They Just Don't Make Em Like They Used To........

"Democracy can be a wickedly unfair thing, Sabrina. Nobody poor was ever called democratic for marrying somebody rich " -Humphrey Bogart "Sabrina"

A few years ago I at Christmas I was given a DVD that contained "Breakfast at Tiffany's" "Roman Holiday" and "Sabrina" all featuring Audrey Hepburn. I had already seen "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and loved it. It ranks up there probably in the number one spot for my favorite Romance film. But I had never gotten around to watching the other two movies.

So this week me and my mom were bored and decided to put in "Sabrina" which came out in 1954. We had both seen the remake starring Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear and Julia Ormond and directed by the late, great Sydney Pollack (Jeremiah Johnson, Three Days of the Condor, Tootsie, The Firm) . We loved the remake, so we figured we would give the original a try.

In the 1954 version directed by the brilliant Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend, Sunset Blvd., The Seven Year Itch, and Some Like It Hot) we have the great Humphrey Bogart, Billy Wilder regular William Holden and the amazing Audrey Hepburn.

Both me and my mom both discovered how much better the old version is. It courses with a charm that the remake only hints at. And while Harrison Ford is good, he only plays Linus Larabee as a stick-in-the-mud (to use my mom's words) while Humphrey Bogart has real character. Really its unfair to try and cast anybody in a role already played by Bogart, he is one of the all-time great actors and movie stars and you just can't beat him. The same goes for Hepburn. In the remake Julia Ormond seems like she is trying to mimic Hepburn's performance even down to the inflections on her voice. She would have been better off doing something different with it, because you really just can't beat the innocent, wondrous performances of Audrey Hepburn. And of course William Holden was also incapable of giving a bad performance. This movie just reminded me that no matter what, you can't ever beat the original.

Which brings us to "Roman Holiday" starring Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird, Cape Fear) and Audrey Hepburn. This film is another completely charming film. Hepburn plays a Princess who has had enough and runs away, where she meets Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) who is a reporter, who knows she is the Princess, yet she has no clue he knows. He is taking her around Rome entertaining her, in hopes of getting an "inside" story on her. But of course, he falls in love.

What makes this one so good is largely Gregory Peck's performance. If you have seen him play Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird" you would think serious by the book kinda guy. He plays Joe Bradley completely different. He is a fun, care free playboy who is quickly running out of money and he plays it great. Unlike most films today, its completely believable when he and Hepburn fall in love with each other. As was the relationships in "Sabrina". Another thing that makes "Roman Holiday" so excellent is the ending, its so not the typical, Hollywood conventional ending.

If you like Romance films, and I mean good romance films (not crap like The Bounty Hunter or nonsense like that) than I urge you to go and rent these movies and watch em. They are in black and white, but even that adds an element of charm to the movies. They are great timeless films that I highly recommend. To use the old cliche`d term, they just don't make em like they use to..........