the adventures for both the soon to be smitten guy with the playful Princess around the still traffic free Rome of those days. Entertaining , fun classic.

After World War II, the world entered a period of rehabilitation, and businesses began to rebuild themselves, contributing to the rebound of the economy. Due to the world's economic rebound, money slowly started to trickle back into many American households, leaving money for recreational purposes. A young woman who, like many, had been oppressed by the Nazi power in Europe, had just begun her journey in the recreational industry known as Hollywood. A young Audrey Hepburn was sent to attend ballet school and had been dancing ballet during the war time to bring joy to others. The entertainment industry which had been turned into a propaganda machine to ignite civilian support of the war was now being reverted into an enjoyable past time which didn't include the topic of the war in every screening. Unfortunately for America, after the war had ended, the nation entered the Cold War against the USSR. The films that came out during the 1950s were a form of joy and relief in a time of great insecurity in America as the country pa in the Cold War. One of the films which brought back the light and innocence to audiences was Roman Holiday, directed by William Weyler. Starring Gregory Peck and introducing young Audrey Hepburn, the movie captures the innocence and morality of the time, giving us a look back into a world which no longer exists.Although there may not have been complete peace during that time, this film reflects the respect that men had towards women, the chivalry of that time. There has never been such thing as a perfect world, but when considering human morality, there have been times where the world was much more safe and closer to perfect. In the beginning, when Joe Bradly (Peck) finds Princess Anne (Hepburn) asleep on the side walk, he stopped to help her get a cab, and when she was too tired to direct herself home, he took her home and paid for the ride. When at his house, he let her sleep on his own bed while he took the couch. He did not face the same way as the princess to honor her modesty. Keep in mind, throughout this entire time, he had no idea who she was and yet, he was a complete gentleman to this complete stranger who he found laying on the side walk. Today, a pretty well dressed woman would be harassed if she had passed out on the side of the street, or even at a college party. There have been many cases and trials of college boys who rape college girls who were unsuspecting and vulnerable at the parties. No longer is the world where men take care of all women.Now days, just being out alone at night as a young woman puts you at so many risks. Being unable to go out at night without others due to the way people in the world are now, Many people have no respect for others, and are completely self centered, willing to commit crimes against innocent unsuspecting passerby's, to fulfill a need of their own. The children could freely play on the streets and the neighborhood children were all friends, frolicking around, playing games, not video games, and getting fresh air and exercise. Due to the over population of the world now, there sometimes just isn't room for that. With towering apartment buildings, many families can't afford to live in a friendly neighborhood with a back yard and room to run around. They spend much of their afternoons staring at screens and don't get to practice basic social skills which are acquired through the afternoons of outdoor play with other children. Additionally, the family home has changed as no before, families could leave their door open all the time, and never needed to worry about anyone or anything happening to them. This is not the case now days, as burglars and thieves ruthlessly break into homes, stealing the hard earned possessions of the family. In the movie, Roman Holiday, Joe Bradly lives in the semi-crowded city of Rome. He does live in an apartment of sorts, but his building and the ones surrounding it are two story buildings, unlike the skyscrapers today. He is able to leave his door unlocked when he is away, and the only time he locks it during the movie is when Princess Anne is sleeping and he figured out who she was. He locks the door to make sure she doesn't leave as he wants to interview this significant figure, but it locks from the inside and Princess Anne would be able to exit any time she pleased, so he was not holding her against her will. This world no longer exists as there have been many cases of kidnapping of women and holding them against the will in a house as a slave. The safety of a house which is captured in the movie is in a world unlike today's, dangerous and suspicious world.In a less dramatic sense, the world which is filmed in the movie is no longer the same as the economy and technology has changed. In the movie, we see the antique cameras of the paparazzi and audio recorders when they are given the chance to interview Princess Anne. The cars which drive around are what we would consider old classic cars, the types which are mainly for show and collecting now, but then, everyone who drove had a car similar. The nostalgia in this video brings back a world which we have never known, and my never know again. Through pictures, videos, and music, life is preserved to be enjoyed for a time to come. Although this movie was made during a time of great panic and fear in the United States, the directors and film makers created a morally correct , and it brings the audience back to the realistic world with it's twist of an ending.

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.

One of the qualities I most admire in a movie is its ability to positively challenge my expectations, and expectations I had many regarding William Wyler's "Roman Holiday". So, when the curtain was closed, I thought it was a beautiful experience and another viewing elevated it so high above my preconceived notions of romantic comedies that it could be one of the best movies to embrace that genre. Indeed, "Roman Holiday" should be worthy of any movie lover's admiration for its impeccable combination of acting, writing, directing and also costume designing. Seriously, when you have William Wyler, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Dalton Trumbo and Edith Head… and let's not forget Roma, the millennial city as the backdrop, you can't fail even if you were asked to.But let's give credit to the real, and regal, pillar of the film: Miss Audrey Hepburn. This is the movie that made her an instant star in Hollywood's map, and you can see the novelty in the context of 1953. At a time where Monroe, Kelly or Russell defined beauty canons, came the tall, slender, long-necked and delicate gamin-like Audrey Hepburn. But she was more than a look, she was a smile, an attitude, a voice, a sensitivity, she was so many things wrapped up in one person that there was no doubt, regardless of the film's reception, that she would become a star and win the Oscar. Peck who got the top billing suggested her name to be put above the title, less by altruism than realism. And as the opening credits mention, the film is introducing Audrey Hepburn, and how fitting that the first frames where she graced the silver screen show her smiling and waving at cheerful crowds. It's Princess Ann saluting her European hosts and she does exude this royal composure and classiness, with a little hint of ennui in her eyes, getting more and more perceptible as the fatigue increases. Hepburn keeps on smiling and saluting as if it befitted her glorious entrance in Hollywood by both suggesting her beauty and her vulnerability. Later, the film finds the right balance between drama and comedy, to emphasize the very distance Ann fantasizes about over her royal duties.During the official night, while Ann is saluting all the dignitaries and ambassadors, there's a delicate close-up on her foot she delicately take off the shoe and scratch her ankle with it, then comes the infamous moment where she can't put it back. The symbolism is as strong as the small foot-fetish it induces; it is is a kind of reverse Cinderella-like story about a melancholic princess who wants to have a shot at anonymity. And when she's listening to her chambermaid mechanically reciting the day's schedule, her sudden hysteria startled me, physically. It was impossible not to share her pain, this is not just the Disney princess who wants to discover the world, this is a real existential malaise, she's given sleeping pills but we know this is no remedy.Princess Ann, moved by her remaining forces (and some childishly adventurous spirit), leaves the hotel. She crosses the path of Joe Bradley, a tall and handsome journalist played by Gregory Peck, gentleman enough not to leave the drugged princess lying on Roma's streets. He takes her to his apartment, gives her his pajama and they sleep without anything happening. It's all in the day after when he realizes he's got the Princess in his hands and one hell of a scoop, the opportunity to have an exclusive interview. What theb happens is a staple of romantic comedy: both lie about their identities, and the funny paparazzi sidekick, played by Eddie Albert, follows them during the trip, taking pictures of Ann with a lighter hiding a miniature camera. The premise sounds mean-spirited and we wait for the quarrel over the lies, but "Roman Holiday" doesn't try to be a rip-off of "It Happened One Night", the story finds its own rhythm and pace. Wyler insists in its opening credits that the film was shot in location but that's a useless disclaimer, we can tell this is not some matte paint or Hollywood studio locations, we have the local colors and Roman streets' flavor and Hepburn's reactions are as authentic as the locations. Ann wanders through Roma, cuts her hair, visits the streets with Joe, have some 'gelati' and an unforgettable motorcycle trip. The enthusiasm of Hepburn is always catching and Peck is so genuinely charming that the chemistry is believable, especially when he does the hand prank."Roman Holiday" has pioneered the 'geographical' romance but it's for its conclusion that the film got me. After the climactic kiss, the film takes a turn no one can see coming, it's like something changing in Ann's attitude, for the first time she decides it's time to get back where she belongs, and for the first time, Joe lets her go. When she comes back, she looks naturally authoritarian, she politely dismisses everyone and she's ready to be a Princess again. The day after, she and Joe meet during the press conference and exchange a few tender looks. When asked if Roma is the greatest town she visited, she starts with a conventional answer but then opens her heart, one last time, and through her tribute to the city, indirectly gives a poignant farewell to Joe. It's all in the unspoken.I was surprised by how mature and adult the script was, kudos for Wyler for having given the job to then-blacklisted scriptwriter Trumbo who wrote a terrific story… that ending showed that the film was more than a benign romance or a trip across Roma, it was a wonderful coming-of-age story… in a way, she became a Princess again, but it took the Roman Holiday. In a way, it's still a Cinderella story, like her next film "Sabrina" would be... in a way, Audrey Hepburn is THE real life Cinderella.