Roman Holiday at 70: Why it’s the most influential romcom of all time

As William Wyler’s 1953 film starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck is being re-released early next year to mark its 70th anniversary, Geoffrey Macnab looks at what makes it so special, and says, it has a grit and emotional depth most other romcoms lack

Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in ‘Roman Holiday’ in 1953 (The Kobal Collection)

Seventy years ago, during the sizzling hot summer of 1952, newcomer Audrey Hepburn and big-name Hollywood star Gregory Peck were to be seen gallivanting around Rome’s best-known locations, sometimes on foot and sometimes on their Vespa. They made an impossibly glamorous couple as they took in the Spanish Steps and The Colosseum. The city was in the grip of a heatwave but the searing temperatures didn’t faze the actors – or the crowds who gathered around in vast numbers to gawp at them.

Hepburn and Peck were starring in William Wyler’s classic 1953 film Roman Holiday – it’s being re-released early next year to mark its 70th anniversary. It has a fair claim as the most influential romcom of all time. Ingeniously plotted, it was witty and stylish but still tugged at audiences’ heartstrings. It’s hard to imagine all those frothy Julia Roberts movies in the 1980s and 1990s, from Pretty Woman to Notting Hill, being made without its inspiration. They too hinged on chance encounters between men and women from radically different backgrounds.

Roman Holiday is the story of the pampered but unhappy young princess Ann (Hepburn) on a state visit to Rome who goes AWOL for a day with handsome American reporter Joe (Peck). He’s after a scoop. She wants adventure away from the stifling world of royal protocol. They get up to high jinks in the Eternal City together, whizzing around town on a moped, hanging out in cafes, dancing and sightseeing. She smokes her first cigarette, has a haircut, eats ice cream, and, in the film’s most famous action sequence, hits someone on the head with a guitar.