MovieChat Forums > Roman Holiday (1953) Discussion > Did anyone else catch the tribute to Pro...

Did anyone else catch the tribute to Prokofiev?

posted 15 years ago by ecapital46
5 replies | jump to latest

There is a poignant scene about 43 minutes into the movie when Greg Peck returns to his apartment after he has seen the newspaper article at work about the missing Princess and realizes the Princess is the lady he left back in his apartment sleeping on the sofa.

Peck returns to compare the woman's face with the picture in the newspaper, then after determining they are one in the same, proceeds to tidy up his bed and sheet fittings so he can transfer the Princess from her place on the uncomfortable sofa to the more comfortable bed.

When he carefully picks her up and carries her to the bed, the music score plays a passage from Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (the romantic interlude from the Dance of the Knights). The movie was released in 1953, and Prokofiev had died earlier in the year. Nice tribute by the film scorer to select this scene - and it was the perfect scene to select - for this passage of music.

[–] siukong 15 years ago

Interesting tidbit. Thanks for sharing.

[–] Jason_Radley 14 years ago

Did anyone else catch the tribute to Hitchcock's Spellbound?

Before going to bed, Ann is given a glass of milk and crackers to help her sleep. In Spellbound, the psychoanalyst asks Peck's character, John, to share some milk and crackers with him, and promptly laces the milk with bromide... This scene comes shortly after we learn that John had been in Rome during the war. According to IMDB's trivia, Ben Hecht, who wrote the Spellbound screenplay, also had a hand in Roman Holiday.

It just so happened that I saw both films on the same day.

[–] nutsberryfarm 10 years ago

not yet. but will look for it. thx.

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[–] redbrioche 10 years ago

The fanfare from Monteverdi's Vespers was used over and over as background music.

[–] mark-1589 9 years ago

Thanks for the great info. I think the score for this film is super. I had never heard of George Auric before, and I checked the list of the films he has scored. I have seen only Roman Holiday. I'm curious about his other scores and whether they are of such quality as this one.