Champagne for Caesar (1950)

Director:

Richard Whorf

Writers:

Fred Brady (writer)
Hans Jacoby (writer)

Release Date:

11 May 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

...the bubbliest, frothiest, tickliest comedy!

Plot:

What happens when the man who knows everything goes on a quiz show that doubles your cash prize every time a you answer a question correctly...

Plot Keywords:

Quiz Show | Champagne | Beautiful Woman | Fictional Game Show | Genius

Cast

Ronald Colman	...	Beauregard Bottomley
Celeste Holm	...	Flame O'Neill
Vincent Price	...	Burnbridge Waters
Barbara Britton	...	Gwenn Bottomley
Art Linkletter	...	Happy Hogan
Gabriel Heatter	...	Announcer
George Fisher	...	Announcer
Byron Foulger	...	Gerald
Ellye Marshall	...	Frosty
Vicki Raaf	...	Waters' Secretary
John Eldredge	...	Executive #1
Lyle Talbot	...	Executive #2
George Leigh	...	Executive #3
John Hart	...	Executive #4
Mel Blanc	...	Caesar the Parrot (voice)

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:Btl | Norway:7 | UK:U

Company:

Cardinal Pictures (II)

Trivia:

Acting debut of Art Linkletter. (He played himself in his first film, People Are Funny (1946).)

Quotes:

Happy Hogan: Is there something special about me that you dislike or do you hate me for myself alone?
Beauregard Bottomley: Oh, I don't hate you Mr. Hogan.
Gwenn Bottomley: He merely thinks you are the forerunner of intellectual destruction in America.
Beauregard Bottomley: Yes, nothing personal.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Hilarious Script Challenges Admen, Quiz Shows, Corporations and More

Satire is a difficult form to realize on film. I first defined the term years since as the idea-level or explicit-idea form of comedy. In satire, the ending cannot be a bad one for the central character because he/she possess sufficient mental capabilities to overcome (eventually) any opposition being offered. "Champagne For Caesar" (the hero's parrot) is such a film, I suggest. By many people's standards, it is also one of the most hilarious films ever made. The storyline is a simple one. A human encyclopedia, Ronald Colman, decides to take part on an early televised TV quiz show sponsored by a soap company run by Burnbridge Waters, played by Vincent Price. Once he wins their top prize, he challenges them to let him go on and on, and bowing to public pressure, the executive does. The hero is thrown a curve in the person of Flame O'Neill, Celeste Holm; what happens next provides the film's climax. Will Beaurgeard Bottomley end up running the company and win the grand prize? Will he and Flame ever get together? Will Waters be sent to an asylum or continue his course of selling soap? The entire cast is very good in this film; even announcer Art Linkletter brings off the role of the quiz show's host while romancing lovely Barbara Britton, the boss's daughter. Colman, Price and Holm are priceless. The direction by actor Richard Whorf is perhaps his best ever; the music by Dimitri Tiomkin and art direction by George Van Marten are bright and exactly right at every point. What in lesser hands could have become a parody here finds the makers' choosing their targets for satirization on a basis of very wrong ideas--the advertising industry in the US being a Hollywood favorite in this regard, in such films as "Good Neighbor Sam" and "The Thrill of It All" and many more. This film remains one of Hollywood's funniest and most affectionately remembered satirical treasures.