Well, Papa certainly isn't doing it willingly - just under the threat of prosecution from his prospective son-in-law.
Marriage isn't mentioned between the two of them before that last scene (we see no proposal, etc.), but I don't mind, since it was so obviously in the cards. But there's simply no explanation for the "We'd better make that plane to get married if we don't want to wind up in prison".
Are they going to marry in another country to escape France? After all, there was lots of publicity about the burglary, maybe they are afraid of getting caught eventually and having to explain everything? But still, to abandon her dear Papa and prevent him from attending this wedding doesn't make sense to me as part of her character.
So yes, there seems like a scene missing.
It's interesting also that at one point early in the movie, he says to her, "you've worked too much with the Americans" - it's a flattering comment (to Americans) about honesty or efficiency or something. But we never do learn what she does, do we?
Catherine Wyler, the director's daughter, implies in the commentary on the DVD that the movie ran a bit long - she believes it may be due to the absence of the productive creative tension between her father as director and a separate producer - William Wyler produced his own films from the 1950s. (She's a good commentator - quite clear-sighted about her great father's work and reputation and why - and very interesting with her personal anecdotes about her father.
On the other hand, Eli Wallach - a truly wonderful actor - is woeful in his commentary - either getting his facts completely wrong (he tells us all about Audrey growing up in Belgium, etc.) or simply telling us what we are already seeing (e.g., "and now we see that O'Toole is planning how to steal this Cellini Venus" as we watch O'Toole do that very thing. However Wallach is interesting in his comments about Darryl Zanuck, O'Toole, Boyer and Hepburn - and he is ASTONISHINGLY humble - I'd no idea he was as modest about his own reputation relative to these other fine film actors - or as thrilled to be simply working with them).
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belacane
19 years ago
Audrey *is* from Belgium, isn't she?
I've got to sit down and watch the commentary one of these days.
Clover says: Never underestimate the power of cashmere!
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trpdean
19 years ago
No, Audrey's from the Netherlands, from Holland. In fact, if you ever watch the outstanding war movie, A Bridge Too Far - the town in most of the movie (historically and in the movie), fought for by the British (Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery) and leveled by order of the Germans - is the Dutch town of Arnhem where Audrey was living as a 15 year old at the time.
During the war (Audrey was 10 when it began and 16 when it finished), she tried her best to keep up her dance training - and sometimes took along messages in her shoes to pass to the Dutch Resistance.
Her wealthy English father had been a Nazi sympathizer before the War - her aristocratic Dutch mother (a baroness) had not been AT ALL - and the father's outspoken politics while living with the family in Holland had been in the 1930s something of an embarrassment to his wife and her family. The parents divorced (not over politics) the year before the War began -- and the father essentially abandoned the family and returned to England in 1938.
Audrey was the only daughter but had two older brothers - both were seized by the Germans when they occupied the Netherlands (one was in hiding to avoid it for a long time, but he was discovered) and they served in labor camps in Germany throughout the War.
After Arnhem was destroyed, Audrey and her mother were homeless, and even had to resort like many other Dutch to eating flowers found by the side of roads. They almost starved.
V-E Day brought both her brothers home - and the new U.N.R.R.A (the UN Relief and Recovery Administration - the forerunner of UNICEF) brought much needed food, clothing, blankets, shelter to her and her family.
Audrey often spoke of how she survived at the end of the War only due to the new U.N. - and thus had a big debt to pay - she became a UNICEF Ambassador over the last years of her life, traveling all over the world. Soon after the War, she left the Netherlands to dance ballet in London - but was told that she was too tall (at 5'7") and already too old to join the training program. So she danced in dinner clubs, and eventually in the choruses of various musicals on the London stage.
She was seen in one such dinner club - kind of like a nightclub I understand - and was absolutely charming - and chosen for the part of Roman Holiday. Then she got the part of Ondine and was a smash on Broadway. She got a Tony for her Broadway performance a few days after winning the Oscar for Roman Holiday - quite a time for her.
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WhiteFun
18 years ago
In his biography, Alexander Walker claims that Audrey's mother was quite active in the Dutch Fascist movement even contributing article to the local Nazi press. Later on, she became disillusioned and changed her views.
It's used to be all girls with no clothes. Now, it's all clothes and no girls.
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pedantic-gardener
18 years ago
there are quite alot of lines in the film taking the piss out of americans, i think its all very funny, basicly it takes the piss out of everything; spy movies, forgeries, etc
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