In what might just be the most charming film of the “classic” Hollywood era, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck star as a young princess who decides to play hooky and take a break from the strictures of royalty and the jaded journalist who sees her as his next big meal ticket. Of course, as the two cavort around Rome — which is captured in all of its glory by director William Wyler and cinematographers Henri Alekan and Franz Planer — they inevitably fall in love. But can Hepburn’s princess really stay away from the duties of state?

What makes Roman Holiday so affecting, the delightful charisma of its two leads notwithstanding, is its bittersweet and melancholy undertones. Those really come to a head in the film’s final act as both leads begin to realize the inevitability of the princess’s obligations. On a side note, Hepburn and Peck were both approached in the 1970s with doing a sequel, which, we can all agree, would’ve been terrible.