For the first time on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, Paramount Home Entertainment released William Wyler’s romantic comedy, Roman Holiday, which stars Gregory Peck and in her big screen debut, the beautiful Audrey Hepburn in a role that garnered her a Best Actress Oscar and launched her career with a string of memorable films that include My Fair Lady and Funny Face among many others. Up until watching the film on 4K Blu-ray Disc, I am ashamed to state that I had never seen this film before in part because even as an undergraduate in Film School, professors can only screen so many films in one class and aside from the basic Language of Film 1 & 2 studies classes, I was more interested in horror and suspense films so even in those courses devoted to genre films and Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, you will never cover every single noteworthy film both in class and on your own unless you make an effort. I really enjoyed this film. Gregory Peck has charisma and chemistry with Audrey Hepburn. Ms. Hepburn just lights up the screen with her pretty face and delightful smile. Eddie Albert is in the film in a great supporting role and who knew how handsome he was when he was a young man? I just think of Green Acres when I recall hm even though he worked steadily throughout his career. The Academy Award winning screenplay by Dalton Trumbo is impeccable and whether or nothing the other actors were Americans pretending to be Italians, there is great character in nearly every person who appears in this film. Hepburn plays the Princess of an undisclosed country, who escapes her duties to explore Rome for herself with Peck being an American Journalist, who recognizes her, but tries to hide that as both fall in love. The culmination of what occurs is actually quite believable and that is as far as I will go since I do not want to give away spoilers in case anyone out there is like I was and discovered this gem of a picture for the first time.
On 4K Ultra HD, Roman Holiday is presented with a 2160p resolution using HDR (10). There is a fine grain that is noticeable sometimes, but all things considered, I was pleased with the picture quality. Paramount also includes a 1080p full HD Blu-ray Disc and both versions of the film include English Mono Dolby True HD Sound that is just fine and refreshing too because not every film can benefit from a multichannel remix so this stays true to the source material while still remaining crisp sounding. Both discs also include French Language Mono Dolby Digital Sound as well as English Subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired as well as French Language Subtitles encoded as options. All of the extra value material is on both the Blu-ray Disc and iTunes Digital Copy included with a limited time redeemable code on an insert within the plastic case. The iTunes version is encode in Dolby Vision too. These materials includes documentary and featurettes covering Audrey Hepburn’s Paramount years, a filmmaker focus hosted by Film Critic Leonard Maltin, a look at Dalton Trumbo, the restoration of the film, Paramount in the 1950s and the theatrical teaser and trailer as well as the theatrical re-release trailer too. All of these materials and more are waiting to be discovered and explored on this wonderful 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc and Blu-ray Disc plus Digital Copy release of Roman Holiday that is available now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.
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