Plot: What’s it about?
“So happy…”
Perhaps one of the most utterly satisfying things about movies, romantic comedies in particular, is the fact that you know two people are destined for each other, yet they (as characters) don’t. Such is the case with one of the best romance movies ever made – Roman Holiday. William Wyler, who helmed such films as Funny Girl, Ben-Hur and The Best Years of Our Lives just to name a few, put together a film for the ages. Not only did this introduce the world to Audrey Hepburn, but it won her an Academy Award for the part of the princess as well. Perhaps one of the only complaints about the movie was the casting of Gregory Peck as her love interest, Joe Bradley. Evidently, everyone thought the part was custom-made for Cary Grant; but I feel that Peck’s performance was excellent, and he has a more laid back attitude than the sometimes, seemingly “up tight” Grant (not to take anything away from Cary Grant, mind you). Perhaps the only thing that this movie has going against it, assuming you’ve never seen it before, is the fact that the plot has been done so many times afterwords (the film was made in 1953), Meg Ryan herself has made a career out of this sort of film! Still, Roman Holiday was a real treat to watch and Paramount has done it right.
We meet Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn, also known as Anya Smith to Joe and Irving in the film) as she is going through the motions of being a Princess. She’s not to terribly happy about it and her “goodwill tour” throughout Europe is beginning to take it’s toll on her. As she is being read the next day’s agenda, make that “schedule”, she has a breakdown. The doctor gives her a shot, something to make her sleep, and in a fit she flees her room and escapes to the streets of Rome for a little fun. However, the shot has it’s effect and when a Correspondent of the American News Service, Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) finds her asleep on a park bench, he takes her back to his place. Naturally, he thinks she’s drunk and doesn’t recognize who she is, even though he’s supposed to interview her the very next day! And as the next day arrives, Anya is trying to figure out what happened and Joe, fresh off a “chewing out” from his boss, needs to get an exclusive story with her as he needs the money.
Now this is where the fun part comes in, Joe lies to her and says that he’s a salesman that deals in fertilizers and chemicals, conversely Anya says that she is a student. Joe, of course, knows who she really is, but she has no idea that he’s a reporter only out to get an exclusive story on her that will merit him $5,000. Add to this Joe’s friend and partner in crime, Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert), a quirky photographer who seems to have his way with the Italian women. After a day of fun, we all know what must happen, but we also want the best for our characters. What ever will happen?
Roman Holiday, long known as one of the best romance movies of all time, is truly a classic to watch. If you can believe it, I’ve never seen the movie until I had to review the DVD. Granted it’s 50th anniversary is next year, but I feel the movie holds up very well. It was voted one of the most romantic films of all time by the American Film Institute (#4) and won three Academy Awards, including one for Hepburn (it also won for costume design and writing). Truly, this film is a classic and deserves to be seen – several times. I borrow a comment from a review of this that I read…”What a treat”! Highly recommended.
Video: How does it look?
Just as we’ve seen with the recent DVD of Sunset Boulevard, Paramount has done just as well with their transfer on Roman Holiday. The movie, shot in 1953, was on the tail end of movies being in “full-frame” as widescreen films were on the rise, however this was still shot in the 1.33:1 or “Academy Standard” at the time and it looks incredible. Paramount has enlisted the help of Lowry Digital for their effort here and it shows. There is hardly any evidence of artifacting and edge enhancement is almost non-existent. The movie still has a somewhat dated look and feel to it, though it’s mininal at best. Each frame of the original negative was painstakenly restored (there’s even a featurette on the restoration process, that was sadly not part of the Sunset disc) and it shows. A top-notch transfer for a top-notch movie. Impressive!
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is what we have come to expect from a movie of this age. Though they can do wonder with how a film looks, there’s ususally not a lot they can do with how it sounds, at least not one made back in the 50’s. Though there’s no real distortion to the audio at all, the mono soundtrack is fairly strong and consistent. Surround effects aren’t present as there is only one audio channel present. I have no real complaints here as every word was crisp and clean, though it certainly can’t compare to the films of today, in sound anyway.
Supplements: What are the extras?
While not sporting as many supplements as it’s counterpart, Sunset Boulevard, Roman Holiday does feature it’s fair share of interesting extras. First up is a featurette on how the film was restored and I found this perhaps the most interesting supplement as the film looks great. The sheer undertaking of just one film to restore looks like a very ambitious process, so I’d have to say that I respect these people for their work! Next up is a documentary on “Remembering Roman Holiday” in which we’re treated to some rather priceless footage. We see Hepburn’s Oscar acceptance speech as well as some footage of a testomony of Dalton Trumbo (the writer) while in court. Interestingly enough, Frank Capra was supposed to originally direct the film, but declined when he found out who the writer was. This brings us to “Edith Head: The Paramount Years” which is now the third time that Paramount has included the same featurette on multiple discs. I reviewed this on To Catch a Thief and highly disagree with what they’re doing here, though I have to admit that it is a nice addition to the disc, supposing that you only bought one of the three discs, then you’d have a nice featurette on costume design, for which the film won an Academy Award. Also included are some photo galleries and the original theatrical trailer, the re-release trailer and a teaser trailer. All in all, I found Roman Holiday to be one of the more enjoyable movies I’ve seen since Annie Hall (another one worth checking out, by the way) and can’t recommend this disc enough.
