Roman Holiday Directed by William Wyler, 1953 Staring Gregory Peck (as Joe Bradley), Audrey Hepburn (as Princess Ann) and Eddie Albert (as Irving Radovich)
This is a romantic comedy set in Rome in the early 1950s. This was Audrey Hepburn’s first American movie. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won three, including a Best Actress for Audrey Hepburn. The story begins with a young princess ;(Hepburn)Ann making a goodwill tour to the europe.After London and Paris she finnaly arrives in Rome.This is where our story takes of.
Tired of her normal life...which consisted of meetin dignitaries and holding fuctions..she finally rebels and decides to enjoy the normal life.Waiting until after everyone in the embassy where her party is staying has gone to sleep, a highly sedated princess slips out a window and finds herself alone on the streets of Rome. On the way back from a card game Joe Bradley (Peck), finds the princess asleep on the road.Not knowing who she is but seeing that she has no place to stay he takes pity on her and invites her to his apartment for the night.
After an eventful night , Joe is late 2 office the next day...and it is only here that he realises that the girl in his apartment is princess Ann. Bradley immediately realizes who he has in his apartment and gets the editor to agree to pay $5, 000 if he can get a real interview with the princess. On the way out Bradley contacts a photographer friend, Irving Radovich (Albert) and arranges for him to met him later with his camera for a big scoop. Bradley conceals the fact that he is a reporter who knows who she really is and she doesn’t tell him that that she is a royal princess.
However after plenty of fun on the streets of Rome...the princess has to go back to her embassy and more importantly her duties. By this time both Joe and Princess have fallen in love. The ending of the movie was realistic but I was hoping it would have been a little different...maybe a marriage or so!!Truly timeless classic; Roman Holiday is a fun romantic comedy, but stays realistic with its commentary on society and royalty.
Trivia: William Wyler at first wanted Jean Simmons to play Ann, and reportedly nearly cancelled the project when Simmons proved unavailable.