Roman Holiday (1953) is a delightful, captivating fairy-tale romance shot entirely on 本地 in Rome, and produced and directed by one of Hollywood's most skillful, distinguished, professional and eminent directors - William Wyler.

The film's bittersweet story is a charming romantic-comedy, a kind of Cinderella tale in reverse (with an April-October romance). A runaway princess (Hepburn) rebels against her royal obligations and escapes the insulated confines of her royal prison to find a 'Prince Charming' commoner - an American reporter (Peck) covering the royal tour in Rome. The story was reportedly based on the real-life Italian adventures of British Princess Margaret.

Wyler was known for other great films including Dodsworth (1936), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Letter (1940), Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), The Heiress (1949), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Ben-Hur (1959) and Funny Girl (1968). Wyler's well-crafted, stylish films that cover a wide range of film genres (family dramas, westerns, epics, romantic comedies, and even one musical) always included down-to-earth characters in real-life situations.

The film received a phenomenal ten Academy Award nominations for a comedy. It won a Best Actress Oscar for its under-experienced British (Belgium-born) actress named Audrey Hepburn - it was her first American film, although she had previously appeared in six European movies and on Broadway in an adaptation of Colette's Gigi. Another of the film's three Oscar awards, the one for Best Original Story was given to Ian McLellan Hunter. In 1993, a posthumous Oscar was properly credited and given to blacklisted Hollywood Ten author Dalton Trumbo, who actually wrote the screenplay. The third Oscar it received was for Best B/W Costume Design (Edith Head). The other seven nominations included: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Eddie Albert), Best Director, Best Screenplay (Ian McClellan Hunter and John Dighton), Best B/W Cinematography, Best B/W Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Film Editing.




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In the opening moments of the film, a Paramount News NEWS FLASH announces, with newsreel footage, the goodwill tour of a royal princess, Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn), a member of the royal family of an unnamed European country. During her formal tour, she waves at the crowds who line the streets for parades, motorcades, and other ceremonial processions:


Paramount News brings you a special coverage of Princess Ann's visit to London, the first stop on her much-publicized, goodwill tour of European capitals. She gets a royal welcome from the British, as thousands cheer the gracious young member of one of Europe's oldest ruling families. After three days of continuous activity and a visit to Buckingham Palace, Ann flew to Amsterdam, where her Highness dedicated the new International Aid Building and christened an ocean liner. Then went to Paris, where she attended many official functions designed to cement trade relations between her country and the Western European nation. And so to Rome, the Eternal City, where the Princess' visit was marked by a spectacular military parade...The smiling young Princess showed no sign of the strain of the week's continuous public appearances. And at her country's Embassy that evening, a formal reception and ball in her honor was given by her country's Ambassador to Italy.
During her royal state visit to Rome, Italy, she is presented to the guests during the extravagant ball, escorted into the room wearing a beautiful gown and crown of jewels. Performing her expected diplomatic duties, she appropriately greets the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Altomonto (Giacomo Penza), Sir Hugo Macy de Farmington (Eric Oulton), the Maharajah of Khanipur (Rapindranath Mitter) and Rajkumari (Princess Lilamani), Prince Istvan Barossy Nagyavaros (Cesare Viori) and many others, but the young foreign Princess reveals her weariness of the proceedings. Under her long gown, she wiggles and itches her foot and then embarrasses herself by losing her high heeled shoe. She retrieves it when she stands to dance with a steady procession of admirers and guests.

Her girlish naivete and modern-day leanings are expressed when she is tucked primly into her bed in an old-fashioned nightgown by her lady-in-waiting chaperone, Countess Vereberg (Margaret Rawlings):


Ann: I hate this nightgown. I hate all my nightgowns, and I hate all my underwear too.
Countess: My dear, you have lovely things.
Ann: But I'm not two hundred years old. Why can't I sleep in pajamas?
Countess: Pajamas!?
Ann: Just the top part. Did you know that there are people who sleep with absolutely nothing on at all?
Looking out her window, she catches a glimpse of how the other half lives, a scene of Roman nightlife. When she is brought warm milk and crackers before retiring, she scoffs: "Everything we do is so wholesome!" The review of her tightly-arranged royal schedule for the next day (including rules of decorum, how she will act and what she will wear) reveals ceremonial visits to a car factory, a food and agricultural inspection organization and an orphanage, followed by a press conference, lunch with the foreign ministry, and even more affairs of state later in the day. The Princess screams: "STOP!", hysterically exasperated and depressed by the constant control and regimentation of her life. As she is given a sedative by a doctor, she tells her guardians: "...I'll be calm and relaxed, I-I'll bow and I'll smile and improve trade relations and I'll..." In reality, she is determined to see Rome for herself and on her own terms.

To escape the endless tedium of the many ceremonial occasions, to find adventure and to experience life beyond the claustrophobic confines of her royal position - without royal control - she slips out of the palatial Embassy that night. Unseen, Ann climbs into the back of an open supply truck (Domenico Pizzatti - Rinfreschi -) that is allowed to leave the Embassy grounds. For the first time, unescorted and unchaperoned, she smiles as she watches her liberating passage through the Embassy's gates. When the truck stops, she jumps out and finds herself in the middle of Rome, becoming increasingly drowsy from the effects of the sleep-inducing sedative. She falls asleep on a low park wall.

On his walk home following a late-night card game which has impoverished him with his pals, street-smart American newspaperman Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), one of the many reporters who was planning to interview the Princess the next day, walks by the sleeping beauty. She is singing to herself: "So happy." He finds it ironic that she is "well-read, well-dressed" and "snoozing away on a public street" like a drunk. Taking pity on her because she has no money ("Never carry money"), the protective journalist signals a taxi and they climb in the back seat. Perplexed that she sleepily responds that she lives "at the Coliseum," he directs the taxi to his own apartment and then realizes that she must spend the night there.

In an exquisite scene, he leads her up steps and ushers her into his apartment while muttering to himself: "I ought to have my head examined." Preparing to sleep at his place, she comments dizzingly about all the new experiences, while he 包含ucts her on sleeping arrangements:


Ann: Can I sleep here?
Joe: Well, that's the general idea.
Ann: Can I have a silk nightgown with rosebuds on it?
Joe: I'm afraid you'll have to rough it tonight - in these. (He presents her with his own oversized pajamas.)
Ann: Pajamas!
Joe: Sorry honey, but I haven't worn a nightgown in years.
Ann: (regally) Will you help me get undressed, please?
Joe: (after hesitating a moment and being taken aback) Uh, OK. (He removes one small article of clothing - her necktie) There you are, you can handle the rest. (He pours himself a glass of wine and rapidly downs it.)
Ann: May I have some?
Joe: (firmly) No. Now look.
Ann: This is very unusual. I've never been alone with a man before - even with my dress on. (She begins unbuttoning and removing her blouse) With my dress off, it's most unusual. I don't seem to mind. (She gazes directly at him.) Do you?
Joe: (stony-faced) I think I'll go out for a cup of coffee. You'd better get to sleep. (She flops on his bed.) No, no, no. (He leads her toward the couch.) On this one.
Ann: How terribly nice.
Joe: Hey - these are pajamas. They're to sleep in. You're to climb into them, you understand?...Then you do your sleeping on the couch, see. Not on the bed, not on the chair, on the couch. Is that clear?
Ann: Do you know my favorite poem?
Joe: You already recited that for me.
Ann: "Arethusa rose from her couch of snows in the Acroceraunian mountains" - Keats.
Joe: Shelley.
Ann: Keats!
Joe: Now, you just keep your mind off the poetry and on the pajamas, and everything'll be all right, see.
Ann: It's Keats.
Joe: Now, I'll be - it's Shelley - I'll be back in about ten minutes.
Ann: Keats. (He approaches his front door and hides his wine bottle on the top of the mantelpiece.) You have my permission to withdraw.
Joe: Thank you very much...
When Joe returns to his small apartment about ten minutes later, he finds the princess in his own bed - not on the chair or couch as he had 包含ucted. He rolls her off his bed onto the couch.

The princess' disappearance is classified as a "Top Crisis Secret" when it is discovered that the "direct heir to the throne" is missing at the Embassy. A diplomatic cover-up conceals the real facts: "A SPECIAL EMBASSY BULLETIN REPORTS THE SUDDEN ILLNESS OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ANN."

The next morning when he awakens, he has overslept past the scheduled 11:45 am interview with the princess. The Rome American newspaper reports:


Princess Ann Taken Ill; Press Interview Cancelled - Embassy Reports Princess Confined to Bed by Sudden Illness: Day's Schedule Cancelled
Joe frantically dresses and arrives late at the American News Service where he ineptly tells his boss Mr. Hennessey (Hartley Powers) that he has just left the interview with the princess - a paradoxically true statement, but a gross lie ("a gold-plated, triple-decked, star-spangled lie") in his superior's view:


Hennessey: In view of the fact that our Highness was taken violently ill at three o'clock this morning, put to bed with a high fever, and has ordered all her appointments for the day cancelled in toto...
Joe: That's certainly pretty hard to swallow.
Hennessey: In view of the fact that you just left her, of course.
Hennessey points out Princess Ann's picture printed in the paper: "It isn't Annie Oakley, Dorothy Lamour, or Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Take a good look at her. You might be interviewing her again some day." Joe immediately discovers that he has a major scoop in the works. After discovering the identity of the mysterious girl in his apartment, he hopes to get an exclusive story that will help him with his career advancement that would take him back to the States:


Joe: How much would a real interview with this dame be worth?
Hennessey: Are you referring to Her Highness?
Joe: I'm not referring to Annie Oakley, Dorothy Lamour, or Madame ... How much?
Hennessey: What do you care? You've got about as much chance...
Joe: I know, but if I did? How much would it be worth?
Hennessey: Oh, just a plain talk on world issues, it would probably be worth two hundred and fifty. Her views on clothes, of course, would be worth a lot more, maybe a thousand...dollars.
Joe: I'm talking about her views on everything!...The private and secret longings of a Princess. Her innermost thoughts as revealed to your own correspondent in a private, personal, exclusive interview. (His boss' mouth drops, awe-struck by the thought) Can't use it, huh? I didn't think you'd like it.
Hennessey: Come here! Love angle too, I suppose.
Joe: Practically all love angle.
Hennessey: With pictures.
Joe: Could be. How much?
Hennessey: That particular story will be worth five grand to any news service....
Joe: ...You said five grand? I want you to shake on that.
（非常长啊！很辛苦啊）
Back at his apartment, Ann finally awakens at about 1:30 in the afternoon, but she is thoroughly disoriented:


Ann: Would you be so kind as to tell me where I am?
Joe: Well, this is what is laughingly known as my apartment.
Ann: Did you bring me here by force?
Joe: No, no. Quite the contrary.
Ann: Have I been here all night, alone?
Joe: If you don't count me, yes.
Ann: So I've spent the night here - with you?
Joe: Well now, I-I don't know that I'd use those words exactly, but uh, from a certain angle, yes.
Ann: (beaming with a smile) How do you do? (She extends her hand for a handshake)
Joe: How do you do?
Ann: And you are - ?
Joe: Bradley, Joe Bradley.
Ann: Delighted.
Joe: You don't know how delighted I am to meet you.
Ann: You may sit down.
Joe: (sitting on the bed) Thank you very much. What's your name?
Ann: You may call me Anya.
The newspaper reporter pretends ignorance of her identity, initially having a strictly mercenary interest in the Princess. While she takes a bath, he phones his carefree, bearded photographer friend Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert), hinting: "It's front-page stuff. That's all I can tell ya. It might be political or it might be a sensational scam. I'm not sure which. But it's a big story, and it's gotta have pictures."

Everything is exciting for Ann: "It must be fun to live in a place like this." But she feels compelled to leave and wander around. After lending her a little money, he follows her through the crowded streets and marketplace filled with small motorcycles, bicycles, vendors, and pedestrians. She walks the streets of Rome incognito, experiencing things as an ordinary commoner and doing things exactly the way she wants to. At a salon, she has her hair drastically cut shorter after ordering the Italian haircutter (Paolo Carlini): "All off." Afterwards, she tells the flirtatious barbiere who cropped her hair to make her unrecognizable: "It's just what I wanted."

She begins her day of freedom by ordering a gelati cone at a roadside stand and accepting a single flower from a flower vendor. Joe accidentally runs into her to keep in contact with her and get the inside information for his story. She confesses her predicament of playing hookey from school and her desire to "live dangerously":


Ann: I ran away last night, from school.
Joe: Oh, what was the matter? Trouble with the teacher?
Ann: No, nothing like that.
Joe: Well, you don't just run away from school for nothing.
Ann: It was only meant to be for an hour or two. They gave me something last night to make me sleep.
Joe: Oh, I see.
Ann: Now, I'd better get a taxi and go back.
Joe: Well look, before you do, why don't you take a little time for yourself?
Ann: Maybe another hour.
Joe: Live dangerously. Take the whole day.
Ann: I could do some of the things I've always wanted to.
Joe: Like what?
Ann: Oh, you can't imagine. I-I'd do just whatever I liked all day long.
Joe: You mean things like having your hair cut, eating gelati...
Ann: Yes, and I'd sit at a sidewalk cafe and look in shop windows. Walk in the rain, have fun and maybe some excitement. Doesn't seem much to you, does it?
Joe proposes to spend the day with her and experience everything she has always wanted to:


Joe: Tell you what. Why don't we do all those things, together?
Ann: But don't you have to work?
Joe: Work? No. Today's gonna be a holiday.
Ann: But you want to do a lot of silly things?
Joe: (He takes her hand) ...First wish? One sidewalk cafe, comin' right up. I know just the place. Rocca's.
At the cafe, Ann orders costly champagne for lunch, and then describes, in disguised terms, her father's fortieth anniversary of the day he got his job:


Ann: Well, mostly you might call it public relations.
Joe: Oh, well, that's hard work.
Ann: Yes. I wouldn't care for it.
Joe: Does he?
Ann: I heard him complain about it.
Joe: Why doesn't he quit?
Ann: Oh, people in that line of work almost never do quit, unless it's actually unhealthy for them to continue.
To conceal his own identity to her, Joe describes his own line of work:


Ann: What is your work?
Joe: Oh, I'm, ah, in the selling game.
Ann: Really? How interesting. What do you sell?
Joe: Fertilizer. Chemicals. You know, chemicals. Stuff like that.
When Irving arrives, he repeatedly tries to mention that Ann is a "ringer" for the Princess, but Joe blocks him by kicking him under the table, dumping a drink in his lap, and finally by knocking his chair over. When Joe gets Irving away for a few moments, he tells his photographer friend about Anya Smith's ("Smitty's") real identity and the promise of five grand (including a percentage of the take if there are pictures): "She doesn't know who I am or what I do. Look Irving, this is my story. I dug it up. I've got to protect it...Your tin无效s are gonna make this little epic twice as valuable...You're in for twenty-five percent of the take." Then, he asks his friend to loan him thirty thousand lira ("that's fifty bucks") so that he can entertain the Princess for the rest of the day.

Ann smokes her "very first" cigarette, while Irving surreptitiously takes pictures of her with his hidden-camera cigarette lighter. Meanwhile, "plain-clothes" men are retained to search the city for the missing princess, as Joe, Ann, and Irving begin their carefree tour of the city on a "fun schedule." She rides on the back of Joe's motorcycle to see the famous sights, including the ruins of the Coliseum. After Ann recklessly drives them through the streets, they are arrested by the polizia but released after Joe's clever alibi: "Going to church to get married on a scooter." Ann brags about her own deceitfulness:


Ann: I'm a good liar too, aren't I, Mr. Bradley?
Joe: The best I ever met.
In a memorable scene, Joe shows the Princess a sculpture which he names 'The Mouth of Truth.' He tests the legend with her:


Joe: The Mouth of Truth. Legend is that if you're given to lying, you put your hand in there, it'll be bitten off.
Ann: Oh, what a hard idea.
Joe: Let's see you do it.
Ann: (she nervously moves her hand toward the mouth, but then pulls back) Let's see you do it!
Joe scares the Princess into believing he has lost his hand inside the sculpture's mouth. Later during her guided tour, they visit a wall covered with in脚本ions:


Joe: Each one represents a wish fulfilled. It all started during the war. There was an air raid, right out here. A man with his four children was caught in the street. They ran over against the wall, right there, for shelter and prayed for safety. Bombs fell very close, but no one was hurt. Later on, the man came back and put up the first of these tablets. Since then, it's become a sort of a shirine. People come and whenever their wishes are granted, they put up another one of these little plaques.
Ann: Lovely story.
Joe: Read some of the in脚本ions. (Ann moves closer toward the wall) Make a wish? (Ann nods). Tell the doctor?
Ann: (declining) Anyway, the chances of it being granted are very slight.
Ann suggests going dancing that evening on a barge down by Sant' Angelo on the Tiber River, where she was invited to meet the salon barber:


Ann: At midnight, I'll turn into a pumpkin and drive away in my glass slipper.
Joe: And that will be the end of the fairy tale.