Roman Holiday

Audrey Hepburn: "Is this the elevator?" Gregory Peck: "It's my room." Scintillating dialogue, a radiant Oscar-winning film debut by Hepburn, and one of the most heartbreakingly bittersweet endings captured on celluloid are the hallmark features of William Wyler's 1953 romantic comedy classic Roman Holiday, nominated for 10 Academy Awards. Hepburn plays Princess Ann, a visiting dignitary who is tired of her demanding but absolutely boring schedule of glad-handing and smiling for sundry lay and professional audiences and therefore decides to take a run-away-from-her-royal-handlers impromptu holiday in Rome. As luck would have it, however, Ann stumbles straight into the arms of struggling freelance news correspondent Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), who pretends he doesn't know her and offers to squire her around the city while collecting material for an "exclusive" day-in-the-life interview/feature story. Naturally, Bradley discovers a conflict of interest in the neighborhood of his left ventricle, as he begins to take a shine to the spunky little princess. Major kudos to Paramount for the gorgeous restoration (recounted in a seven-minute featurette), making Roman Holiday look as good as it did in theaters a half-century ago, and for the nice extras, which include the fine 26-minute mini-doc "Remembering Roman Holiday (viewers will learn more about the overdue recognition for blacklisted story writer Dalton Trumbo, and that Hepburn was "discovered" by the writer Collette), and the 14-minute featurette "Edith Head--The Hollywood Years" (the costume designer nabbed an Oscar for this film, among others). Watching Roman Holiday is like, to quote Marlene Dietrich, falling in love again; a pure delight. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)[DVD Review—Nov. 25, 2008—Paramount, 2 discs, 118 min., not rated, $24.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD, 1953's Roman Holiday (Centennial Collection) features a good transfer. DVD extras include the featurettes “Audrey Hepburn: The Paramount Years” (30 min.), “Remembering Audrey” (12 min.), “Dalton Trumbo: From A-List to Blacklist” on the blacklisted co-writer (12 min.), “Paramount in the ‘50s” (10 min.), “Rome with a Princess” (9 min.), “Restoring Roman Holiday” (7 min.), “Behind the Gates: Costumes” (6 min.), stills galleries, a booklet, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a beloved classic.]