Champagne for Caesar (1950)

A gem in the rough

What a refreshing movie: intelligent dialog, great actors and actresses, a plot with many twists and turns, and funny too. Ronald Colman is superbly cast as the man who knows everything, Celeste Holms as the "Mata Hari" hired to bring him down, and Vincent Price as the eccentric captain of industry determined to trip him up. Refreshing too is that intelligence - not fame or beauty - is venerated.

I'd have given the movie a 5 star rating if it where not for the condition of the DVD transfer. In many places the audio sound is blown out. Some scenes are lost: in one particular scene, Vincent is standing under a funnel in his soap factor, poised to hit the level - in the next scene you see him soaked, why? I remember seeing this broadcast on TV when I was younger: he hits the lever and soap suds come pouring down on him. There are some stills in the extra material that suggest this, but what a shame at the loss.

All the same, I'd still recommend this to anyone who might appreciate a playful, innocent, and intelligent romance from times gone by.
May 29, 2008

Funny then, and funny now

I first saw this flick more than 25 years ago, and thought it was a hoot. In today's world of idiotic "reality" shows, it's just as funny. The cast is just about impeccable. OK, so maybe Art Linkletter isn't perfect romantic-interest material. But my 21-year-old son (who had known Vincent Price only from creep-flicks) was astounded to see VP playing comedy...and playing it very well. His reaction to the "Chinese dynasty" answer is a laugh-out-loud moment. So is his final scene with Caesar.

I will agree with other reviewers: at one point, the sound gets distorted, but only for a few minutes. There's also some evidence of film damage, but they are only minor interruptions. Overall, it was a pleasure to view this lost classic again, even with the imperfections.

"Champagne for Caesar" is a nice bit of froth. But as Paul McCartney once said, "What's wrong with that?/I need to know..." February 15, 2008

Deft vintage comedy

This was one of the earliest movies in which the cinema industry engaged with the emerging threat posed by TV and it still has some relevance in this age of multi-million dollar quiz and other competiton programmes.

Ronald Coleman -as another reviewer so astutely observed,cast against type -plays Beauregard Bottomley who applies for employment at a large soap company run by Burnbridge Waters (Vincent Price).He is rejected and in revenge eneters a quiz show on TV ,one sponsored by Water's company .He proceeds to win and to win big,getting ever nearer to the $20 million prize .The questions become ever harder but Bottomley answers with ease .We get a twist ending which is perhaps predictable but still neat .

The sub-plot involves Celeste Holm as Nurse Carrie O'Neal -engaged by Waters as an attempt to distract bottomley from his goal .The only misfiring part of the movie involves Barbara Britton as Bottomley's sister as she becomes enamoured of the show's linkman and MC ,played by Art Linklater
Performance are admirable especially the arch and witty contribution from Price and Coleman is ,as ever, splendid
This is an enagaging light comedy and still repays viewing
The movie is amiable and deft but perhaps not quite as sharp as it needs to be -it could have done with being a tad more acerbic in the manner of ,say ,Billy Wilder December 29, 2007

A Price beyond price.

Some movies have a single element or performance that raise them above the ordinary, and in Richard Whorf's "Champagne for Caesar" it's Vincent Price's hysterically funny turn as Burnbridge Waters, a megalomanical soap tycoon whose lofty arrogance and insane rages recall all the megalomaniacal tycoons of the past century, from Howard Hughes to Donald Trump. Waters has the misfortune to arouse the ire of Beauregard Bottomley (Ronald Colman), an unemployed polymath who proceeds to go on the quiz show Waters sponsors, with the express purpose of reducing him to beggary. This very early spoof of TV--so early that they refer to the quiz show as "a radio program" most of the time--is otherwise a fairly mild affair that relies too heavily on funny names and an alcoholic parrot (boozing animals were big in the early '50s) for its humor. Colman--he of the impeccably debonair appearance and incomparably musical voice--shines in a role that normally in that era would have gone to Clifton Webb. Colman is warmer and less acerbic than Webb, a major plus for the film. But why did the filmmakers give the late-fiftyish, veddy British Colman a late-twentyish sister (Barbara Britton) with a California accent? Why did they wait until halfway through the film to introduce the lovely and charming Celeste Holm, and why did they make her character so weird? And--OH MY GOSH--who was the genius who thought Art Linkletter would make an effective romantic comedy lead??? "Champagne for Caesar" has only two reasons for existing, although they are excellent reasons--Vincent Price and Ronald Colman. Through the silliness of the script, some unexpectedly prescient lines also appear. Toward the beginning, watching Linkletter's Happy Hogan on the quiz show, Colman's Bottomley remarks that if people are asked the answer to 2+2 on a coast-to-coast hookup, accompanied by flashing lights and loud music, then 2+2 will become the highest aspiration of human knowledge. So now we have shows like, "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" and Donald Trump, our very own Burnbridge Waters, is a TV star in his own right. Oh Bottomley, where are you when we need you? December 8, 2007

Champagne For Caesar

This is a classic comedy with Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, Celeste Holm and Art Linkletter. A genius tries to put a show out of business to help his own financial problems. Celeste Holm is hilarious as the woman who tries to distract Ronald Colman from winning. May 7, 2007

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