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Roman Holiday (1953) (vhs):

Amazon.com Essentials: Maybe it doesn't quite live up to its sterling reputation, and maybe the leading man and director were slightly miscast. But who cares? Roman Holiday is the film that brought Audrey Hepburn to prominence, and the world movie audience went weak at the knees. The endlessly charming Hepburn had her first starring role in this sweet romance, playing a European princess on an official tour through Rome. Frustrated by her lack of connection to the real world, she slips away from her protective handlers and goes on a spree, aided by a tough-guy news reporter (Gregory Peck). Director William Wyler, more at home with such heavy-going, Oscar-winning classics as The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben- Hur, doesn't always keep the champagne bubbles afloat, and the Peck role would have fit Cary Grant like a silk glove. But the film is great fun, the location shooting is irresistible, and Hepburn embodies an image of chic style that would rule for the rest of the fifties. No coincidence: she won an Oscar, and so did veteran costume designer Edith Head. --Robert Horton

Audrey Hepburn Collection (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Sabrina, Roman Holiday) (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: What a trio of movies in this boxed set: three of Audrey Hepburn's best performances in three of her best films. In Breakfast at Tiffany's, she is perfectly cast as Holly Golightly, Truman Capote's prevaricating heroine who has forgotten her past to create a more interesting present--and Blake Edwards's film version is both beguiling and sad. In Sabrina she is ideal as the chauffeur's daughter who comes back from Paris looking a lot better than when she left--and attracting the attention of a pair of wealthy brothers: playboy William Holden and stuffy Humphrey Bogart. And in Roman Holiday, her debut and for which she received an Oscar, she is delightful as the escaped princess who slips away from her handlers and spends a day with a reporter (Gregory Peck), falling in love and seeing how the normal folks live. --Marshall Fine