Ah, Audrey Hepburn.  Is there a screen she doesn't light up with her smile or her big, brown doe eyes or her impetuous nature and girlish enthusiasm?  Hepburn was an unknown when she was cast as Princess Anne in 1953's Roman Holiday, and by the end, she walked away with the Best Actress Oscar.  Hepburn stars alongside the well-known star of Gregory Peck.  Her Princess Anne escapes from her life for 24 hours with the help of a nice stranger in the form of Joe Bradley, a newspaper man trying to get back to the big-time of NYC.  Of course, Anne doesn't know that Joe is hoping to cash in on her story by exposing the inner hopes and dreams of an heir-apparent to the throne of an unnamed European nation that isn't France, Italy or England.  Eddie Albert plays Joe's equally-scheming photographer buddy that tags along on Anne's big day out.

I though Hepburn was a bit over-the-top in the beginning, but she sure does charm everyone by the end, including the American Movie-going Public and the Academy.  If Hepburn were not so damn charming, I think she would have come across a bit green in Roman Holiday.  But she does hold her own against Peck.  My only real complaint about Roman Holiday is that the sudden Anne-Joe romance seemed disingenuous.  I think it is because Peck just seems so much older than his character is perhaps supposed to be.  If a slightly younger actor had been cast, perhaps I would have bought the love story.  Luckily, the romance is a brief coda to the real meat of the story, so it doesn't detract from the film.

Rome is the only competition that stands up to Hepburn.  The city is beautifully filmed, and all the big spots are used as locations.  It could easily have turned intoa "travelogue", but as the story follows Anne exploring the city, we as theaudience gets to visit Rome vicariously through Anne's meanderings.