This film is about a young lady, Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn),who is the chauffeur's daughter for the Larrabee family. Despite being poor and him being a hopeless playboy, she has visions of falling in love with and marrying the rich David Larrabee (William Holden). Well, after she returns from college, she has blossomed into a beautiful lady--so beautiful that David is head over heels for her. However, the very business-oriented older brother, Linus (Humphrey Bogart) sees that if this romance is allowed to grow, it will hurt the company business. So, being the manipulative sort, he arranges for an accident to happen to David and takes over the job of wooing Sabrina himself--even though he is a rather cold fish. Amazingly, over time, the mismatched couple manage to create a spark of love--and this leads to even worse complications.

As many people have heard, Humphrey Bogart apparently hating being cast in this film, as he felt too old to play this character. Well, he was right--Linus should have been younger and it seemed strange seeing Bogart romancing a lady half his age. However, if you look past this, you'll see that the film is exceptional throughout. The biggest star of this production is the director, Billy Wilder. He exercised such a deft hand and the film just exuded quality--you can't help but get sucked into the story. Sure, the actors were excellent, but it all worked so well despite bizarre casting because the guy in charge was so skilled at creating the perfect mood. An absolute charmer and quite the romantic picture despite dour old Humphrey!

By the way, this film was re-made years later with Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond and Greg Kinear. While this is a very good film as well, it certainly wasn't necessary--adding nothing to the original tale--and messing it up a bit along the way (why make the virginal Sabrina more worldly and sexually active??). And my advice is why see the re-make when the original is better?

This mayn't be the best of Billy Wilder's films, but it is one of his most underrated. As a romantic comedy, it is funny, sophisticated and moving, with beautiful production values, a delightful script and sparkling performances. Wilder's direction is great, while the story is clever and engaging. I also love the cinematography and especially Audrey Hepburn's dresses. The score is romantic, and the script is wonderful and sparkles like bubbles and champagne. I heard this film had a difficult production, if that were the case I don't think it showed. The performances are equally wonderful. The lovely Audrey Hepburn is radiant and charming, William Holden shows real star quality and despite the claims he hated doing Sabrina Humphrey Bogart(or so I think) is perfectly cast. In conclusion, this film is a gem. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Sabrina would probably have gotten several stars higher on the list had Billy Wilder gotten Cary Grant who he originally wanted to play the part of Linus Larrabee.

Grant was originally supposed to play the role, but according to a recent biography of Wilder, dropped out at the last minute. Wilder went scrambling for a replacement and got Humphrey Bogart instead. He also would have preferred to work with Joseph Cotten who played the part on Broadway, but Paramount said he wasn't a big enough movie name for equal billing with Bill Holden and Audrey Hepburn.

In fact Cary Grant was asked and didn't do three Wilder films, this one, Five Graves to Cairo and Love in the Afternoon. Eventually though he did wind up working with Audrey in Charade.

Bogey was miscast and he knew it. He also knew that this was Hepburn's film and it was Holden's studio. For whatever reason he was reportedly surly and obnoxious on the set. He's got no spark whatsoever in his performance as Linus.

But Hepburn has the spark as does Holden. They were having an affair on set so Sabrina's crush on Holden rings true.

Very simply Audrey is the daughter of John Williams, the chauffeur on the Larrabee estate in Long Island. Walter Hampden's the head of the clan and he's got two sons. Sober and industrious Humphrey Bogart and playboy William Holden. Gawky teenager Audrey is crushing out on Holden. Williams decides to send her to Paris and cooking school where she matures.

So much so, she catches the eye of both Larrabee boys. Who will she end up with?

Fortunately for Bogart he got an Oscar nomination for The Caine Mutiny in the same year so Sabrina didn't do him any harm.

Audrey's fans will adore her in this part. Bogey's fans should skip this one.