Roman Holiday (1953) |
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Roman Holiday Cast |
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On-Screen Couples |
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Audrey Hepburn
(as Princess Ann)
with Gregory Peck
(as Joe Bradley)
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Movie Highlights |
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Other InformationAwardsNational Film Registry National Film Preservation Board, USA [1999] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Written American Comedy Writers Guild of America, USA [1954] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama Golden Globes [1954] (Won/Nominated: Won) Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Directors Guild of America, USA [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Foreign Actor BAFTA Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Film from any Source BAFTA Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best British Actress BAFTA Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Writing, Screenplay Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Picture Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Film Editing Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Director Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Cinematography, Black-and-White Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Actor in a Supporting Role Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Writing, Motion Picture Story Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Costume Design, Black-and-White Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Awards [1954] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Awards [1953] (Won/Nominated: Won) Plot SummaryAudrey Hepburn became a star with this film, in which she played Princess Anne, weary of protocol and anxious to have some fun before she is mummified by "affairs of state." On a diplomatic visit to Rome, Anne escapes her royal retainers and scampers... TaglineRomance in romantic Rome! Audrey Hepburn at her Oscar-winning best in an immortal comedy-romance! |
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Full Cast and Crew |
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Actor CreditsNon Actor Credits |
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Awards |
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Roman Holiday (1953) was nominated for the following awards:
Academy AwardsBAFTA AwardsGolden GlobesNew York Film Critics Circle Awards |
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Snapshot |
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Photo Gallery |
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Fans |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesQuotes Dr. Bonnachoven: The best thing I know is to do exactly what you wish for a while. Princess Ann: [as Ann and Joe dance] Hello.
Joe Bradley: Hello.
Princess Ann: Mr. Bradley, if you don`t mind my saying so, I think you are a ringer.
Joe Bradley: Wha - oh, thanks very much.
Princess Ann: You spent the whole day doing things I`ve always wanted to. Why?
Joe Bradley: I don`t know. Seemed the thing to do. Irving Radovich: Hey, er, anybody ever tell you you`re a dead ringer for...
[Joe kicks him under the table]
Irving Radovich: Ow! Well, I guess I`ll be going!
Joe Bradley: Oh, don`t do a thing like that, Irving. Sit down, join us, join us.
Irving Radovich: Well, just till Francesca gets here.
Princess Ann: Tell me, Mr. Radovich, what is a ringer?
Joe Bradley: Oh. Er, it`s an American term, and it means anybody who has a great deal of charm.
Princess Ann: Oh. Thank you.
Irving Radovich: [confused] You`re welcome. Irving Radovich: Joe, we can`t go running around town with a hot princess! Princess Ann: Have I been here all night, alone?
Joe Bradley: If you don`t count me, yes.
Princess Ann: So I`ve spent the night here - with you?
Joe Bradley: Well now, I-I don`t know that I`d use those words exactly, but uh, from a certain angle, yes.
Princess Ann: [beaming with a smile] How do you do?
Joe Bradley: How do you do?
Princess Ann: And you are - ?
Joe Bradley: Bradley, Joe Bradley.
Princess Ann: Delighted.
Joe Bradley: You don`t know how delighted I am to meet you.
Princess Ann: You may sit down.
Joe Bradley: [sitting on the bed] Thank you very much. What`s your name?
Princess Ann: You may call me Anya. Princess Ann: At midnight, I`ll turn into a pumpkin and drive away in my glass slipper.
Joe Bradley: And that will be the end of the fairy tale. Princess Ann: I have to leave you now. I`m going to that corner there and turn. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond the corner. Just drive away and leave me as I leave you.
Joe Bradley: All right.
Princess Ann: I don`t know how to say goodbye. I can`t think of any words.
Joe Bradley: Don`t try. Joe Bradley: Tell you what. Why don`t we do all those things, together?
Princess Ann: But don`t you have to work?
Joe Bradley: Work? No. Today`s gonna be a holiday.
Princess Ann: But you want to do a lot of silly things?
Joe Bradley: [He takes her hand] ... First wish? One sidewalk cafe, comin` right up. I know just the place. Rocca`s. Princess Ann: I could do some of the things I`ve always wanted to.
Joe Bradley: Like what?
Princess Ann: Oh, you can`t imagine. I-I`d do just whatever I liked all day long. Joe Bradley: How much would a real interview with this dame be worth?
Mr. Hennessey: Are you referring to Her Highness?
Joe Bradley: I`m not referring to Annie Oakley, Dorothy Lamour, or Madame... How much?
Mr. Hennessey: What do you care? You`ve got about as much chance...
Joe Bradley: I know, but if I did? How much would it be worth?
Mr. Hennessey: Oh, just a plain talk on world issues, it would probably be worth two hundred and fifty. Her views on clothes, of course, would be worth a lot more, maybe a thousand... dollars.
Joe Bradley: I`m talking about her views on everything!... The private and secret longings of a Princess. Her innermost thoughts as revealed to your own correspondent in a private, personal, exclusive interview.
[His boss` mouth drops, awe-struck by the thought]
Joe Bradley: Can`t use it, huh? I didn`t think you`d like it.
Mr. Hennessey: Come here! Love angle too, I suppose.
Joe Bradley: Practically all love angle.
Mr. Hennessey: With pictures.
Joe Bradley: Could be. How much?
Mr. Hennessey: That particular story will be worth five grand to any news service...
Joe Bradley: ...You said five grand? I want you to shake on that. Mr. Hennessey: In view of the fact that our Highness was taken violently ill at three o`clock this morning, put to bed with a high fever, and has ordered all her appointments for the day cancelled in toto...
Joe Bradley: That`s certainly pretty hard to swallow.
Mr. Hennessey: In view of the fact that you just left her, of course. [in a taxi in Rome; Princess Ann is drugged]
Joe Bradley: Where do you live?
Princess Ann: [mumbles drunkenly] ... Colosseum...
Joe Bradley: [to taxi driver] She lives in the Colosseum.
Cab Driver: Is wrong address! [the Duchess mentions Princess Ann`s duty]
Princess Ann: Please do not use that word. Were I not entirely aware of my duty to my family and to my country, I would not have come back tonight... or indeed ever again! Reporter: And what, in the opinion of Your Highness, is the outlook for friendship among nations?
Princess Ann: I have every faith in it... as I have faith in relations between people.
Joe Bradley: May I say, speaking for my own... press service: we believe Your Highness`s faith will not be unjustified.
Princess Ann: I am so glad to hear you say it.
Another reporter: Which of the cities visited did Your Highness enjoy the most?
General Provno: [prompting] Each, in its own way...
Princess Ann: Each, in its own way, was unforgettable. It would be difficult to - Rome! By all means, Rome. I will cherish my visit here in memory as long as I live. Princess Ann: Is this the elevator?
Joe Bradley: This is my ROOM! Princess Ann: I`ve never been alone with a man before, even with my dress on. With my dress off, it`s MOST unusual. Princess Ann: Do you have a silk nightgown with rosebuds?
Joe Bradley: I haven`t worn a nightgown in years! Princess Ann: I hate this nightgown. I hate all my nightgowns, and I hate all my underwear too.
Countess: My dear, you have lovely things.
Princess Ann: But I`m not two hundred years old. Why can`t I sleep in pajamas?
Countess: Pajamas?
Princess Ann: Just the top part. Did you know that there are people who sleep with absolutely nothing on at all?
Countess: I rejoice to say I do not. [On whether to do an exploitation article about Princess Ann]
Irving Radovich: She`s fair game, Joe. It`s always open season on princesses. Joe Bradley: You should always wear my clothes.
Princess Ann: It seems I do.Trivia [June 2008] Ranked #4 on the American Film Institute`s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Romantic Comedy". The sheet of paper Hennessy (Hartley Power) reads the interview questions from is actually a page of the script. Ann and Joe get into an argument over which poet wrote the words that Ann quotes, "Arethusa rose from her couch of snows in the Acroceraunian mountains." Joe was right; it`s from the poem "Arethusa" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. At the end of production, Paramount Studios presented Audrey Hepburn with her entire wardrobe from the film, including hats, shoes, handbags, and jewelry. These gifts were intended as wedding presents; however, soon after production, Hepburn ended her engagement to James Hanson. Both Ben Hecht and Preston Sturges are said to have been script doctors on the project. One of the reasons why William Wyler was anxious to film in Europe was because he wanted to put some distance between himself and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was threatening to embroil him in their investigations because of his liberal stance. A lot of the film`s success was attributed to the public`s then fascination with Britain`s Princess Margaret who was creating a stir over her much publicized relationship with commoner Peter Townsend. (The Princess was forced to renounce her true love because he was divorced and marry more "suitably".) First choices for the part of the princess were Jean Simmons and Suzanne Cloutier. Elizabeth Taylor was also considered for the part. Both Taylor and Simmons had to be immediately ruled out as they were preoccupied with other projects at the time. Gregory Peck was initially reluctant to take on a part that was clearly secondary to the young female lead until he realized that his image could do with some lightening up. When Gregory Peck came to Italy to shoot the movie, he was privately depressed about his recent separation and imminent divorce from his first wife, Greta. However, during the shot he met and fell in love with a French woman named Veronique Passani. After his divorce, he married Passani and they remained together for the rest of his life. The Embassy Ball sequence featured real Italian nobility, who all donated their salaries to charity. The reporters at the end of the film were real too. The Roman summer was stiflingly hot, with the temperatures in the high 90s. Crowds swarmed over all the locations, making huge impromptu audiences for the actors. Meanwhile, Italy itself was beset with clashes between political parties that resulted in strikes and unrest that threatened to disrupt production. The first American film to be made in its entirety in Italy. Shot in black and white so that the characters wouldn`t be upstaged by the romantic setting of Rome. With a budget of about $1.5 million, the film took $5 million in the domestic market. Gregory Peck`s role was originally written with Cary Grant in mind. Grant, however, turned the role down as he believed he was too old to play Audrey Hepburn`s love interest. He did however play her on-screen love ten years later in Charade (1963). The two became firm friends working on the film, and Grant considered her one of his favorite actresses to work with. Paramount had assets frozen in Italy and was delighted to take advantage of the opportunity to film in Rome. George Stevens was the next director to inherit the project after Frank Capra bailed, but Stevens declined to pursue it. The property was then offered to William Wyler, who was coming off the back of two very weighty dramatic movies - The Heiress (1949) and Detective Story (1951) - and was only too glad to tackle a light romantic comedy, his first since the mid 1930s. Wyler was also very keen to work abroad in order to exploit a tax loophole. The story was originally optioned by Frank Capra in 1949, who had hoped to cast Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor in what would essentially amount to being a variation on his Oscar-winning classic, It Happened One Night (1934). However, Capra`s Liberty Films production company was beset with financial problems and he was forced to sell the property to Paramount where a combination of political timidity (Capra discovered the involvement of blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo) and a tight budget prompted him to withdraw from the project. William Wyler however had no compunctions whatsoever about working with Trumbo. At the beginning of the movie, the elder gentleman dancing with princess Ann says to her, in Italian: "I want absolutely to die on the ship!" By the time he got the script for this film, Gregory Peck was hungry to do a comedy (he had not been in a comedy on film) and jumped at this opportunity. He later said that, at the time, he felt like every romantic comedy script he had the chance to read "had the fingerprints of Cary Grant on it". The original writer, Dalton Trumbo, was blacklisted as one of the legendary Hollywood Ten, and therefore could not receive credit for the screenplay, even when it won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Instead, his friend, Ian McLellan Hunter, took credit for the story and accepted the Oscar. Trumbo`s wife, Cleo, was finally presented with the award in 1993, long after his death in 1976. The Oscar she received was actually a second one, because Hunter`s son wouldn`t give up his father`s Oscar. Thus, two awards for Best Screenplay of 1953 exist. The story credit was corrected to credit Trumbo when the restored edition was released in 2002, nearly fifty years after the original release. Audrey Hepburn won the role of Ann thanks to a legendary screen test. In it, she performed one of the scenes from the film, but the cameraman was instructed to keep the cameras rolling after the director said, "Cut." Several minutes of unrehearsed, spontaneous Hepburn was thus captured on film and this, combined with some candid interview footage, won her the role. William Wyler at first wanted Jean Simmons to play Ann, and reportedly nearly canceled the project when Simmons proved unavailable. After filming, Gregory Peck informed the producers that, as Audrey Hepburn was certainly going to win an Oscar (for this, her first major role), they had better put her name above the title. They did and she did. Part of the joke where Joe (Gregory Peck) pretends that his hand was bitten off in the mouth of the stone carving was ad-libbed by Peck; when he pulled his hand from the mouth, he hid his hand in his sleeve, borrowing the gag from Red Skelton. This addition surprised Hepburn, and the scene was finished in one take. When filming the scene where the princess (Audrey Hepburn) says her goodbyes to Joe, the inexperienced Hepburn was unable to produce the necessary tears, eventually causing director William Wyler to complain at the number of wasted takes. Hepburn promptly burst into tears and the scene was filmed successfully. | ||
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