Audrey Hepburn is always a good idea
Once upon a time there was a young woman who traveled the world, meeting the most important and influential people. Despite her…
Once upon a time there was a young woman who traveled the world, meeting the most important and influential people. Despite her globe-trotting, she was sheltered. Here she was, a woman with people who depended on her, and yet she hadn’t really lived. How could she serve those citizens back home if she essentially flitted from meeting to meeting, dinner to dinner, event after event after event? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. So one night, after feigning illness, the princess — for that’s who she was — escaped from her room; setting out for an adventure she would never forget on the streets of Rome.
The woman in question is Princess Ann. The story is the prologue for William Wyler’s Roman Holiday.
However, Ann is not our focus.
That honor falls to the woman who brought her to vivid life: Audrey Hepburn.
So what does a sheltered member of a royal family have to do with perhaps the most iconic actress of all time?
Everything.
Just like Sabrina Fairchild, Holly Golightly and Regina Lampert. Hepburn breathed a vivacity as well as an innocence into all her characters. They are also stubborn, funny, clever; each with her own idiosyncrasies which individualizes her. Hepburn may have been known for playing a type, but she couldn’t be accused of playing the same role repeatedly.
Turner Classic Movies has been spending the month of June celebrating Hepburn as its Star of the Month, airing select films Monday nights starting at 8 p.m. EDT. This has given me the opportunity to revisit some of Hepburn’s films, reminding me how she can be at turns delightful and commanding, but never less than compelling.
Roman Holiday is the film that made her a star. Paired with a grounded yet game Gregory Peck — who looks like he’s having a ball throughout — Hepburn delivers an astounding performance. Ann never feels like a work in progress. She’s fully formed from the very first scene. Hepburn navigates Ann with precision as the princess’ journey from girl to woman unfolds onscreen. By the end we are left with little doubt that Ann will not only rule successfully, but live a life with only the bare minimum of compromise.
Holiday led to other romantic comedy roles in the likes of Sabrina and Love In the Afternoon. Sure you could lump Charade and How to Steal a Million under the romcom umbrella, but there’s more going on with both films that make said categorization lazy. The former is a light-hearted mystery with real moments of suspense amidst the delightful banter between Hepburn and Cary Grant; while the latter is a heist caper with a whiff of romance that has a slapstick sensibility at its heart that should make Mel Brooks proud.
Hepburn shows off her mischievous side in the four aforementioned films, lovingly (even accidentally) tweaking her leading men accordingly. Watching her go toe-to-toe with Humphrey Bogart and William Holden in Sabrina, Gary Cooper (to lesser effect) and Maurice Chevalier (as her father) in Love In the Afternoon, Grant in Charade and Peter O’Toole in How to Steal a Million is a delight. What’s even better is when she’s found a perfect foil as with Bogart, Grant and O’Toole.
Music may never have been Hepburn’s forte, but that didn’t stop her from starring in two musicals (Funny Face, My Fair Lady) and performing the quietly melancholic “Moon River” in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Hepburn sang in Funny Face, but Marni Nixon sang Eliza Doolittle’s songs in My Fair Lady. (Hold up. Hepburn played Eliza Doolittle in Lady opposite Rex Harrison, who later played the eponymous character in Doctor Dolittle? Okay, fine. The spelling is off, but still. That’s some coincidence. Or not. Moving on …)
Fashion plays a huge part in Hepburn’s films. It helps when the most talented costume designers are dressing you on screen and you have Hepburn’s beauty and figure. The fashion in Funny Face, for example, is the real star. The costumes designed by the legendary Edith Head are to die for; but then again, the same can be said for nearly every garment Hepburn wears in all of her films. It’s one of the reasons she became such an icon. Her humanity, talent and, yes, looks also are factors.
But back to her talent. All of the above films solidified her A-list status, but Hepburn wasn’t risk averse. Breakfast At Tiffany’s Holly Golightly is one of her edgier characters, which contemporary viewers might find funny. If you ever watch the movie, you realize both Holly and Paul Varjack (an endearing George Peppard) both don’t have what most would call “respectable jobs”. Yes, he considers himself an author, but there is more to Paul than meets the eye. Offscreen there was an issue, too: Tiffany’s author Truman Capote voiced his opposition to Hepburn’s casting. Nonetheless, it’s her most famous role — whether most people have actually seen it or not. (Psst! See it. It’s worth the time.)
Another film that doesn’t feel like it has gotten its due is Wait Until Dark. Hepburn is Susy Hendrix, a blind woman left home alone while a trio of very bad men terrorize her into giving back an item of great significance to them of which Susy unwittingly came into possession. It’s a tight story that slowly brings up the suspense until it’s ready to scream like a tea kettle. Hepburn makes sure you’re with Susy from the off. Otherwise, the story doesn’t work and comes off as more of an exercise in obnoxious tedium. Richard Crenna and Alan Arkin effectively bring the malice/dread, making this essentially a three-hander despite a cast of seven.
A couple other films of note:
The Children’s Hour — Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine give powerful turns as schoolteachers accused of being lesbians by a disruptive pupil. There’s more subtext than text, but it is still relevant today.
Two For the Road — A married couple travel the south of France while their marriage unravels. When the couple is played by Hepburn and Albert Finney this travelogue automatically becomes a must-see.
This isn’t meant to be a deep dive of Hepburn’s filmography: Just a way to put a spotlight on an actress who sometimes doesn’t necessarily get the respect she deserves. A simple reminder Hepburn is more than a face on a poster or an unofficial mascot for Tiffany’s.
Joanne Thornborough is pop culture junkie with a particular love for film, TV and the printed word. Find her at @cinelitchick on Twitter and Instagram.