Remembering 'Roman Holiday' (2002 Video) User Reviews

A "ROMAN HOLIDAY" for some . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 16 February 2014]

. . . Hell on Earth for others, including Dalton Trumbo, the American hero who came up with the story for ROMAN HOLIDAY in the first place. That's the verdict of the film critics and other film industry personalities contributing to this 26-minute short, REMEMBERING ROMAN HOLIDAY. This piece includes archival footage of Mr. Trumbo telling "Hitler's Senator" (a.k.a., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-WI) that his Un-American Congressional henchmen that they are guilty of running a kangaroo court outside the rule of law, not to mention common sense and decency. Just as Hitler has his apologists today, so does McCarthy. In many states, high school history books are still prevented from pointing out that a substantial portion of the U.S. Congress was pro-Hitler in the 1930s, and to avert the possibility of being hung after WWII as war criminals (i.e., "enablers, accessories, traitors, and Quislings"), they hid behind a fiendish smokescreen of persecuting the true blue Americans, such as Mr. Trumbo. IT"S A WONDERFUL LIFE director Frank Capra bailed on the ROMAN HOLIDAY project as soon as he learned it was Mr. Trumbo's brain child, according to this documentary, because he was fearful Dalton's version of IT'S A HORRIBLE LIFE could contaminate his own days of wine and roses. ROMAN HOLIDAY itself features an incredibly sad and poignant final scene, as Gregory Peck's "good Joe" character is left forlorn by himself in the cavernous hall of history, with tons of fascist guards (remember the airport arrival, the convoy, and the river dance rumble scenes) between himself and Ann. This is how Mr. Trumbo lived out his final years, and, like Nathan Hale, the Four Chaplains, and George Patton, died--controversial American heroes whom history has vindicated long after their deaths.

Some Great Stories Told

[Michael_Elliott · 21 March 2012]

Remembering 'Roman Holiday' (2002)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Very entertaining look at the making of ROMAN HOLIDAY features interviews with Catherine Wyler (the director's daughter), A.C. Lyles (Paramount publicity man) and actor Eddie Albert. At just over twenty-minutes we're get quite a bit of information on the making of the film including how writer Dalton Trumbo was blacklisted at the time and wrote this just so his family could have some money while he was in jail. We also learn that Frank Capra was originally going to direct the picture but backed out after learning Trumbo had written the screenplay. From here we talk about William Wyler getting ahold of the picture and getting both Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn cast. We also hear about how Cary Grant originally turned the role down and we get a funny bit from an archival interview with Peck who mentions that it was common knowledge that if a comedy script fell to him it was probably because Grant had already turned it down. We also learn about the costumes of Edith Head, filming on location and why they wanted the movie to be in B&W. With such a short running time they're able to get quite a few stories packed in here and fans of the film will certainly enjoy hearing them. There's even the funny story dealing with the prank Peck played on Hepburn during the famous "Mouth of Truth" sequence. We also get some outtakes of a dress rehearsal for Hepburn as well as her Oscar speech.