| | |  | Music | Home » » Roman Holiday (Special Collector's Edition) | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | A YOUNG PRINCESS, TIRED OF THE CONSTRAINTS HER POSITION BRINGS, RUNS AWAY. SHE DOESN'T KNOW THE MAN WHO BEFRIENDS HER IS AREPORTER OUT FOR A STORY. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt Williams | | Director:
| William Wyler | | Format:
| Full Screen, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Subtitled, NTSC | | Language:
| English, French | | Subtitle:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Paramount | | Run Time:
| 118 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| November 26, 2002 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 197 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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S T O R Y.....G L I T T E R S,......O N E....O F....M O V I E D O M ' S....B E S T...!Sep 01, 2010
ROMAN HOLIDAY is a spectacularly romantic, wonderfully well-acted movie. It is styled a "comedy", but could also be a styled a tragedy.
It is the story of Princess Ann, (AUDREY HEPBURN), from an un-named European country, (always called "her country" in the movie), who finds her duties boring and irksome in the extreme. (The beginning scenes, wherein the Princess loses her shoe, and is forced to dance with perhaps the most boring selection of fictional diplomats ever assembled for any movie -- are priceless!) Finally, in the early evening hours, she finds a way to sneak out of her country's embassy, (where she is sting during a good will visit to Rome), and see the "real" world.....
A naive, (but intelligent) Princess, finding her way into the "real" world for the first time, could have wound up in a lot of trouble. She had no money with her, (royalty never carries money -- leaving that to underlings to do), and to top things off, she had been given a sleeping potion, the delayed action of which starts to work just as she hops off the truck that took her out of the embassy, and finds a seat near a Roman fountain. Kidnapping, white slavery, ransom holding....any number of terrible things might have come to the runaway princes -- but, (luckily!), she is found by American newsman-in-Rome, Joe Bradley, (GREGORY PECK), who, after some deliberation, takes her to his small apartment to shelter for the night. Joe is preplexed by this beautiful girl's seeming contradictions, (she is well-dressed, well-educated -- yet he found her on the streets alone). Later, going to his boss, he discovers, (from a newspaper story of the Princess's sudden "illness" -- and the photo that accompanies it), that the girl he has found is actualy the "ill" princess, (the "illness" obviously being a cover story, to explain her disappearance from a group interview she was supposed to give the press earlier in the day.) Smelling an exclusive -- and a way to get out of Rome, and back to where he wants to be, (New York City), Joe calls up his photographer-friend, Irving Radovitch, (EDDIE ALBERT), and the two of them make plans for "the story of the year" -- if not the decade, about the REAL Princess Ann, disclosing her innermost secrets and desires.....
The princess meets Joe's rather insensed landlady, a kindly barber, some street vendors, dances at a local festival -- and has a fateful meeting with some "men in black" from her country. As these events go on, she and Joe find they are beginning to care very much for each other.........
Cary Grant was orignally supposed to play the part of Joe Bradley, and many people seem to think he would have been perfect for it. I must strongly disagree. Mr. Grant -- whatever type of person he was in real life -- had a screen persona of the very slightest rakish kind. Gregory Peck, however, had a screen persona of, (usually), total and complete integrity -- and I feel that this is what was needed in the role of Joe Bradley, a newspaperman longing to go back home, desperately needing the funds to do so, but who finds that he simply cannot do so, for to earn this money, he would have to betray the woman he has come to love, and love very much.... For me, Gregory Peck -- later the sterling "Atticus Finch" of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', and the stalwart hero of so many other films -- fit the role of 'Joe Bradley', to a tee. A role-model for all men to look up to, (and all women to swoon over! -- sigh!)
It is said that this movie was inspired by the tragic Princess Margaret-Peter Townsend affair. Also, it is said that this movie
was John F. Kennedy's favourite film, and it is easy to see why. His first true love was the beautiful actress, GENE TIERNEY. As both were rich, beautiful, and Catholic, one would think it would be a match of which both families would approve. Unhappily, Ms. Tierney's family, (very conservative French Catholics), did not think that Mr. Kennedy, (Irish-Catholic), was good enough for her (!), and so they had to part. In a much later interview, (near the end of her life), on the Phil Donahue show, Ms. Hepburn was asked which of her movies was her favourite. "Roman Holiday", she said without hesitation, and the audience seemed to agree with her. This exchange was edited out of the later showings of this program -- and I cannot think why. "Roman Holiday" WAS Audrey Hepburn at her luminous, and most beautiful best. One could say she was BORN to play this role, as she was, in actuality, the daughter of a Belgian baroness. Many, many people agree that this is Audrey Hepburn's best movie. I am one of them!
 Good condition.Aug 23, 2010
The DVD was received in plenty of time, but upon opening the tab which holds the DVD in place was broken. But upon playing it on my DVD player, there was not anything wrong with it.
Probably would buy from them again.
Second Best RomCom ever.Aug 04, 2010
I would like a silk nightgown with rosebuds on it.....Sorry you'll have to rough it tonight... As Gregory Peck throws her his pajamas. I grin everytime I watch it. In the end Peck and Eddie Albert do the right thing even though it costs them fame and a little fortune. It's hard to find nice people like that these days. What is the best RomCom ever? It's "While You Were Sleeping" with Sandra Bullock. I think she really won the academy award for that movie and they just gave it to her 15 years too late.
Makes me sigh a pleasant sighJun 30, 2010
This movie is absolutely satisfactory. Comedy, romance. Ahh. Audrey Hepburn performs at her best (according to me), and Gregory Peck just completes the entire package. Filmed entirely in Rome. This movie is an instant classic. My favorite.
5 Stars Are Not Enough -- Absolute Delight from Start to FinishJun 08, 2010
Just finished watching "Roman Holiday" AGAIN for the upteenth time! Even after what seems like 50 times, this flick NEVER gets tiring. What holds up this film so well are the two SPARKLING performances from the leads -- Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. Eddie Albert (yes, this is "PRE-Green Acres") also deserves a lot of credit for defining the "Side Kick Role" so well, playing along with Hepburn/Peck without skipping a beat and providing plenty of chuckles along the way. The chemistry among these three is simply UNFORGETTABLE! You can tell they really enjoyed each other's company whether the cameras were rolling or not.
First few times I saw this film I couldn't understand why Audrey Hepburn won a "Best Actress Oscar" for her very first film starting out of the gates, beating out veteran Hollywood actresses such as Deborah Kerr (who sadly never won) and Susan Hayward. But the more times you view this film, the more you enjoy Hepburn's performance. She makes it look EASY, but there's so much going on inside to make the portrayal of a princess coming of age as effortless and beguiling as possible. After the first 20 minutes, she completely wins the viewer over and you truly BELIEVE she IS a princess! Before you know it, you are pulling for her every step of the way.
Gregory Peck plays the somewhat second-fiddle role superbly. Perhaps another actor would have overplayed the role of American newspaperman to gain equilibrium with Hepburn's performance, but Peck never stoops to that. He knows he has to underplay his part in order to showcase Hepburn's role. His is another seemingly effortless performance but Peck's character, just like Hepburn's, evolves as the film progresses. By the memorable finale in the Royal Reception scene, you sense how deeply these two characters care for each other, but have accepted their fated roles. The lines must not be crossed. They've enjoyed the precious times together, memories that will never be erased, and perhaps enough to carry them through the rest of their lives.
Even though this is billed as a "Romantic Comedy" it's difficult not to get misty eyed during the final minutes of the film. Every person that I've watched the film with has admitted the same thing: they were hoping the two of them would elope at the very end, but that wouldn't have made a realistic or satisfying conclusion for a film that is beautiful from beginning to end. Perhaps one of the very BEST films Hollywood has churned out in the last 100 years, this film defines what a CLASSIC is in the truest sense of the word. How I miss great performances, writing, and directing such as "Roman Holiday" in our present age. It's too bad times have changed, but at least we have these cherished films to transport us back to the Golden Age of Hollywood.
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