The script was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit, and Ian McLellan Hunterfronted for him. Trumbo's name was reinstated when the film was released on DVD in 2003, and on December 19, 2011, full credit for Trumbo's work was restored. Blacklisted director Bernard Vorhaus worked on the film as an assistant director under a pseudonym.[3][4]
In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United StatesNational Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film has been considered one of the most romantic films in cinema history.[5][6][7]
Plot
Crown Princess Ann is on a tightly-scheduled tour of European capital cities for her unnamed nation. After an especially hard day in Rome, her doctor gives her an injection and advises: "Best thing I know is to do exactly what you wish for a while." She secretly leaves the embassy to explore the city and, as the drug takes effect, falls asleep atop a low wall, where Joe Bradley, an American reporter, finds her. Not recognizing her, he thinks she is intoxicated and takes her to his apartment to sleep it off.
Joe oversleeps and misses the princess's press conference, but claims to his editor, Hennessy, that he attended. Hennessy shows him a news item about the cancellation of the press conference due to the princess's "sudden illness". Joe realizes the woman in his apartment is the princess from the newspaper photograph. Joe asks Hennessy what he would pay for an exclusive interview with her. Hennessy offers $5000, and counters with a $500 bet that Joe will not be able to get it.
Joe calls his photographer friend, Irving Radovich, and offers to show "Anya" around Rome, without revealing that he is a reporter. Ann cites an important appointment and leaves. Joe follows and sees her explore an outdoor market, buy shoes, and get her long hair cut short. Joe contrives to meet her on the Spanish Steps and convinces her to spend the day with him, taking her to a street café to meet up with Irving, who takes pictures with a camera concealed in his cigarette lighter. Ann claims to be playing truant from school. When Ann clumsily drives a Vespa through Roman traffic with Joe as a passenger, they are arrested, but Joe and Irving show their "fake" press passes and are released. They tour the Colosseum. Joe then takes Ann to the Mouth of Truth and tells her the legend attached to it: if a liar puts their hand in the mouth, it will be bitten off. After Ann tries it, when it is Joe's turn, he startles her by pretending that his hand was cut off.
At a dance on a boat, agents from Ann's government try to forcibly take her back. Ann joins Joe and Irving in the fight that breaks out. When Joe is knocked into the river, Ann jumps in after him. They swim away and kiss as they sit shivering on the riverbank. While drying their wet clothes at Joe's apartment, a radio bulletin says that the people of Ann's country are concerned that her illness may be serious. Ann asks Joe to drive her to a corner near the embassy, where they kiss again. She bids him a tearful farewell.
Upon her return, the princess replies to those attempting to remind her of her duty, "Were I not completely aware of my duty to my family and my country, I would not have come home tonight...or indeed ever again."
Joe tells a disbelieving Hennessy that he did not get the story, although he tells Irving he cannot stop him from selling the photographs. Joe and Irving attend the rescheduled press conference, to Ann's surprise. She asserts her faith in relations between nations just as between people, and Joe assures her that her faith is not misplaced. When asked which city she most enjoyed visiting, she begins to say it would be difficult before declaring "Rome. By all means, Rome." Other photographers take pictures with their large press cameras, while Irving makes a show of using his cigarette lighter. Ann speaks briefly with each journalist, and Irving presents her with his photographs as a memento of Rome. Joe remains behind after everyone else leaves, before walking from the room.
Wyler first offered the role to Hollywood favorite Cary Grant. Grant declined,[8] believing he was too old to play Hepburn's character's love interest, though he would do so ten years later in Charade. Other sources say Grant declined because he knew all of the attention would be centered around the princess.[9] Peck's contract gave him solo star billing, with newcomer Hepburn listed much less prominently in the credits. Halfway through the filming, Peck suggested to Wyler that he elevate her to equal billing—an almost unheard-of gesture in Hollywood.[10]
Wyler had initially considered Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Simmons for the princess role, but both were unavailable.[11] On 18 September 1951, director Thorold Dickinson made a screen test with Hepburn and sent it to director William Wyler, who was in Rome preparing Roman Holiday. Wyler wrote to Dickinson, saying that "as a result of the test, a number of the producers at Paramount have expressed interest in casting her."[12]Roman Holiday was not Hepburn's first acting role, as she had appeared in Dutch and British films from 1948 and on stage, but it was her first major film role and her first appearance in an American film. Wyler wanted an "anti-Italian" actress who was different from the curvy Italian stars of that era: She was perfect; his new star had, in words attributed to Wyler, "no arse, no tits, no tight-fitting clothes, no high heels. In short a Martian. She will be a sensation."[13]
The Italian Ministry of Tourism had originally refused permission for the movie to be filmed in Rome on the grounds that it would "degrade Italians".[14] Once the matter was resolved, filming took place entirely in Rome and in the studios of Cinecittà. Wyler wanted to shoot the film in color, but doing so on location was so expensive that it had to be done in black and white.[15]
The film received critical acclaim from reviewers of its initial release. Milton Luban of The Hollywood Reporter said the movie "proves a charming, laugh-provoking affair that often explodes into hilarity... it has a delightful screenplay that sparkles with wit and outrageous humor that at times comes close to slapstick" and that the "cinematographers do a fine job of incorporating Roman landmarks into the storyline".[19]The New York Times observed that it was "a natural, tender and amusing yarn" with "laughs that leave the spirits soaring".[20]
Roman Holiday was the second most popular film at the US box office during September 1953 behind From Here to Eternity, grossing almost $1 million.[21] It earned an estimated $3 million at the United States and Canadian box office during its first few months of release,[22] and a total of $5 milion.[23] While the domestic box office disappointed Paramount, it was very successful elsewhere, including the UK, where the film benefited from both the current romance between Princess Margaret and commoner Peter Townsend—"No film studio could have bought such publicity", Alexander Walker wrote—and a fad for Italian culture.[24] It earned around $12 milion in the overseas market.[23]
Due to the film's popularity, both Peck and Hepburn were approached about filming a sequel, but this project never got off the ground.[15]
The film has been well received, with a 95% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 63 reviews with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With Audrey Hepburn luminous in her American debut, Roman Holiday is as funny as it is beautiful, and sets the standard for the modern romantic comedy."[25] It is considered a classic by twenty-first-century viewers and reviewers.[26]Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian noted that the film is a "modern fairytale whose two leads have a charm and innocence that irradiate the whole movie", giving the film five out of five.[27]Empire concluded that the film is a "timeless, exuberant classic, with Hepburn's naïve sense of fun and perfectly charming performance matched equally by Peck's louche and charismatic worldy American".[28] James Berardinelli of reelviews gave the film three and a half stars out of four, calling the movie a "staple of the romantic comedy fan's library", and "remains one of only a few black-and-white movies that modern audiences willingly watch".[26]
The film was very popular outside of the United States.[23] As late as of 1990, it was cited as the favorite foreign film of all time for Japanese audiences.[23]
The 1999 Richard Curtis film Notting Hill has been likened to "a 90's London-set version of Roman Holiday".[33] There are a number of allusions to it in the film, in which the princess character is replaced with "Hollywood royalty" and the commoner is a British bookshop owner.[34]
When Lewis Gilbert was making The Adventurers for Paramount, he said Charles Bludhorn, whose company owned the studio, wanted the director to make a musical remake of Roman Holiday with songs by the Sherman Brothers. Gilbert agreed but said Paramount then got "cold feet" and the film was cancelled. The director went on to make Seven Nights in Japan, which was in the style of Roman Holiday.[35] Paramount Pictures has since licensed three musical adaptations of Roman Holiday:
The Teatro Sistina staged another version in 2004 in Rome under the title Vacanze romane using the Cole Porter score, supplemented with music by Italian film composer Armando Trovajoli. This production is annually performed in Rome and on tour in Italy and Spain.[39]
Toho produced a version entirely in Japanese with a completely different score in 1998.[40]
Touch Your Heart (Korean: 진심이 닿다; RR: Jinsim-i Data; lit. Reach of Sincerity), a 2019 Korean television series in which there are multiple references to Roman Holiday, including a scene where one of the characters rents a movie theater so he and his girlfriend can watch the film together out of sight of the press.
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