User reviews

After Trumbo we decided to watch one of the films of which Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for. Roman Holiday is a 1953 American romantic comedy directed and produced by William Wyler. It stars Gregory Peck as a reporter and Audrey Hepburn as a royal princess out to see Rome on her own. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance; the screenplay and costume design also won. It was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him. Trumbo's credit was reinstated when the film was released on DVD in 2003. On December 19, 2011, full credit for Trumbo's work was restored.

The DVD sat on my shelf for the longest time and I am so glad I took it out to watch. The screenplay is subtle, filled with nuances that Hepburn and Peck teased them out beautifully. I can hardly detect an air of pretension and emotional manipulation. This is as romantic as it gets between a princess and an everyday man. The ending in the big hall really hits the spot. So much is left unsaid but yet what is said speaks volumes. It never betrays the tone of what the film sets out to be but yet my heart was beating with the full desire of wanting to see the relationship go a certain more familiar way. This is an amazing date movie with oodles of intelligence.

When Roman Holiday was in the planning stages William Wyler envisioned either Elizabeth Taylor or Jean Simmons in the role of the princess. When neither proved available, he and Paramount studios decided to do a Scarlett O'Hara type search for an unknown for the part. The film then would only have Gregory Peck as the star to draw the people in.

But when Peck saw the screen test and also realized the film would rise and fall on the performance of the princess part, he insisted on top billing for Audrey Hepburn. Audrey had only done a few small bit parts in some English films up till then, however Peck insisted on the billing of her right after him with 'introducing Audrey Hepburn' as her title credit.

In the same way that William Holden credited Barbara Stanwyck with helping him get through Golden Boy, Audrey Hepburn credited Gregory Peck with her performance in Roman Holiday. As well as William Wyler who still has a record of more people getting to the Oscar sweepstakes for his films than any other director.

Roman Holiday is simple and delightful film about a young princess of some unnamed European country who gets tired of her programmed routine and wants a break from it. In Rome while on a European tour, princess Audrey fakes an illness and runs off for a day of fun.

An American wire service reporter Gregory Peck finds her and realizes he's got an exclusive. So he chaperones her around without letting her know she's on to him. He even gets photographer Eddie Albert to help him out.

Eddie Albert got the first of two nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Roman Holiday, the second one being The Goodbye Girl. He lost to Frank Sinatra for From Here to Eternity. Though Albert is funny in this film, for dramatic work I never understood why he was not nominated for Attack or for Captain Newman, MD.

If you're thinking that the film is starting to bear a resemblance to a continental It Happened One Night you would be right. And if that's your thinking it will come as no surprise to learn that Frank Capra originally had the idea to film this. The property reverted to Paramount as part of his settlement to leave that studio after doing two Bing Crosby films.

I wish Paramount had done Roman Holiday in color though. Darryl F. Zanuck over at 20th Century did Three Coins in the Fountain in gorgeous color and later on MGM did The Seven Hills of Rome also in color. Still the Roman locations really add a lot to Audrey's adventure.

When Oscar time Audrey Hepburn in her first starring role and really first role of any consequence won an Oscar for Best Actress. Until the day she died Audrey Hepburn had charm enough for ten, you can't help but love her in anything she ever did. Even if the film she did was not that great, Audrey sparkles through.

Even in black and white, the Eternal City with Audrey and Greg make anyone young at heart.

Audrey Hepburn burst onto the movie scene with this film, her first role. She plays an English Princess traveling in Rome who is bored with her official duties and the tight schedule she's on. One night after getting a tranquilizer to calm her from the stress of it all, she sneaks away into the streets of Rome. She's found by a newspaperman played by Gregory Peck, who takes her to his place to sleep it off. When he finds out who she really is, he realizes he's on top of a gold mine of a story, and enlists his photographer friend (Eddie Albert) to get candid shots of the two while they sightsee.

Hepburn and Peck are such an attractive couple, and director William Wyler gets lots of beautiful shots of Rome, including the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Castel Sant'Angelo, and of course the classic scene they have at the Bocca della Verità. It all makes for a very romantic film. Hepburn played her part perfectly, expressing frustration and joy with such economy, as well as the restraint that comes from being a royal. Among several others, the scene with her getting her hair cut short is captivating, and it's no wonder that she won an Oscar for her performance. Peck's performance is also excellent, and Eddie Albert pulls off the part of a young rogue quite well despite being 47 at the time. I won't spoil the ending, except to say it's touching and poignant, and so perfectly shot in the Palazzo Colonna. At the end of the day this is 'just a romantic comedy', with its share of silliness, but it's so mature and magical, and with these stars in this setting, it stands head and shoulders above so many others.

Audrey Hepburn simply dazzles in this gem of a movie. Princess Ann (Hepburn) escapes the confines of her rarefied royal existence for a day, to be rescued by a reporter, Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck).

Bradley senses a scoop and seeks to inveigle the Princess into a story. However, this is a fairy tale, of the Princess and the commoner. Love blossoms, the beautiful Princess experiencing everyday things we might take for granted with a delight we cannot know. Sitting at a roadside café, getting a haircut, enjoying an ice cream, dancing on a riverboat. She soaks in these experiences in the company of her handsome saviour, not realising his intentions.

It's beautifully done. Hepburn is radiant, refined, beautiful, enchanting - things she went on to display in many movies. However, she was at her most perfect here, as the beautiful Princess needing love and wanting happiness. Peck is an ideal foil. Tall, dark, and handsome, his only thought being the scoop placed before him, his ambition wilting in the face of his developing love for a Princess he can't hope to attain. Both are ably supported by Eddie Albert as Irving Radovich, Bradley's photographer colleague. Indeed, Albert is involved in many of the funniest scenes.

It's a fairy tale, beautifully told. William Wyler makes the most of his location, showing us Rome in all it's splendour. The perfect backdrop to the perfect fairy tale.

However, this film belongs to Audrey Hepburn. She shines and dazzles, brightening nearly two hours of every viewers life. How could you hope for more than that.

A comment made by Emma Thompson made me want to see "Roman Holiday" again. Miss Thompson said about Audrey Hepburn "she has no bite" Implying that Miss Hepburn wasn't much of an actress. Well, I don't know what she was talking about or perhaps she doesn't either. To see "Roman Holiday" again in 2017 was a moving and wonderful experience. Audrey Hepburn's performance is as fresh and enchanting as I remembered. Perhaps even more. So I arrived to the conclusion that Miss Thompson is talking about a different kind of acting. When a performance travels in time with the same power, decade after decade, for me that's great film acting. In "Roman Holiday" she took me with her and convinced me, heart and mind, that she was that princess and I loved her. William Wyler, the wonderful director, knew what he was doing - he always did. By introducing us to Audrey Hepburn he reinforced and reinvigorated his own prodigious legacy. I love Emma Thompson as an actress but she's totally wrong about Audrey Hepburn.

I don't know where to begin praising Roman Holiday. How about saying it is one of my favourite Audrey Hepburn movies? Also it is one of Audrey's(who I've been a fan of since Charade) best roles too.

STORY Roman Holiday has a very charming story. A charming and romantic love story between the beautiful Princess Anne and a reporter during an unofficial visit to the Eternal City. It is well paced and never loses momentum, and also has endearing action.

SETTING One of my favourite assets of Roman Holiday. The settings are absolutely exquisite, with Rome the epitome of postwar chic(same with Hepburn and the motor scooters). Equally the cinematography and costumes are just as lavish.

MUSIC A beautiful, gentle score. No wonder, as it is in courtesy of Georges Auric, the composer who penned the beautiful score for the stunning La Belle et La Bete.

DIRECTION I only have one word for William Wyler's direction, immaculate.

SCRIPT Roman Holiday has a perfect balance of humour and grace with dialogue that sparkles like bubbles on top of a champagne glass, while thanks to screenwriter Dalton Trumbo deals with issues of personal freedom close to the heart.

ACTING Nothing to complain about here! Audrey Hepburn epitomises beauty, style and grace as Princess Anne, her final moments are so moving, while Gregory Peck is also marvellous as the dashing reporter Anne falls in love with. The supporting performances also go without fault.

Overall, sublime and a film to really treasure. 10/10 Bethany Cox

As a college aged guy with several younger sisters, I'd seen far too many chick flicks as they were being watched and couldn't get over how bad they were. Even ones they claimed to be good were extremely lackluster and I was beginning to wonder what, if any, good romantic movies existed. Then one afternoon I randomly happened to catch Roman Holiday on TV just as it was starting. For some reason I cant really remember, I sat through and watched it and now am quite glad that I did.

Aside from the romance element, it's essentially the polar opposite of what I despised. Great acting, excellent script, and most importantly, an effective and beautiful story. I won't spoil a thing about the plot here, but it works. While the movie can be called a romantic comedy, the humorous elements aren't the cheesy kind of thing you might expect from recent entries in the genre. I All I can say to you is: coming from a guy, this is the first and so far the only romantic movie I have thoroughly enjoyed watching.

This charming comedy is justly famous as the film that made the whole world fall in love with Audrey Hepburn and half the world want to run out and buy a Vespa scooter. Hepburn was always beguiling, but in some of her later roles she tended to overplay the winsomeness. Here every note she hits is just about perfect.

And speaking of notes, pay special attention to the score by the great Georges Auric. If the film had been produced in the manner of modern romantic comedies, the sound track would have been larded with pop hits by Perry Como, Dinah Shore, and Frankie Laine, which would have done an awful lot to destroy the magic. Instead Auric's complex, vibrant, evocative music complements the story's inherent lyricism without upstaging it. In an era of bombastic film scoring, this seems a miracle.

Someone once said that Audrey Hepburn's was the beauty of possibility and transformation -- she was always in motion, always becoming something else. "Roman Holiday" is very much of a piece with that notion. On the surface, the film is about a princess who disguises herself as a "commoner". But in truth she's actually pretending to be a princess, at least at first. She finally becomes authentic -- is transformed and prepared to deal with her destiny -- only through the ennobling power of love and sacrifice. That's one heck of a mythic subtext and does a lot to explain "Roman Holiday's" enduring power.

The emotional pull in this movie is achieved in the final scene: it is a testament to the brilliance of the screenplay and the art of the two leads that no words are spoken. There is no need for them. I have seen this film many times and never failed to be deeply moved by the looks that they exchange. There are probably only one or two other films that achieve anything near the same effect: one of them is Shadowlands, the other the Remains of the Day: Hopkins is lead in both, but they also share an era, the 40s and the 50s, a time when one buried emotion and placed duty above personal desire. In this film, the lovers are truly ennobled by their personal sacrifice, and the effect is profound and, as I have said, deeply moving.

Roman holiday is the most incredible movie I have ever seen. I came across this movie quite by chance. I like suspense movies and I watched Charade starring Audrey and Cary Grant. Audrey's acting in that movie impressed me so I decided to watch Roman holiday too. Too be very frank I was not really looking forward to watching this movie. Like most people of this generation I dislike black and white movies.

Man was I wrong. I have never seen a movie, which had so much romance, comedy and emotional drama. It would be fair to say that magic was created in this movie. The plot I guess everyone knows, a young princes tired of her regulated life runs away and hooks up with a reporter (Gregory Peck) for a day of fun in Rome. The reporter lies to her that he is a businessman and she lies to him about her true identity. They both have fun visiting Rome's historic places. But the reporter has a hidden agenda. He wants to write a story on the princess's escapades in Rome and enlists the help of his photographer friend (Albert). Things work according to plan for the reporter until he finds that he is really starting to fall in love with the princess.

The story line may appear to be simple but take my word for it that Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn create magic and the movie will take a hold over you like nothing else you have ever seen. This is Audrey's best movie and the only movie she got an Oscar for and she was never so charming, innocent and beautiful as she is in this movie.

One of the reviewers has suggested that Cary Grant would have been ideal for the role that Gregory Peck plays. I only have to say this to the devotees of Cary Grant that he would never have worked as a romantic lead in this movie. He was 50 years old at the time this movie was made and the sight of him cavorting around with a girl half his age would have removed from the movie it's romantic element. It would have become perhaps a slightly funnier movie but without the heart wrenching almost magical hold it now has. Also it is my humble opinion after seeing Charade that Cary Grant is too suave to play the role of a struggling reporter convincingly.

History has already spoken; this movie is regarded as one of the all time greats, why would we want to change something, which is already perfect. Gregory Peck is ideal for the role of the reporter, he is incredibly handsome in the movie, a kind of man a young girl could fall in love with even after being with him only for a few hours. In this movie, Gregory Peck acts his heart out, especially at the end and he has a wonderfully chemistry with Audrey, which is the reason this movie still seems so fresh and charming even after 50 years.

This is one of those rare movies that works across cultural and national borders. I was surprised to learn that according to a poll in Japan even after so many years Roman Holiday still is the number one foreign movie of all time.

This movie is simply the best.

This bittersweet William Wyler romance is like an extended tourism commercial for Rome. The city that gives the film its name snares as much screen time as either of its two stars, and it looks just as beautiful.

Speaking of beauty, this film's strongest selling point is its position as a vehicle for Audrey Hepburn, who burst on to the movie scene with this film and became one of Hollywood's most beloved stars. Many of the roles she played subsequently to this one had the same flavor -- she excelled at playing winsome waifs who were always just a tad too pristine for the rough world of men surrounding them --- think of her in "Sabrina" or "My Fair Lady." Here she gets to ride on the back of a motor scooter driven by Gregory Peck, and show off that dazzling smile. However, a happy ending for the charismatic couple is not to be, as this princess who gets to be a peasant for a day must accept her responsibility and go back to being a princess once more. It's slightly ironic that a star whose appeal rested on her uncanny glamour appeared in role after role that highlighted the limits which glamour can place on the world of those who suffer from it.

Aside from its leading lady, the film itself is nothing special. Wyler provides solid if unfancy direction, and the story doesn't go anywhere you're not expecting it to. Eddie Albert provides some fine support as a randy photographer, but don't let anyone kid you into thinking that this movie belongs to anyone but Audrey Hepburn.

Grade: B

Roman Holiday is a movie of its time and place. In more ways than one. We can't go back to 1950s Rome. Or 1950s Hollywood. The alluring city of Rome is a wonderful setting for the film. It's Rome as we'd like to remember it, a Rome that in many ways doesn't exist anymore. Life was just different back then. Simpler, probably happier, definitely more charming. The movie is also the product of a Hollywood that no longer exists. This is a movie with a very definite 1950s style and feel. Unfortunately that 1950s style doesn't always translate for the modern viewer. It was a simpler time in movie-making as well as life but this film is perhaps a little too simple for modern tastes. The plot is threadbare. The movie doesn't have much energy to it. It's all very relaxed. Too relaxed. For whatever charms the movie has it just isn't entertaining enough. There's just not enough going on.

Aside from the wonderful 1950s time capsule look at Rome the film has one other thing clearly working in its favor. Audrey Hepburn. In this, her first major role, Hepburn is relentlessly charming. It's so easy to see why she would go on to become one of the world's most beloved stars. But all her charms aren't quite enough to overcome the problems with the story. The central problem being that there isn't enough of a story at all. Hepburn plays Ann, princess of an unspecified European country. She's on a grand tour of Europe, appearing before teeming crowds of thousands everywhere she goes. She is obviously a quite notably famous person. Which makes the fact that she goes completely unrecognized by anyone when she slips away from her royal duties to wander the streets of Rome more than a little hard to believe. Even the supposedly astute reporter who will become her companion on her little getaway has no idea who she is until he sees her picture in the paper. Mind you, this guy was supposed to be interviewing the princess that very day. Is he really that much of a dunce? And then this story, hard to believe as it is, just kind of sits there. This is a movie which could really use some bursts of energy to drive it forward.

The story of a princess who longs to be a regular woman, to get out there and live and love a little, has its possibilities. But this movie doesn't do enough with its story. And for a movie billed as a romantic comedy the laughs are very few and far between. Hepburn is terrific, no quibbles with anything she does. You just wish the movie gave her the chance to do more. Hepburn's co-star Gregory Peck comes across as a little wooden and unnatural. He's a Hollywood legend in his own right but there's no doubt that in this film it is Hepburn's star which shines much brighter. Peck's character of reporter Joe Bradley is so bland you wonder how the princess could possibly find herself falling for him. Maybe after leading such a sheltered life she's just so grateful to have the chance to fall for anybody. But the romance never really rings true. At least there's Joe's photographer friend Irving to inject some personality into the proceedings. Irving, as portrayed by Eddie Albert, has got a little life to him. But that's just a supporting part. If the main character of Joe doesn't work, which it really doesn't, the movie suffers. It's easy to understand why Roman Holiday was so acclaimed and generally loved upon its initial release. It has some things going for it, the wonderful Hepburn first and foremost. But it's a movie with a style which suits the era in which it was made, not playing nearly as well today. Not a bad movie but not notably better than average either. For as much as Hepburn may charm you the movie does not do enough to entertain you.

Constantly advised, overprotected, and bored with her royal duties, Princess Anne, on holiday in Rome, evades her protectors and sneaks out at night to discover how the ordinary Italians live...

Exhausted from a claustrophobic schedule, she collapses in a public place…

Passing by is Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), a newspaper reporter who was planning to interview the Princess the following day…

Not realizing who she is, he eventually takes her to his apartment where she spends the night on his couch…

After discovering her identity, Bradley charms the runaway princess for the exclusive story he visualizes writing… He calls his carefree photographer friend Eddie Albert and proposes to spend the day with her and experience everything she has always desired to…

Audrey Hepburn—the exquisite incognito princess who finds romance in the capital city of Italy— not only lets down her long tresses, but also gets a more fashionable cut, as she blossoms to embrace a life she knows she cannot keep…

Hepburn received an Oscar for Best Actress in recognition of her gamine charms and for her great acting ability…

If you like to remember Princess Anne at the café ordering champagne for lunch; smoking her "very first" cigarette; dancing on a barge on the Tiber River; hitting the royal agents with beer bottles; and testing the legend of 'The Mouth of Truth;' don't miss this delightful movie with three legendary stars

A plot as slender as Audrey Hepburn but oh what magic! If you've never seen this jewel, you're to have one of the best evenings of your week, your month.

Perhaps the key to this movie's success is restraint - in the dialogue, in the music, in the cynicism of Peck and cronies at the movie's beginning. No one gushes - all is understated - but how one feels its power.

I hope everyone has experienced a day such as they - with someone they come to care for - as much as they. It's my wish for the world.

A comment made by Emma Thompson made me want to see "Roman Holiday" again. Miss Thompson said about Audrey Hepburn "she has no bite" Implying that Miss Hepburn wasn't much of an actress. Well, I don't know what she was talking about or perhaps she doesn't either. To see "Roman Holiday" again in 2017 was a moving and wonderful experience. Audrey Hepburn's performance is as fresh and enchanting as I remembered. Perhaps even more. So I arrived to the conclusion that Miss Thompson is talking about a different kind of acting. When a performance travels in time with the same power, decade after decade, for me that's great film acting. In "Roman Holiday" she took me with her and convinced me, heart and mind, that she was that princess and I loved her. William Wyler, the wonderful director, knew what he was doing - he always did. By introducing us to Audrey Hepburn he reinforced and reinvigorated his own prodigious legacy. I love Emma Thompson as an actress but she's totally wrong about Audrey Hepburn.

I recently caught this little gem of a film on a retro program and it was a trip well worth it. William Wyler was a genius directing throughout his film career. Here he's in top form.

The only way this film could have been conceived was with the charming presence of Audrey Hepburn in her first appearance on a Hollywood film. She is without a doubt, an angel who was sent to this earth to delight the movie audiences in whatever movie she happened to dignify with her appearance in.

Some people have compared Audrey Tatou with the incomparable Audrey Hepburn. Seeing Ms Hepburn in Roman Holiday will certainly change the minds of those comparing fans. Audrey Hepburn was a star's star! She exudes charm, intelligence, elegance, and beauty. Just one look from her could disarm Gregory Peck forever.

The only wrong note of this production was the way the writer, Dalton Trumbo, was treated since he had been blacklisted by the anti-communist faction lead by Sen. McCarthy and company. In the end, Mr. Trumbo was vindicated in having his name recognized as the writer of Roman Holiday.

This film is a feast to the eyes in that glorious cinematography and Rome as a background. This was Hollywood at its best. Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn will be forever young any time we take a look at this classic that I'm sure will live and charm its viewers whenever they take a chance to see it for the first time, or like some of us, for another loving look.

First, the good stuff. (1) The shots of Rome are wonderful. One can hardly believe it's the same crowded metropolis that it is today. Let's hear it for 1953! The other recent film that shows Rome so beautifully is "The Talented Mr. Ripley". (2) As usual, Audrey Hepburn is just wonderful. She came from some beautiful planet. The scene when she wakes up in Gregory Peck's apartment is lovely: I just think of how she tries to cover herself with the blanket and misses covering her posterior. Just great. The scene at the "Mouth of Truth" is fantastic.

Second, the bad stuff. (1) Gregory Peck just does not fit Audrey Hepburn. He lacks her light touch. He is a bit wooden --- just like Humphrey Bogart in Sabrina. I thought that Gary Cooper was a better romantic lead in "Love in the Afternoon". (2) I am always uncomfortable when Italian characters are portrayed as a type of buffoon. (3) A princess on the lam is a great idea, but monarchy as a real institution, as portrayed in this movie, has very little meaning anymore. I realize that Queen Elizabeth was crowned a couple of years before this movie was made, and the pomp, mystique, and the royal ethic of self-subordination were probably still very much alive. But now all that is quite tarnished for whatever reason. Princess Ann's transformation and maturation therefore seem artificial and dated.

What can I say? As a Hepburn film, it's a 10. As a movie, it's a 5 or 6.

What can be said about William Wyler's evergreen comedy that has not been said before? Suffice to state that it never loses its luster, even though it is over sixty years since its original release.

Every element of the film seems perfectly shaped, from the memorable Hollywood debut of Audrey Hepburn, to the nuanced support offered by Gregory Peck; a witty script by John Dighton and Ian McLellan Hunter, based on a story by the then-blacklisted Dalton Trumbo; beautiful black-and-white photography of a Rome that no longer exists by Henri Alakan and Frank F. Planer; and taut direction by Wyler that gives plenty of opportunities for the actors to flourish while retaining the mystique of the Eternal City as a place where romance can occur, however briefly.

The film has memorable nuanced moments, from the opening sequence where the Princess (Hepburn) undergoes an apparently endless series of presentations, while trying to stretch her feet under her voluminous dress; the sequence where she wears pajamas for the first time and falls asleep in Peck's bed during a chaste night away from the palace; the sequence taking place in the sidewalk café where Peck keeps telling his witless sidekick Nathan (Eddie Albert) to shut up about the Princess's true identity; and the memorable moment at the Bocca della Verita (aka the Mouth of Truth), where Peck puts his hand in and brings it out abruptly, scaring the living daylights out of the Princess as he does so.

Nothing actually happens during the Princess's night away from her royal duties; her virtue remains intact, and she has a merry time dodging the Carabinieri and her Secret Service officers, in a comic fight sequence taking place near the Castel Saint'Angelo, which culminates in Peck and herself diving into the river and swimming to safety.

ROMAN HOLIDAY conjures up a world that simply does not exist today of comic Italians waving their arms about expressively, of obliging cab-drivers and locals selling everything on the street from water- melons, flowers, and other junk. In these days of mass tourism commercial interests have taken over, and Rome's innocence - as well as a lot of its allure - has been lost in the process. Nonetheless we can enjoy a nostalgic wallow in the past through this film.

'Roman Holiday (1953)' is classic rom-com stuff, with charming lead characters and an enjoyable central dynamic. The weight of the story falls almost squarely on the shoulders of Hepburn and Peck, who both deliver top-notch performances and bring the relatively witty screenplay to life. Their relationship is believable and entertaining; it's a pleasure to watch them roam around Rome together. There are several funny set-pieces and one or two somewhat subversive plot points, to boot. It isn't complicated but it is enjoyable. It's a fun time throughout. 7/10

With a very nice blend of fantasy and reality, and two very likable stars, "Roman Holiday" is both entertaining and thoughtful. Sometimes it is very funny, and at other times it makes you feel a great sympathy and warmth towards the characters. Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck are ideal in the leading roles, and the story is very clever in getting a lot of mileage out of a simple idea without pushing things too far, which makes it quite effective.

The idea of Princess Ann (Audrey) slipping away unnoticed and unrecognized for a day of fun and freedom from responsibility is of course fanciful, but it works for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is Peck's role as a pragmatic newsman. He is a good balance for Hepburn's charm and energy, remaining calm and logical without ever becoming cold or distant. You feel as if you could spend a lot more than a couple of hours in their company. And how could you improve on Eddie Albert's performance as Peck's photographer friend? The movie also adds in the atmosphere of Rome itself, with some creative scenes that make good use of the setting.

There are many fine moments in a story that at times seems almost like a daydream, and then it brings the characters back to reality in a moving way. It's not an easy combination to pull off, but here it all fits together very well, to make the kind of classic worth remembering, and one which you can watch and enjoy more than once.