ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: William Wyler
Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert,
Margaret Rawlings, Hartley Power, Claudio Ermelli
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who ran away from the palace and spent 24 hours cavorting around the city with a newspaperman. The princess was Audrey Hepburn. The newspaperman was Gregory Peck. The city was Rome. The movie was this one. There might be more attractive combinations than that, but not many. A comic romance with a bittersweet edge - these lovers are not going to live happily ever after together - and the movie that made Hepburn a star. Dalton Trumbo's story won an Oscar, which he couldn't collect because he was blacklisted. Ian McLellan Hunter, who got the screen credit and did some rewriting, was a front. The Academy finally recognized Trumbo's work on the film in 1993, 17 years after his death. Better late than never, I guess, but that seems awfully late.
