Roman Holiday (1953)
Directed by William Wyler
Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls asleep on a park bench and is found by an American reporter, Joe Bradley, who takes her back to his apartment for safety. At work the next morning, Joe finds out Ann's regal identity and bets his editor he can get exclusive interview with her, but romance soon gets in the way.
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Taking some from Ernst Lubitsch -- at that transplanted Berliners funeral, Wyler lamented that Worse than no more Lubitsch; no more Lubitsch films -- and much from It Happened One Night, this fairy tale of the unhappy princess and her knight-errant on a Vespa was written by John Dighton and Ian McLellan Hunter, who won an Oscar.
A viewer with a long memory might recall some plot similarities between "Roman Holiday" and "It Happened One Night."
She was barely detectable in movies like The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) before she got her big break in William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953) playing a princess on a goodwill tour.
Roman Holiday was the first feature rôle for ballet aspirant and fashion model Audrey Hepburn -- previous bit parts included the opening sequence of The Lavender Hill Mob -- won her an Oscar and the acclaim and love that continue down to today, nearly a quarter century after her death, as in photographs everywhere of her Holly Golightly.
When Wyler was behind the camera for serious Oscar contenders like Wuthering Heights (1939), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) or Ben-Hur (1959), he was fine.
William Wyler's ("Jezebel"/"Wuthering Heights") ''Roman Holiday'' is a delicious romantic-comedy that probably could have been a masterpiece if directed by Billy Wilder or Ernst Lubitsch.
William Wyler's ("Jezebel"/"Wuthering Heights") ''Roman Holiday'' is a delicious romantic-comedy that probably could have been a masterpiece if directed by Billy Wilder or Ernst Lubitsch.
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When Wyler was behind the camera for serious Oscar contenders like Wuthering Heights (1939), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) or Ben-Hur (1959), he was fine.
Written by one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters, the then-blacklisted Dalton Trumbo (“Spartacus,” “Johnny Got His Gun”), and directed by the great but perpetually underrated William Wyler (“The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Ben Hur”), “Roman Holiday” fits both talents because, for a sweet little comedic love story, it’s relatively dark stuff.