Directed by William Wyler • 1953 • United States
Starring Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert
Audrey Hepburn shot to stardom with her Academy Award–winning performance in this romantic-comedy classic. While on an official visit to Rome, an adventure-seeking princess (Hepburn) slips away from her chaperones to explore the city with a brash newspaperman (Gregory Peck), who believes he’s got the scoop of a lifetime—until love gets in the way. Hepburn’s enchanting presence and the picture-perfect location shooting—from the Spanish Steps to the Colosseum—make for a captivating modern fairy tale that has lost none of its luster. The film’s best story Oscar was originally awarded to Ian McLellan Hunter, who served as a front for the then-blacklisted Dalton Trumbo; only decades later was Trumbo’s credit reinstated and his win acknowledged by the Academy.
Up Next in Summer Romances
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Splendor in the Grass
Directed by Elia Kazan • 1961 • United States
Starring Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat HingleElia Kazan’s delirious drama of sexual repression stars Natalie Wood (in one of her finest performances) and Warren Beatty (smoldering in his film debut) as two teenage lovers in 1928 Kansas whose inte...
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Gidget
Directed by Paul Wendkos • 1959 • United States
Starring Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff RobertsonThe wholesome, fun-in-the-sun ’50s classic that launched a wave of sequels and an entire subgenre of beach-party movies stars winsome Sandra Dee as the spirited titular teenager, who’s searching fo...
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The Sandpiper
Directed by Vincente Minnelli • 1965 • United States
Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Eva Marie SaintUltimate celebrity power couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton bring their supernova star power to this spectacularly sudsy romance coscripted by formerly blacklisted screenwriter...
