Plot

Ann (Audrey Hepburn), the crown princess of an unspecified country, has started a widely publicized tour of several European capitals. In Rome she becomes frustrated with her tightly scheduled life, to the point of throwing a fit. Her doctor gives her a sedative to calm her down and help her sleep, but she secretly leaves her country's embassy.

The sedative eventually makes her fall asleep on a bench, where Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), an expatriate American reporter working for an American news service based in Rome, finds her. Not recognizing her, he offers her money so she can take a taxi home, but a very woozy "Anya Smith" (as she later calls herself) refuses to cooperate. Joe finally decides, for safety's sake, to let her spend the night in his apartment. He is amused by her regal manner, but less so when she appropriates his bed. He transfers her to a couch. The next morning, Joe, having already slept through the interview Princess Ann was scheduled to give, hurries off to work, leaving her still asleep.

When his editor, Mr. Hennessy (Hartley Power), asks why Joe is late, Joe lies, claiming to have attended the press conference for the princess. Joe makes up details of the alleged interview until Hennessy informs him that the event had been canceled because the princess had suddenly "fallen ill". Joe sees a picture of her and realizes who is in his apartment. Joe immediately sees the opportunity and proposes getting an exclusive interview for the newspaper for $5000. Hennessy, not knowing the circumstances, agrees to the deal, but bets Joe $500 that he will not succeed.

Joe hurries home and, hiding the fact that he is a reporter, offers to show Anya around Rome. He also surreptitiously calls his photographer friend, Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert), to tag along to secretly take pictures. However, Anya declines Joe's offer and leaves.

Enjoying her freedom, on a whim, Anya gets her hair cut short. Joe follows and "accidentally" meets her on the Spanish Steps. This time, he convinces her to spend the day with him. They see the sights, including the "Mouth of Truth", a face carved in marble which is said to bite off the hands of liars. When Joe pulls his hand out of the mouth, it appears to be missing, causing Anya to scream. He then pops his hand out of his sleeve and laughs. (Hepburn's shriek was not acting—Peck decided to pull a gag he had once seen Red Skelton do, and did not tell his co-star beforehand.)

Later, Anya shares with Joe her dream of living a normal life without her crushing responsibilities. That night, at a dance on a boat, government agents finally track her down and try to escort her away, but a wild melee breaks out and Joe and Anya escape. While trying to rescue her from plain clothes government agents, Joe is ambushed and falls into a river after being struck. Ann dives in to save him, and they swim away together away from the agents, finally sharing a kiss as they sit shivering on the riverbank. The princess then bids farewell to Joe and returns to the embassy. There she is lectured upon the sense of duty she must display, but visibly pained retorts that without such a sense, she would never have returned.

During the course of the day, Hennessy learns that the princess is missing, not ill as claimed. He suspects that Joe knows where she is and tries to get him to admit it, but Joe claims to know nothing about it. Joe decides not to write the story, despite the considerable amount of money riding on it. Irving first plans to sell his photographs independent of the story, but eventually decides against it.

The next day, Princess Ann appears to answer questions from the press, and is surprised to find Joe and Irving there. Irving takes her picture with the same miniature cigarette-lighter/camera he had used the previous day. When asked by a reporter which city of her European tour was her favorite, Ann first makes a diplomatic all-were-equally-good answer, but interrupts it with an impulsive "Rome, by all means, Rome." At the end of the interview, the Princess requests to "meet" the journalists, shaking hands and making highly formal conversation. As she reaches Joe and Irving, the latter presents her with an envelope with the photographs he had taken, under the pretext of a generic memento of Rome. The three make several statements that hint at the truth and their dispositions, while pretending to formality and the distance expected between the princess and two strange journalists.

Cast

Wyler first offered the role to Hollywood favorite Cary Grant. Grant declined, believing he was too old to play Hepburn's love interest (though he played opposite her ten years later in Charade.) Other sources say Grant declined because he knew all of the attention would be centered around the princess. Peck's contract gave him solo star billing, with newcomer Hepburn listed much less prominently in the credits. Halfway through the filming, Peck suggested to Wyler that he elevate her to equal billing—an almost unheard-of gesture in Hollywood.

Wyler had initially considered Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Simmons for this role, but they were both unavailable. Wyler was very excited to find Hepburn, but he didn't choose her until after a screen test. Wyler wasn't able to stay and film this himself but told the assistant director to ask the cameraman and the soundman to continue recording after the assistant director said "cut" so that she would be seen in a relaxed state after having performed a dignified, subdued scene from the film. The candid footage won her the role; some of it was later included in the original theatrical trailer for the film, along with additional screen test footage showing Hepburn trying on some of Anya's costumes and even cutting her own hair (referring to a scene in the film). Roman Holiday was not Hepburn's first American acting job—she appeared on a 1952 CBS Television Workshop production of Rainy Day in Paradise Junction—but it was her first major role, one which introduced her to the general public.

Eddie Albert	as Irving Radovich
Hartley Power	as Hennessy, Joe's editor
Harcourt Williams	as the Ambassador of Princess Ann's country
Margaret Rawlings	as Countess Vereberg, Ann's principal lady-in-waiting
Tullio Carminati	as General Provno
Paolo Carlini	as Mario Delani
Claudio Ermelli	as Giovanni
Paola Borboni	as the Charwoman
Laura Solari	as Secretary
Alfredo Rizzo	as Taxi Driver
Gorella Gori	as Shoe Seller

Release

The film was re-released on November 29 & December 1, 2015, as part of the "TCM Presents" series by Turner Classic Movies and Fathom Events.

Reception

The film earned an estimated $3 million at the North American box office during its first year of release.

In the 1970s, both Peck and Hepburn were approached with the idea of a sequel, but the project never came to fruition.

Awards

Wins

• Academy Award for Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
• Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
• Academy Award for Writing (Motion Picture Story) (Dalton Trumbo)*
• BAFTA Award for Best British Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress — Drama (Audrey Hepburn)
• New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy (Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton)

Nominations

• Academy Award for Best Picture
• Academy Award for Best Director (William Wyler)
• Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Eddie Albert)
• Academy Award for Writing (Screenplay) (Ian McLellan Hunter and John Dighton)
• Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Hal Pereira & Walter H. Tyler)
• Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Franz Planer & Henri Alekan)
• Academy Award for Best Film Editing (Robert Swink)
• BAFTA Award for Best Film from any source
• BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor — (Eddie Albert)
• BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor — (Gregory Peck)
• DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (William Wyler)

Accolades

In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #4
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - #4 Romantic Comedy

Adaptations

The film was remade for television in 1987 with Tom Conti and Catherine Oxenberg, who is herself a member of a European royal family.

Paramount Pictures has licensed three adaptations of Roman Holiday into musicals:

• In 2002, a musical version of Roman Holiday, following the plot while using the songs of Cole Porter, was presented in Minneapolis at the Guthrie Theater. The cast included Stephanie Rothenberg as Princess Ann and Edward Watts as Joe Bradley. The book adaptation was done by Paul Blake (Beautiful: The Carole King Story)
• Another version was mounted in 2004 in Rome under the title Vacanze Romane using the Cole Porter score, supplemented with music by famed Italian film composer Armando Trovajoli. This production is performed annually at the Teatro Sistina in Rome and on tour in Italy and Spain.
• A version entirely in Japanese with a completely different score was produced in 1998 by Toho starring Daichi Mao as Princess Ann and Yamaguchi Yuichiro as Joe Bradley.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]