Roman Holiday

Roman Holiday (1953) is William Wyler's Hollywood romantic comedy that you can watch online on iFILM. Princess Ann arrives in Rome on an official tour — receptions, factory visits, press, all of it scheduled to the minute. She slips out. A sedative her doctor gave her earlier kicks in on a park bench, and an American reporter named Joe Bradley, played by Gregory Peck, finds her there.

Joe has no idea who she is. He takes her home, lets her sleep on his couch, and the next morning his editor assigns him an exclusive with the missing princess — at which point Joe realizes exactly who spent the night on his sofa. One day together follows: the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, a rented Vespa, gelato. Audrey Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress here, her first — and it's easy to see why. She makes Ann funny and heartbreaking in the same breath.

The screenplay was the work of Dalton Trumbo, though the credit was stripped from him during the McCarthy-era Hollywood blacklist and only restored decades later. Watch Roman Holiday (1953) online on iFILM.