Roman Holiday (1953)

Directed by William Wyler. Starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt Williams, Margaret Rawlings.

Lightweight charmer with Hepburn in one of the worthiest roles of her career: her slender, porcelain fragility is perfectly suited to that of a frustrated princess of an unnamed European kingdom. Sick of her regimented and isolated life, she slips out of the embassy for a taste of freedom where she encounters an American reporter (Peck) who shows her the sights of Rome while secretly getting an interview and story out of the runaway royal. Contrived even by the standards of romantic fables, and it’s a little too airy on both the love story and the laughter, but the stars are in good form while exhibiting splendid (muted) chemistry, and Albert is good fun playing the photographer looking to surreptitiously get some choice snaps of the little lady. Its chief triumphs, however, are in the appreciably bittersweet ending and all the lovely travelogue locations and scenery. Oscar winner for Hepburn, Dalton Trumbo’s story, and Edith Head’s costuming. Remade for television in 1987.

78/100