Classic Movie Review: 'Roman Holiday'

1953’s Roman Holiday, which was directed by William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives) and written by Dalton Trumbo (who was uncredited at the time), Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton, is one of those “high concept” romantic comedies which feature a good cast, great dialogue, good chemistry between the male and female leads (Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn) and a truly romantic setting – in this case, the city of Rome.

The story of Roman Holiday is simple:  Princess Ann (Hepburn) is representing her (unnamed) country on a whirlwind goodwill tour of Europe in the early 1950s.  Young, beautiful and stylish, Ann is warmly received at every city on her rigorously-planned itinerary, just as Britain’s then-young Queen Elizabeth II had been when she was representing her father, King George VI, on her own globe-trotting voyages a few years before the movie was made.

 

News announcer: Paramount News brings you a special coverage of Princess Ann's visit to London, the first stop on her much-publicized goodwill tour of European capitals. She gets a royal welcome from the British, as thousands cheer the gracious young member of one of Europe's oldest ruling families. After three days of continuous activity and a visit to Buckingham Palace, Ann flew to Amsterdam, where Her Royal Highness dedicated the new international aid building and christened an ocean liner, then went to Paris, where she attended many official functions designed to cement trade relations between her country and the Western European nation. And so to Rome, the Eternal City, where the princess' visit was marked by a spectacular military parade highlighted by the band of the crack Bersaglieri regiment. The smiling young princess showed no sign of the strain of the week's continuous public appearances, and at her country's embassy that evening, a formal reception and ball in her honor was given by her country's ambassador to Italy.

However, when the movie opens during that formal reception and ball, Ann does begin to exhibit some signs of the “strain of the week’s continuous public appearances”; at the reception, Her Royal Highness tries to ease the stress on her right foot by slipping off her high-heeled shoe, but is vexed when she can’t put it back on without breaking her stiff “Princess” stance at the receiving line.

Later, in her lavish sleeping quarters in the embassy, Ann’s frustrations over her tightly scripted schedule come to the fore while her “minder” Countess Vereberg (Margaret Rawlings) is going over the long list of the next day’s public events.

Now, not only is Ann fed up with all the business of accepting – or not accepting – gifts and reciting prepared speeches which her country’s government wants disseminated, but she apparently is tired of the rules and regulations that determine as to what she wears to sleep.

Princess Ann: I hate this nightgown. I hate all my nightgowns, and I hate all my underwear too.

Countess: My dear, you have lovely things.

Princess Ann: But I'm not two hundred years old. Why can't I sleep in pajamas?

Countess: Pajamas?

Princess Ann: Just the top part. Did you know that there are people who sleep with absolutely nothing on at all?

Countess: I rejoice to say I do not.

 

In short, what this Princess wants is the reverse of what most little (and not-so-little) commoner girls want: instead of wishing to live forever in a palace with a Prince Charming and an army of servants, Ann wants to kick off those expensive high heels, dress down a lot and live – temporarily, at least – in the freedom of a world where there are no diplomatic functions to attend or goodwill tours to conduct.

Finally, after the royal family’s doctor (an uncredited Heinz Hindrich) gives her an injection of an unnamed and experimental sedative, Ann gives in to her repressed desires and escapes – most implausibly – from the embassy and out on the streets ofRome.

Meanwhile, American reporter Joe Bradley (Peck) has been playing – and mostly losing – at a card game attended by other journalists, including Joe’s photographer pal Irving Radovitch (Eddie Albert).  A somewhat lackadaisical fellow who likes gambling a bit too much and is short of money, Joe nevertheless has to leave the game early because he has a plum assignment the next morning: a personal interview with Princess Ann.

As in most romantic comedies, the Princess and the reporter meet “cute” when Joe finds her asleep – or nearly so – on a street-side bench.  Because Ann has dressed down in “civilian” clothes, the reporter doesn’t recognize her as the “royal” he is supposed to interview .After a failed attempt to take her to where she lives, Joe takes her to his tiny one-room apartment and lets her sleep on his couch.

And when Ann finally wakes up in Joe’s apartment, the stage is set for a series of events determined by the Princess’s desire to be free of her royal duties if only for a short time and by Joe’s need to get the “big scoop” that will get him noticed as a great reporter and back to the Big Leagues in the States.  For both of them, a one-day Roman holiday is about to begin….

My Take:  If I had watched this film with an eye for verisimilitude and 100% accuracy to every possible detail or plot point, chances are that I would not have enjoyed Roman Holiday much.  

Just the basic premise of Ann, who in her fictionalized 1950s era Europe is as recognizable as Britain’s late Princess Diana once was, being able to wander away from her country’s embassy and go around Rome almost incognito is hard to swallow if you’re not in the “it’s just a comedy” mindset.  (Just the notion that her country and the Italian government have not assigned a platoon of bodyguards to protect Ann boggles the mind if one thinks about it too much.)

Even the movie itself gives the viewer knowing nods and winks to this, especially when Eddie Albert’s Irving first sees Ann and Joe having drinks at a sidewalk café:

 

Irving Radovich: Hey, er, anybody ever tell you you're a dead ringer for...

[Joe kicks him under the table]

Irving Radovich: Ow! Well, I guess I'll be going!

Joe Bradley: Oh, don't do a thing like that, Irving. Sit down, join us, join us.

Irving Radovich: Well, just till Francesca gets here.

Princess Ann: Tell me, Mr. Radovich, what is a ringer?

Joe Bradley: Oh. Er, it's an American term, and it means anybody who has a great deal of charm.

Princess Ann: Oh. Thank you.

Irving Radovich: [confused] You're welcome.  

 

In weaker writing hands, the movie’s very thin plot and great dependence on suspension of disbelief would have resulted in disaster, but the script by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo (who was finally given on-screen credit when the film was restored in 2002) and his two collaborators crackles with enough wit and comedic set pieces that Roman Holiday actually becomes palatable, even to jaded 21st Century viewers who did not grow up watching black-and-white movies or follow the careers of its two leads.

 

For Gregory Peck, Roman Holiday was a nice break from all the serious roles that he had been associated with since his career began in the mid-1940s.   He wasn’t the studio’s first choice, but Cary Grant turned down the role of Joe Bradley because he did not think the audience would accept the 10-year age gap between himself and Audrey Hepburn.  (In “Remembering Roman Holiday,” an amused Peck quips that every romantic comedy script sent to him had “Cary Grant’s fingerprints” on it.)

In the movie, Peck’s height, deep voice and dark good looks are matched by a finely-honed sense of comic timing and wry line-reading.  One particularly funny bit comes when Ann asks if Joe has any of the sleepwear she dreams of wearing but does not own:

Princess Ann: Do you have a silk nightgown with rosebuds?

Joe Bradley: I haven't worn a nightgown in years!

 

In many ways, Peck is cast against type because, instead of playing a virtuous guy who is the epitome of 1950s American Gentleman, he is doing the Charming Rogue bit when he decides to use his knowledge of who “Anya” really is to further his career and leave his current journalistic backwater assignment in Rome for the more respectable (and better-paying) life of a reporter in the United States.  

Of course, no look at this movie is complete without mentioning Audrey Hepburn’s star-making performance.  Though she had already appeared in several British films and starred on Broadway (Gigi), the 24-year-old Hepburn made her Hollywood debut as the Princess Who Wants to Be a Pauper (temporarily) in Roman Holiday.  

As Ann, Hepburn can play both the protocol-trained Princess and the lovely comic ingénue with equal ease, an acting achievement which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress (1953) in her first major leading role.  Though she is petite and looks younger than her 24 years of age, Hepburn is in turns believable as both a ruler in training and a lovely girl who feels the stirrings of romance for the first time in her life.

The movie’s other “star” (besides the funny Eddie Albert) is the movie’s setting: Rome.

Made at a time when location shooting was a rarity and international air travel had not yet shrunk the world to its access-by-jet state, Roman Holiday stands out because it is the first American production to be shot entirely in Italy.  All the “location” scenes were really shot on Rome’s streets and famous landmarks, while all the interior sets were borrowed from Cinecitta, Italy’s equivalent to the Paramount Pictures studios.

The film, interestingly enough, was shot in black and white instead of the more exciting color not because it would cost less but so the color footage of Rome would not overshadow the stars of the movie.