Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

“Introducing Audrey Hepburn” reads an opening credit. Yes, the elfin Screen Queen made her debut as a fairytale Princess in Roman Holiday, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar — a splash for the ages!

One of the best RomComs ever, Roman Holiday enchants to this day, utterly charming beginning to end. How could it not be, what with Hepburn’s Princess extraordinaire and Gregory Peck’s dashing foreign corespondent taking a tour of Rome’s greater and lesser-known sights in a smooth flowing production directed by the great William Wyler. Then there are two lesser known credits…

Edith Head won an Oscar for the costumes and Dalton Trumbo for his screenplay, albeit posthumously since he was blacklisted when the movie came out. The great Head’s costumes are the more interesting and timeless of the two. Given the opportunity to dress royalty, especially Audrey Hepburn as a fairytale Princess, she dazzles with elegantly simple designs. Pity that she never designed clothes for real people.

The story about a Princess and a newshound hiding their real identities from each other as they cavort about an idyllic Rome provides plenty of romantic interplay. They finally kiss an hour and a half into the two hour running time, leaving them stunned and creating another stunning moment for us.

Roman Holiday is a rapturous reality holiday for we movie fans to this day.

Acting - Really Great 4.5

Audrey Hepburn plays a storybook Princess as if to the palace born, and delivers funny little lines as if channeling Johnny Depp. Or perhaps Johnny Depp channels Audrey Hepburn. Whatever. Her vivacity outshines even her elfin beauty. Indeed, her Best Actress performance transformed her from Movie Princess to Screen Queen.

Gregory Peck gives a wonderfully grounded performance as a decent American in Rome, albeit one who lies a lot. Keep an eye out: Peck never shaves, a moviestar move if ever there was one.

The Great Peck deserves to be remembered for young roles like this as much as for his sainted Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Eddie Albert is fine as a second banana. Green Acres would come later.

The rest are little more than caricatures.

• Hartley Power as a skeptical newspaper editor.
• Harcourt Williams as a stuffy Ambassador.
• Margaret Rawlings as a forbidding Countess.
• Tullio Carminati as a martinet General.

Finally, the third screen of credits are a bunch of Italians who we meet in a series of cameos: a taxi driver, an apartment super, some cute kids, a maid, hairdresser, florist and finally the Police. Saluti a tutti!

Film - Really Great 4.5

William Wyler • Dalton Trumbo • Edith Head

Two won Oscars, Wyler won a timeless hit, another in a long line for Hollywood’s top director.

Wyler unspools a Princess show extraordinaire. The fabulous Princess recovers from social faux pas, yet ultimately needs to be rescued, a Drama Queen who cracks and cries like a little girl. She acts out, for which she gets shot up. Then she meets the dashing newspaper corespondent. Well done, that.

Stellar writing. Art everywhere. Pays off every tease. What else do you need for cinematic immortality?

Perhaps a deep smile after the Princess and the correspondent encounter the Mouth of Truth, sticking their arms all the way inside. Movie moments get no more monumentally satisfying.

Then there’s the supreme Edith Head, who got the opportunity to dress not just a princess, but assorted generals and royalty. EDITH HEAD won 8 OSCARS!! Why not? She was nominated 35 f-ing Times. Hell, she could’ve won a dozen.

Check out the Princess dress in the nearby chip. Modern now as then. Perfection in design.

Random Other Stuff

• Awkward when a top employee gets caught lying.
• The Princess never says what country she’s from.
• Pre-war royalty in a post-war film. Only in the movies.
• Princess & correspondent fib to each other, for 45 minutes.
• 46 min and all pretense gone. Enough of that tension, let’s see them work together.
• 51 via Marguta

Edge - Risqué 1.6

Wonderfully chaste. To wit, the early bedroom scene. “I hate my nightgown. I want to sleep in pajamas.” Adorable.

Back in the day, they had to drug her so she can even suggest sexuality around a man. And yet, he remains gentlemanly. She curls up in his bed and still he does nothing.

Reality - Glib 1.5

Rome has a spectacular military parade for her, not a decade after Italy got crushed in WWII. Only in the movies.

Dollars go a long way. Always get change back when they pull out a bill or two for some seemingly expensive shenanigan. Another only in the movies.

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