''Champagne for Caesar'' is a 1950 American
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
about a
quiz show contestant. It was directed by
Richard Whorf
Richard Whorf (June 4, 1906 – December 14, 1966) was an American actor, writer and film director.
Life and acting career
Whorf was born in Winthrop, Massachusetts to Harry and Sarah (née Lee) Whorf. His older brother was linguist Benjamin Le ...
and written by Fred Brady and
Hans Jacoby. The movie stars
Ronald Colman,
Celeste Holm
Celeste Holm (April 29, 1917 – July 15, 2012) was an American stage, film and television actress.
Holm won an Academy Award for her performance in Elia Kazan's '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947), and was nominated for her roles in ''Come to ...
,
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
,
Barbara Britton and
Art Linkletter
Arthur Gordon Linkletter (born Gordon Arthur Kelly or Arthur Gordon Kelly; sources differ; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born American radio and television personality. He was the host of ''Art Linkletter's House Party, House Par ...
. The film was produced by
Harry M. Popkin for his Cardinal Pictures and released by
United Artists
United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...
.
Plot
Beauregard Bottomley is a
polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
who lives in Los Angeles with his piano-instructor sister Gwenn and an alcohol-guzzling parrot they found named Caesar (voiced by
Mel Blanc). Beauregard is knowledgeable on any subject—except how to hold a job.
In front of a store window, Beauregard and Gwenn watch a quiz show, ''Masquerade for Money'', hosted by Happy Hogan, and sponsored by Milady Soap. Each contestant dresses up in a particular costume in which their costume determines the type of questions asked, with the prize money doubling with each correct answer, starting at $5 and reaching up to a maximum of $160. A contestant can quit anytime, but an incorrect response results in no money won, only in a reward of the consolation prize of Milady Soap. Beauregard is contemptuous of the show.
A representative of the State of California Department of Employment encourages Beauregard to interview for a job at the Milady Soap Company, which he does. Beauregard meets the company's eccentric owner, Burnbridge Waters, who disapproves of Beauregard's humor and rejects him. To get even, Beauregard enters "Masquerade for Money" as a contestant, dressed as an encyclopedia, and because he does, and consistent with the rules of the show, the host can ask him about anything. Before the questions begin, Happy starts to praise the qualities of Milady Soap, but Beauregard says that it works just like any other soap, outraging Waters. Beauregard easily answers correctly the maximum six questions, then requests one more, which he also answers correctly, earning $320. Beauregard turns down the money and asks to return next week.
Waters decides to invite Beauregard back for one question per show for six weeks and heavily publicizes it. During that time, "Masquerade for Money" tops the ratings, and sales of Milady Soap skyrocket.
At the end of that time, Waters approves of giving Beauregard an impossibly hard question, but when Beauregard answers it correctly, Waters becomes uneasy. Happy offers to take piano lessons from Gwenn to try to find a weakness in Beauregard. Beauregard sees through the scheme, but Gwenn sneaks out on a date with Happy anyway. When Gwenn tells Happy that she and her brother think that he is just trying to get information from her, he admits that he is but also says that he is glad to have met her. Gwenn tells Happy that Beauregard intends to win $40 million, to take everything that Waters has. Happy tells Waters, who cancels the show and sends Beauregard a check for his current winnings ($40,000), which Beauregard refuses to accept.
Following the series' cancellation, sales for Milady Soap plummet, forcing Waters to reinstate the show. Beauregard reaches $10 million. Waters calls in a scheming "Flame" O'Neill to distract Beauregard. Beauregard catches a cold from being in a driving rainstorm, so Flame pretends to be a nurse to him. Beauregard is aware of, but nevertheless quickly succumbs to, Flame's charms (as does Waters). Flame breaks her dinner date with Beauregard to undermine his self-confidence and peace of mind. The night of the show, Beauregard reveals that he (supposedly) never mastered
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
's "space-time theories". The next question is, of course, about Einstein's views of space-time. Realizing Flame has betrayed him, Beauregard initially struggles but eventually comes up with an answer. Happy says that Beauregard's answer is incorrect and intends to reward him the consolation prize of Milady Soap. However, Einstein himself calls on the telephone before the end of the show to say that Beauregard's answer is correct, whereupon Happy acknowledges on-air that Beauregard's answer is correct after all. Afterward, Beauregard confronts Flame, who has fallen for him. Unaware of Flame's supposed newly found fondness for him, Beauregard spanks her with her hairbrush and informs her that he deliberately misled her, that he actually "spent an entire season with Einstein", but also admits that he fell madly in love with her.
Waters books the
Hollywood Bowl for the last show. Happy and Gwenn, and Beauregard and Flame, each plan to marry. Beauregard and Gwenn caution each other that their would-be spouses could be just after the money. Each calls and suggests marrying ''before'' the show, but Happy and Flame each come up with excuses.
For the final question, Happy asks Beauregard what his
Social Security number is. Beauregard answers incorrectly. After the show, to the joy of Beauregard and Gwenn, Flame and Happy still want to marry them. Waters shows up at Beauregard's home, bearing gifts, including champagne. (Caesar used to be Waters' pet.) As Beauregard and Flame drive to Las Vegas to get married, Beauregard reveals that he and Waters had made a deal in which Beauregard would lose in exchange for getting his own radio show, some stock, and other considerations. Beauregard was motivated to make such a deal because two T men had signaled their intent to tax a significant amount of his winnings. Beauregard then admits that he actually did not know the answer.
Reception
In his 1950 review of the film in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',
Bosley Crowther
Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
panned the film, sparing only Holm:
"Some of his incent Price'sbroad aberrations offer faintly satirical thrusts at advertising genius, but most of them are duds. Mr. Coleman's exquisite urbanity wears awfully thin as time goes on. ... With Celeste Holm playing the charmer, there is some evident reason, at least, for the hero's infatuation. But with a chap named Art Linkletter cast as the quiz-master, we cannot fathom the basis for the sister's romance."
Contemporary criticism of the story indicated that the film violated Beauregard's criticism of the nature of quiz shows in its final plot twist, with Beauregard being given his own quiz show - unless Beauregard were to use the opportunity to reform quiz shows by having one that is truly intellectually stimulating.
Nicholas Laham has analysed the treatment of Beauregard as a highly educated, yet unemployable, character in the context of how scholars were regarded in the 1950s, and in anticipation of the unemployment of information-based, highly educated people in later decades in the information age/"new economy". Laham also places ''Champagne for Caesar'' in the historical lineage of
screwball comedy
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...
, over a decade after that genre had reached its peak before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
[Laham. Nicholas, ''Currents of Comedy on the American Screen''. McFarland & Company (Jefferson, North Carolina, USA), p 49 (, 2009).]
Cast
References
External links
*
American Movie Channels page on ''Champagne for Caesar''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Champagne For Caesar
1950 films
1950 romantic comedy films
American black-and-white films
American romantic comedy films
Films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin
Films about television
Films directed by Richard Whorf
Films set in Los Angeles
Films about quizzes and game shows
United Artists films
1950s English-language films
1950s American films