Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54222 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-11-26
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Italian
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 344 minutes

Amazon.com
What a trio of movies in this boxed set: three of Audrey Hepburn's best performances in three of her best films. In Breakfast at Tiffany's, she is perfectly cast as Holly Golightly, Truman Capote's prevaricating heroine who has forgotten her past to create a more interesting present--and Blake Edwards's film version is both beguiling and sad. In Sabrina she is ideal as the chauffeur's daughter who comes back from Paris looking a lot better than when she left--and attracting the attention of a pair of wealthy brothers: playboy William Holden and stuffy Humphrey Bogart. And in Roman Holiday, her debut and for which she received an Oscar, she is delightful as the escaped princess who slips away from her handlers and spends a day with a reporter (Gregory Peck), falling in love and seeing how the normal folks live. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

There aren't enough words...
I'll never forget when I fell in love with Audrey Hepburn. I was 16 and home sick from school. My mother had rented a bunch of old movies for me and Breakfast At Tiffany's was one of them. I knew, from the first strain of "Moon River" as Holly Golightly stepped out of the cab in front of Tiffany's, that I was hooked. I watched the movie three times in the next two days. I was completely enamored of Audrey's grace, style and beauty. Breakfast At Tiffany's has been my all-time favorite movie ever since (a great cure for the mean reds)! I still cry at the final sequence in the rain.

Over the next few weeks I rented every Audrey movie I could get my hands on, I have seen them all numerous times by now and own most of them, and Sabrina and Roman Holiday are two of my other favorites. Roman Holiday was Audrey's first American film for which she won an Oscar. She and Gregory Peck are truly magical in this sweet movie about a Princess out in Rome for a day of no responsibilities. Sabrina is the ugly duckling into a swan story, although ugly duckling is as far from Audrey as you can get! While Humphrey Bogart is my least favorite part of this movie (he and Audrey reportedly did not get along on the set), Audrey shines and her wardrobe is something to see in and of itself.

I can't recommend Audrey Hepburn or her movies enough. If you've never seen her movies, start with this trio. If you know nothing about the woman, find out. She was not only a wonderful actress but a phenomenal humanitarian. Her work with UNICEF should be her greatest legacy.

I know that there will never be another Audrey. But I am thankful that her movies will allow her beautiful personage to live on forever. But don't take my word for it. Watch this trio of movies and see for yourself. And while you're at it, pick up Funny Face, Charade, How To Steal A Million, My Fair Lady...

A Pefect Trio from my Favorite Actress
Hey, I was just looking to pick up a copy of Roman Holiday, when I found that someone had packaged three of Audrey's best movies together. And I said, "Three?! Thats it??? Why not six? Oh, well...it will have to do." So I upgrade Breakfast at Tiffany's from VHS to DVD, and I finally pick up Sabrina, which, despite a small crush on Julia Ormond, I must admit is superior to the remake.

Its easy to see why Audrey Hepburn has remained such a popular film star, and why so many actresses fail miserably to be the "next" Audrey Hepburn. There was only one actress who combined the sense of innocence, sweetness, beauty, humor, grace and charm into one. And don't we all wish she had made more movies? And don't we all wish they could still make movies like the ones that Audrey starred in? No wonder she's still our favorite!

So, in chronological order...we get Roman Holiday(1953), Audrey's breakout Oscar winner where she guaranteed she would be a star, then her next movie, Sabrina(1954), which cemented her as Hollywood's sweetheart, then Breakfast at Tiffany's(1961), simply one of my favorite movies of all time. I would have liked to have seen Charade, My Fair Lady, and Funny Face included, really I would...will there be a Volume 2?? It would be quite a nice cure for the mean reds. If you haven't fallen in love with Audrey Hepburn yet, then buy this nice set and you will!

Only time Blake Edwards finds himself in such good company
You can tell this package is a mixed bag just from the case covers: Sabrina is part of the "Audrey Hepburn Collection," Roman Holiday is part of the "Paramount Collection" and Breakfast at Tiffany's is part of the "Widescreen Collection." The individual packages for Sabrina and Roman Holiday feature a copyright date of 2002, but Breakfast goes all the way back to 1999. As you'd expect, this older transfer fails to measure up to the other two, both of which are in glorious black and white and look probably as good or better than the films looked at their premiers all those years ago.

First up: Roman Holiday, which according to the little sticker on the outside of the box has been "meticulously restored frame by frame." It shows! The viewer is treated to William Wyler's lush, grandiose frame composition and gorgeous lighting. Though not as jaw-droppingly beautiful as many of the shots in Sabrina, the look of Roman Holiday will leave you breathless. That's a good thing since so much time is spent, not in character or plot development, but in showing the audience the sights of Rome. One of the first films to double as a travelogue, Roman Holiday wouldn't work half so well without the sharp details and the subtle shades of blacks and greys throughout. Hepburn's character comes across as very natural and charming and Peck is a revelation. This film was shot before he was obligated to play "Gregory Peck" in every movie. Though the humor is played a little too broadly in spots, this film's a good one and the chemistry between Hepburn and Peck is wonderful. Incidental details like a taxi driver crying like a baby to communicate the Italian word "bambino" and a landlord who hauls out his old rifle to guard Hepburn's room complete a picture already delightful, subtle and moving.

The next film, Sabrina, is the true masterpiece of this set. With cinematography that looks like it came from Citizen Kane, supporting characters with pop and dazzle, and writing that never fails to astound, Sabrina is Billy Wilder's second-best film (after Sunset Blvd.) Where parts of Some Like It Hot and Seven Year Itch fall flat, Sabrina fires on all cylinders all the time. Bogart plays against type and truly shows how versatile an actor he really was. The oft-neglected William Holden is perfect as always. (Compare his performance here with his performance in Stalag 17, Sunset Blvd., The Wild Bunch and Network. You'll find no overlapping.) Audrey Hepburn has never been so charming as in Sabrina. Unlike films like Breakfast at Tiffany's, none of the emotion here seems forced. Instead, the gentle and exquisite beauty of the scenes is matched by genuinely likeable characters. First-rate writing, oddball "throwaway" details like Bogart's resilient plastic, and a romantic resolution as moving as anything in Henry James makes Sabrina an underappreciated joy. The bright new transfer will truly take your breath away, especially when Hepburn is up a tree, gazing wistfully at the party lights just over the hedge. The final embrace on board the ocean liner is still unmatched in terms of romance. It communicates everything without any dialogue or any plot device such as a drenched cat.

Finally, Blake Edwards' Breakfast at Tiffany's. And I ask, how could we ever lump Blake Edwards in with directors such as Billy Wilder and William Wyler? Surely, this is the only instance in which he could even be mentioned in the same breath with these two giants. A favorite movie of wispy boys and starry-eyed girls, Breakfast at Tiffany's is the weakest of the three. Yes, Audrey Hepburn shines in it, but Mickey Rooney's racist and unfunny and George Peppard's a humorless dud. Watching this movie again, I was struck how many of the events were completely inessential (Buddy Ebsen's Doc, for instance). It's the kind of movie people remember fondly simply because for many, it's the first movie in which they were exposed to Ms. Hepburn's charm. She's perky and likable in spite of the rest of the film, not because of it. On the whole, it doesn't really work. The "wild bohemian" party is attended by a cast of conservatively dressed squares (all a little long in tooth for such activities), punctuated by a few cartoons like Mag Wildwood and Rusty Trawler. The broad strokes here make Mr. Edwards' later forays into the adventures of Inspector Clouseau look like the work of Truffaut. Sure, the cat steals the show at the end, and the soaked threesome in the alley is bound to squeeze a tear out of even the most jaded viewer, but in order for this scene to work on a purely emotional level, you've got to distance yourself from nearly everything that's gone before. The DVD quality here is abysmal compared to the other two; in fact, the trailer looks better in places than the actual movie! Note also that the voiceover narrator from 1960 pronounces Truman Capote's name like "compote" rather than "Quixote." Nothing like a little care and attention for the writer, eh?

My advice: Buy the set. Everyone should have a copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's around, just so you don't have to rent it when you forget how slipshod it really is. And the other two movies-Sabrina and Roman Holiday-are films you'll want to watch again and again, enjoying them even more with each subsequent viewing.