Roman Holiday

Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy film which tells the story of Princess Ann, a young royal who runs away during a state visit to Rome and befriends Joe Bradley, a cynical expatriate American reporter who first just wants an exclusive story about a princess gone AWOL but finds himself falling in love with her. The film is also known for its Vespa footage, much praised by classic scooter enthusiasts the world over.

Miscellaneous

One of the most famous scenes in the movie is when Gregory Peck puts his hand into the "Mouth of Truth", a stone face in Rome that legend says will bite it off if you tell a lie. In the film, when he pulls his hand out it is missing, causing Anya/Hepburn to scream. He then pops his hand out of his sleeve and laughs. Audrey Hepburn's shriek wasn't acting—Peck had decided to pull the gag he had once seen Red Skelton do, and didn't warn Hepburn in advance.

Related Topics:
Mouth of Truth - Red Skelton

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A now-legendary screen test resulted in Hepburn being cast as Ann. After performing a scene from the film, the director called "cut" but the cameraman actually left the camera rolling as the young actress chatted with the director. The candid footage of Hepburn that resulted won her the role.

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In the 1970s, both Peck and Hepburn were approached with the idea of a sequel to Roman Holiday which would have seen Anya and Joe reunite; the idea never came to fruition. The original film was remade for television in the early 1980s.

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The movie was filmed in Rome, on location and at Cinecittà Studios.

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