Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy film which tells the story of Princess Anya, a young royal who runs away during a state visit to Rome and befriends Joe Bradley, an expatriate American reporter who first just wants an exclusive story about a princess gone AWOL but finds himself falling in love with her.

Credits

The movie was written by John Dighton and, fronting for Hollywood Blacklist author Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter . (Trumbo's name was finally restored to the film's credits when it was released on DVD in 2003.)

Plot

Princess Ann is a royal princess and heir to the throne of an unnamed country. She is officially touring several European capitals, and so arrives in Rome, where her visit is widely publicized. One night, she is very agitated and expresses her tiredness of her official role. The court doctor gives her an injection in order to calm her down, but she nevertheless secretly leaves her country's embassy in Rome and goes out alone to explore the city. She ends up falling asleep on a public bench, where Joe Bradley, an expatriate American reporter sees her but does not recognize her. He offers her money so that she can take a taxi and return home safely, but Anya Smith, as she introduces herself is so sleepy that she is unable to talk to the taxi driver. Bradley finally decides to take her to his apartment so that she can spend the night in a safe place. The next morning, Bradley leaves the sleeping woman alone and arrives late at his office, where his boss asks him if he has conducted the scheduled interview of the princess during the morning. Bradley first lies and give details of the alledged interview, until his boss announces him that the princess has suddenly fallen ill and that she has cancelled all interviews. He then shows a picture of her to Bradley, who suddenly recognizes the young woman whom he left sleeping in his apartment...

Miscellaneous

One of the most famous scenes in the movie is when Gregory Peck puts his hand into the "Mouth of Truth", a stone face in Rome that legend says will bite your hand off if you tell a lie. In the film, he puts his arm into the mouth, and when he pulls out his sleeve, his hand is missing, causing Anya/Hepburn to scream before he pops his hand out of the sleeve and laughs. Audrey Hepburn's shriek wasn't acting - Peck had decided to pull a gag he had once seen Red Skelton do, and he didn't warn Hepburn in advance.

A now-legendary screen test resulted in Hepburn being cast as Ann. After performing a scene from the film, the director called "cut" but the cameraman actually left the camera rolling as the young actress chatted with the director. The candid footage of Hepburn that resulted won her the role.

In the 1970s, both Peck and Hepburn were approached with the idea of a sequel to Roman Holiday which would have seen Anya and Joe reunite; the idea never came to fruition. The original film was remade for television in the early 1980s.

The movie was filmed in Rome, on location and at Cinecittà Studios .

Cast and roles include

• Gregory Peck - Joe Bradley
• Audrey Hepburn - Princess Ann ('Anya Smith')
• Eddie Albert - Irving Radovich
• Hartley Power - Mr. Hennessy, editor
• Harcourt Williams - Ambassador
• Margaret Rawlings - Countess Vereberg
• Tullio Carminati - Gen. Provno
• Paolo Carlini - Mario Delani, hairdresser
• Claudio Ermelli - Giovanni, landlord
• Paola Borboni - Charwoman
• Alfredo Rizzo - Cab driver
• Laura Solari - Secretary
• Gorella Gori - Shoe seller
• Heinz Hindrich - Dr. Bonnachoven
• John Horne - Master of Ceremonies
• Andrea Esterhazy - Embassy staffer
• Ugo De Pascale - Embassy staffer
• Diane Lante - Lady in waiting

Awards

Award wins

• Academy Award for Best Actress (Audrey Hepburn)
• 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)
• Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
• Best Writing, Motion Picture Story (Ian McLellan Hunter & Dalton Trumbo)
• Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy (Ian McLellan Hunter & John Dighton

In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Award nominations

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

Roman Holiday is also a 1931 novel by the author, Upton Sinclair.