Variety: This William Wyler romantic comedy-drama [from a story by Dalton Trumbo] is the Graustarkian fable in modern dress, plus the Cinderella theme in reverse. He times the chuckles with a never-flagging pace, puts heart into the laughs, endows the footage with some boff bits of business and points up some tender, poignant scenes in using the smart script and the cast to the utmost advantage.

Empire: Wyler was as enchanted with Hepburn as he was with his glorious locations and, while he indulged his usual passion for retakes, he allowed more improvisation than usual and was rewarded with a film of such freewheeling spontaneity that it became one of Hollywood's biggest international hits of the decade. It also landed 10 Oscar nominations and became such a firm favourite of John F. Kennedy that he watched it as a pressure release at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Soviets capitulated the next day.

Witty, warm and beautifully filmed by Franz Planer and Henri Alekan, it remains an unabashed romantic delight, with Hepburn particularly luminescent.

The Dissolve: Roman Holiday made such an indelible impression on the general public that when they imagine an elegant, graceful princess, it’s likely the image of Hepburn’s Princess Ann springs to mind as readily as real-life princesses like Princess Diana or Princess Grace of Monaco. This was the film that would introduce the Hepburn the world never stop falling in love with: beautiful, winsome, blessed with remarkable gifts she’s all too eager to shrug off, and imbued with a small streak of mischief that keeps her from being too perfect. She’s the woman every woman wants to be and every man wants to marry, the people’s princess, a beauty with both a spark of the divine and a common touch.

The irresistible fantasy of Roman Holiday is that as much as we’d like to have at least a fraction of Ann’s grace and beauty, she would happily give up the gilded cage of royalty for a chance to live in our loud, crass, vulgar little world. It’s a different kind of princess story, one where the princess would rather wear pajamas and drink Coca-Cola and mingle with the common people than endure another dreadful ball where she’s expected to be gracious and lovely to a series of ancient visiting dignitaries, many of whom seem to have died several years before the film opens but don’t know it yet.

Trailer

Roman Holiday writer has credit restored

In Rome, Using ‘Roman Holiday’ as a Guide