|
|
BookPrices.net - Roman Holiday (1953)
|
List Price: $9.95
Our Price: $4.50
Your Save: $ 5.45 ( 55% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Paramount
Starring: Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt Williams
Directed By: William Wyler
|
Average Customer Rating: 
|
|
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786305110835
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 0792107667
Label: Paramount
Manufacturer: Paramount
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Paramount
Release Date: 2001-04-10
Running Time: 118
Studio: Paramount
Theatrical Release Date: 1953-09
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Roman Holiday, a classic
Comment: This movie is enchanting. The scenes of Rome make you want to go there, and it is so well acted that you understand totally why Audrey Hepburn won an Oscar for her performance. There's an innocence in this film not often seen today, but there is also tension, sexual tension, and the struggle of making decisions based on what is the "right" thing to do as opposed to what will make money, or ignore or avoid personal responsibility. All this woven into a love story, a comedy and the show place of Rome!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Roman Holiday for the holidays!
Comment: Everything about this is good. We have lost touch with the traditional ways of our country and culture - this brings it all back - what a terrific story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Roman Holiday
Comment: Even tho it's from the 50's and in B&W (a turnoff for a lot of people) the movie is wonderful, the scenes are still fresh & funny; delightful scenes of Rome and Life in the 50's. She stays all night, still a virgin in the morning? everyone isn't having sex with everyone on camera? No one gets MURDERED??? no gore? Believe it or not, if a film is written and acted brilliantly - and here you have 3 of the great actors of all time -- a movie doesn't need shock value to be great, and this film proves it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: "Rome! By all means, Rome"
Comment: A princess (Audery Hepburn) is petty much a prisoner of her position; she is on a European tour. While in Rome she has an opportunity to escape her overseers and join the local festivities. A freelance reporter (Gregory Peck) accidentally spots her hand knows who she is. Out for an exclusive interview he pretends to be a businessman and befriends her. Together they see the real Roam accompanied by his incognito photographer pal (Eddie Albert.)
Does the reported get his exclusive and a ticket back to the states?
Or do they setup house?
Will the princess ever get caught?
Everyone has fun and you will too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Princess abroad
Comment: Fairy tales don't really happen in our world -- especially not the kind that actually involve princesses.
But you wouldn't know that from "Roman Holiday," one of Audrey Hepburn's earliest ever movie roles -- as well as her breakout one. This adorable romantic comedy balances itself nicely between a sweet little romance, a lighthearted romance and the bittersweet, overhanging specter of royal duty.
Bored young Princess Ann (Hepburn) goes on a "Roman Holiday," when she gets upset, is sedated by a doctor, and has an odd reaction to it. Soon she has wandered out of the palace and into the streets of Rome, where she is found by struggling American journalist Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck). Since she appears to be drunk, he takes her home.
When Joe realizes that he has the missing princess in his apartment, he takes her on a whirlwind tour of Rome, with his pal taking photographs for a full article about her. But he doesn't count on falling in love with Ann, or having her truly fall for him. And Ann has a tough choice to make -- should she give up her royal life and stay with Joe, or fulfil her responsibilities as a princess?
"Roman Holiday" is one of those rare movies that sounds incredibly trite and Hollywoodish when you just hear what it's about, because it's been done so many times before. Surprise -- instead we get a movie that is mostly a cute, innocent little romance, but with an inevitable choice that looms over Anne throughout her fun.
But it's a fun ride while it lasts, with Anne and Joe careening through Rome on a scooter, dancing by the river, and getting her hair cut. This doesn't sound very funny, but William Wyler plays it with plenty of little jokes, including Joe's scandalized landlady raving at poor Anne in Italian, assuming that she's a one-night stand. And near the end he twists the storyline into a bittersweet examination of duty vs. love, with Anne forced to consider which way her life will go.
And there's one joke that Peck played on Hepburn in reality -- the infamous "Mouth of Truth" scene. There's a reason Hepburn shrieked so convincingly: she had really been tricked.
Hepburn and Gregory Peck are thoroughly solid as love interests -- Peck is breezy and likable as the jaded American journalist who is seizing an opportunity. And Hepburn showed off her range here -- she can be funny and quirky (including a hilarious "drunk" scene), then switch over into a doe-eyed sadness that breaks the heart.
The Centennial Edition of this movie comes with an extra disk of assorted featurettes -- aside from the usual gallery and trailers, we have a half-hour special on Hepburn's Paramount years, and another twelve minutes commemorating her in general. Also has some stuff on the filming, the costumes, 1950s Paramount, and about restoring the film to primo glory.
"Roman Holiday" is a modern-day fairy tale that never sacrifices integrity for cheap gooey romance. A truly magical, bittersweet little movie.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Maybe it doesn't quite live up to its sterling reputation, and maybe the leading man and director were slightly miscast. But who cares? Roman Holiday is the film that brought Audrey Hepburn to prominence, and the world movie audience went weak at the knees. The endlessly charming Hepburn had her first starring role in this sweet romance, playing a European princess on an official tour through Rome. Frustrated by her lack of connection to the real world, she slips away from her protective handlers and goes on a spree, aided by a tough-guy news reporter (Gregory Peck). Director William Wyler, more at home with such heavy-going, Oscar-winning classics as The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben- Hur, doesn't always keep the champagne bubbles afloat, and the Peck role would have fit Cary Grant like a silk glove. But the film is great fun, the location shooting is irresistible, and Hepburn embodies an image of chic style that would rule for the rest of the fifties. No coincidence: she won an Oscar, and so did veteran costume designer Edith Head. --Robert Horton
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
