Journalistic Integrity in Roman Holiday

Roman Holiday, for those who have yet to see this classic film by director William Wyler, is about young bored Princess Anne (Audrey Hepburn). She escapes her glad-handing responsibilities while in Rome and stumbles, quite literally, in the hands of reporter Joe Bradley(Gregory Peck). Bradley recognizes the princess, but leads Anne to believe otherwise. He later brings in photographer Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert) to try to get an in depth story of the princess, but things don't go to plan when feelings start to get involved.

The black and white 1953 film was well received earning 3 Oscars, one of which earned Hepburn her Oscar win for actress in a leading role. This was her big breakout major role in a film and was a clear winner that year for the Oscar, so much so that Peck convinced producers to give her top billing. The other two wins was for writer Dalton Trumbo (originally credited to friend Ian McLellan Hunter) and for famed costume designer Edith Head (if you haven't heard of her you should definitely look her up).

The film by today's standards is pretty old hat in that it uses the convention of sacrificing a story to protect the source or subject of the story, but its charm lies in the comedy that ensued between Peck and Albert stumbling over each other. This was usually done so Anne wouldn't get wise. There was a lot of playfulness between the three, probably signified in the brilliant one take wonder in the scene with the mouth of a stone carving. 

It was beautifully filmed on location in Rome, which earned it a nomination for cinematography for a black and white film (but lost out to From Here To Eternity, which swept the Oscars that year, as was the case with many of the films other nominations).  The cinematographers (Franz Planer fell ill during filming, which led to Henri Alekan taking over) brilliantly captured the aura and romance of the city, with its historic buildings and bustling streets, most notably presented in the iconic shots of Hepburn and Peck riding through the city on a Vespa.  In fact, it was feared that the picturesque backdrop of Rome would upstage the characters, which is why it was not shot in color (though I would gamble, had it been, it would have narrowly won against Shane).  

The project was originally slated to be directed by Frank Capra and later George Stevens, but both passed on the film. When Wyler was presented the film, he had been stuck in a dramatic rut spanning back to his 1929 comedy The Love Trap. He was only too happy to take up the film. This was also true for Peck who had not yet done comedy on film. To me, the role he played had a lot of similarites to a character Cary Grant would play, but Peck filled the comedy shoes well. (Frank Capra wanted to cast Grant and Elizabeth Taylor when he first optioned the film)

As before, I mentioned Dalton Trumbo credited his writing to his friend Ian McLellan Hunter, which was due to his blacklisting as one of the Hollywood Ten. It was only later in 1993 that he won the award, posthumously presented to his wife Cleo. It's speculated that Trumbo's penning of the screenplay was one of the major reasons that Capra backed out of the project. Wyler wasn't afraid to work with Trumbo's material, however he did fear shooting in Europe and being prosecuted by the infamous House of Un-American Activities Committee. 

I saw the film for the first time before writing about it here, and I was well familiar with the storyline. The film was really wonderful and gave me that nice warm fuzzy feeling that comes from watching a classic Hollywood picture. For the countless other films to come later, a lot of credit is due to Roman Holiday in that it was arguably the first to set up this journalistic convention. So, if you have not seen the film, I highly recommend this classic and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

- Kevin Carr - AKA Perforated Carr