Released in Radio City Music Hall in New York City on August 27, 1953, romantic comedy Roman Holiday remains as charming as it was seven decades ago. Produced and directed by William Wyler (Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives), Roman Holiday features two legendary performers: Audrey Hepburn, in her first film role, as an unhappy princess out to see Rome on her own, and Gregory Peck as a reporter hungry for a scoop.
The logline: Overwhelmed by her schedule, touring European princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), who takes her back to his apartment. When Joe realizes who Ann is, he bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her. But he wasn’t expecting to fall in love.
In her star-making performance as Princess Ann, Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, her first of five career nominations in total.
Roman Holiday took home two additional Oscars: Best Writing, Motion Picture Story; and Best Costume Design, Black-and-White.
Initially, William Wyler had envisioned either Elizabeth Taylor or Jean Simmons in the role of the princess. Cary Grant, meanwhile, was the first choice to play Gregory Peck’s character, Joe Bradley, but turned it down because he felt he was too old. Grant and Hepburn did, however, appear together in the suspense drama Charade in 1963.
Filmed entirely in Rome. Roman Holiday also featured Eddie Albert (pre-sitcom Green Acres) as photographer Irving Radovich. Albert was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but the winner in the category that year was Frank Sinatra for From Here To Eternity.
From Here to Eternity also won the Oscar for Best Film over Roman Holiday (and the other nominees Julius Caesar, The Robe and Shane).
Due to Roman Holiday’s popularity, both Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn were approached about filming a sequel, but the proposed project never got off the ground. The film was remade as a TV movie with Catherine Oxenberg as Princess Elysa and Tom Conti in the role of Joe Bradley. Ed Begley, Jr. provided the comedic support as Leonard Lupo.
Of course, remaking a classic is a difficult, albeit impossible, task to accomplish. In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” And today we honor Roman Holiday, which after 70 years remains one of the most enduring and lovely fairytales in cinema history.
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