Roman Holiday (1953)

Notable Cast:
Princess Ann- Aubrey Hepburn
Joe Bradley- Gregory Peck
Irving Radovich- Eddie Albert

Notable Awards and Nominations
OSCAR- Best Actress- Audrey Hepburn
OSCAR- Best Writing, Motion Picture Story- Dalton Trumbo (at the time he was blacklisted so the award was given to Ian McKellen Hunter; Trumbo was awarded it posthumously in 1993)
OSCAR- Best Costume Design
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Picture
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Supporting Actor- Eddie Albert
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Director-  William Wyler
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Writing, Screenplay- Ian McKellen Hunter and John Dighton
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Cinematography- Black & White
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Art Direction
Nomination- OSCAR- Best Film Editing
Golden Globe- Best Lead Actress- Drama- Audrey Hepburn 


Write-Up:

Years ago, I wrote down a number of movies I wanted to see. By some crazy miracle, I'd been fortunate to come across three of them within the last couple weeks. And all of them were well worth that wait. 

The other two were "Clue" (starring Tim Curry) and "Harold and Maude."

"Roman Holiday" is another I'd been wanting to see for some time. The timing just was never right because I'd have a prior commitment, something else I wanted to watch. With mom and dad and a round of Godfather drinks (it was set in Italy, so we had to drink something somewhat approriate for the setting), we all have a good time watching it.

With black and white movies, they can be hit or miss for me. Depending on if I'm tired or whether or not I'm invested in the story, I could just get bored or, worse, fall asleep. But sometimes I'll fall asleep during a movie I regularly enjoy. I'm really happy that I was engaged for this one all the way through and I got the best out of the experience. TCM is great because they have no commercials during the movie and you get a little trivia before and after the flick. It's crazy, considering her career, to consider that Audrey Hepburn almost didn't get this role because she had a bad audition. 

What ultimately inspired this... we're going back a number of years here. Maybe 8-9. With more knowledge of the stuff in the movie, maybe there's more to the intial source of inspiration than I realized. 
Back when I was running through RDJ's resume, "Only You" was one of the movies I hit. Because it was a chick flick/rom-com and it also had Marisa Tomei in it. I liked her in "My Cousin Vinnie" so I thought it couldn't hurt. It was kinda silly, though. When she was a kid, a Ouiji board told her that she'd fall in love with a Damon Bradley and live happily ever after with him. She goes to Rome and she meets RDJ, who intially passes himself off as this guy, but later discloses that he lied. She's mad at him, they fight and they win up together at the very end. 
But there was one scene borrowed from this movie, the most famous scene. Robert's doing his best Gregory Peck impression and they go to the Mouth of Truth, put their hands inside and both pretend they got bitten off because they lied.
Let's just say now I have the context, so that's kinda nice. I also wonder now if they had "Damon Bradley" in there because it was the same surname as Gregory Peck's character.

Now for the actual movie...

It was filmed completely in Rome, on location, and in black and white. It was Audrey Hepburn's first major movie and she won the Oscar for it. I'd know her best as Eliza Doolitte, so it's funny seeing this movie where she's very prim and proper. In "My Fair Lady," it's almost like she had to relearn all that class all over again. I also really enjoyed her in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" as well because her character was supremely confident that she could fabricate her own reality. I'd love to be able to do that myself.

She plays Princess Ann, who has a very busy schedule, and she's grown tired of it. She sneaks up one night and runs into Joe Bradley, an American reporter. They kindle an interesting relationship as a result. He finds out after that inital meeting that she is the princess and he tells his boss he'll get an exclusive interview with her. They spend a whole day together, without her knowing that he knows who she really is. It never really comes up. And he brings his friend Irving along to get pictures of her to use in the article.

All kinds of shenanigans happen, obviously. What's crazy to me is that Joe had so little money on him because he'd gambled much of it away, but he lends her some. He also gets money from his landlord, saying he'll later double it when he repays the debt. Both of them stretch their money out so far. She gets new shoes and haircut and he gets them a nice lunch at a streetside cafe. 
There's a party where they go dancing and hilarity ensues when her secret service try to take her away and they ultimately stop them. 

The movie more or less follows the typical rom-com blueprint. But it's missing a huge part of what makes those types of movies so annoying to watch. Nearly every rom-com has a cliched "misunderstanding" moment where one party gets mad at the other for something they thought they did. And the movie stops for 15 minutes until they can patch things up and get their happy ending.

In this movie, that never happens. Everyone finds out what the other party knows. But given the circumstances, things can't hash out as they typically would: a heated argument and someone storming off. Things are tied up so neatly at the end and the rest is kinda left to the imagination. 
Just that fact alone really made me appreicate this movie and pine over the fact they don't make them like this anymore. Sadly, so much in today's movies have become cliche that there's hardly anything original anymore. 
Both leads were so good in this. I'm not super familiar with Gregory Peck other than him being Atticus Finch, but he seemed like a really nice guy. Hearing that he fought for her to get top billing really says a lot about his character. It's also interesting to read how he and Cary Grant were often compared and he was depressed during the filming because his marriage fell part. But he met his future 2nd/last wife while filming in Italy, so that was a really nice turn of events. Everything happens for a reason, it seems. 

I'm sure the movie would have been spectacular in color, considering all the scenery. But supposedly it was filmed in black and white, as to not detract from the actors. 
Overall, it was just a really fun ride and I'm glad I finally got to see it.