Champagne for Caesar

Plot synopsis:
Beauregard Bottomley (Ronald Colman) is an unemployed PhD physicist who lives in Los Angeles with his piano-instructor sister Gwenn (Barbara Britton) and the alcohol-guzzling parrot of the film's title, Caesar (Mel Blanc, voice). Beauregard and Gwenn live in a bungalow court, surrounded by books. Beauregard is an omnivorous reader, knowledgeable on any subject -- except, as he admits, how to hold a job. Beauregard learns of a job opportunity at the Milady Soap Company. He meets the eccentric owner, Burnbridge Waters (Vincent Price), for an interview. Waters disapproves of Beauregard's humour and turns him down for the job, humiliating him in the process.
In front of an appliance store window, Beauregard, Gwenn and others, none of whom have television sets at home yet, watch a quiz show, Masquerade for Money, whose sponsor is Milady Soap. The prize won by costume-wearing contestants doubles with each correct answer (in the style of the 1940s radio show The $64 Question). If anyone misses just one question, he or she loses all that was won to that point.
Beauregard is contemptuous of television and what he deems its anti-intellectual nature, particularly after seeing Masquarade for Money and its flamboyant host, Happy Hogan (Art Linkletter). However, it gives him a brilliant idea for revenge on Burnbridge Waters. He goes on the program dressed as an encyclopedia, prepared to answer any question. Starting from an initial $5 prize, Beauregard easily answers the maximum five questions. The show runs out of time, but Beauregard promises to come back the next week if people will write in to Milady Soap demanding he be allowed to return.
An avalanche of mail inspires Waters. He decides to invite Bottomley back for one question per show. As soon as Milady has reached a new high in soap sales, the show will stump him with an impossibly hard question and drop him. Masquerade for Money becomes a ratings triumph. The country tunes in each week to watch Beauregard, who appears with Caesar on the covers of Look and Life Magazines. The questions become more erudite and challenging, but Bottomley keeps answering them with ease. Nothing can rattle Beauregard, not even the "obnoxious" Happy Hogan's sudden romantic interest in his sister.
With Beauregard's continuing success and increasing prize amount, Waters becomes uneasy, as the winnings will potentially erode Milady's profits. Visiting the soap factory, Beauregard explains to Waters that his ultimate goal is to break Waters by winning $40 million - the entire worth of Milady Soap - and then perhaps buy the company himself. A desperate Waters calls in a clever and beautiful woman, "Flame" O'Neill (Celeste Holm), to seduce and distract Beauregard, as well to find a subject where his knowledge is lacking. In parallel, Happy Hogan works on Gwenn to persuade her to have Beauregard simply pocket his winnings to date.
Beauregard falls ill with a cold, so Flame insinuates herself into the Bottomley household as a nurse, pretending to be a member of his fan club. He quickly succumbs to Flame's charms, losing his usual self-confidence and poise. Gwenn is suspicious of Flame's motives, just as Beauregard is suspicious of Hogan's interest in her. Flame's flirtations followed by sudden aloofness leave Beauregard totally baffled. He also reveals to her on one date that he never quite mastered Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
With $20 million at stake, the next question on Masquerade for Money presented to him by Happy is, indeed, for Beauregard to explain Einstein's theory. Now realizing Flame's true purpose, Beauregard struggles to come up an answer. It is incorrect and he loses all of his money. Waters rejoices as the studio audience groans. Beauregard leaves the stage, defeated. However, a phone call from a viewer in Princeton, New Jersey is placed to the studio, turning out to be from Albert Einstein himself. Happy Hogan takes the call, then informs a jubilant audience that Beauregard's answer is correct. Waters faints.
With all of America expected to be watching, the quiz show's final episode is moved to the Hollywood Bowl. Waters will be bankrupt if Beauregard answers correctly. In the meantime, Happy appears to have genuinely fallen in love with Gwenn. Flame shows remorse at her part in the plot. Beauregard and his sister caution each other that Happy and Flame could be in this strictly for the money. Each sibling telephones the respective partner to see if they would be willing to be married before the prize money is won or lost. Happy and Flame each come up with excuses.
On the big night, Waters announces to the audience, "May the best man lose." Beauregard comes onstage, cheered by the audience. It is time for one final question for $40 million or nothing. Happy asks if Beauregard is caring his wallet. Handing it over, Beauregard is then asked a simple question, one requiring information that does not come from a book -- to identify his own Social Security number. Beauregard states it, then hesitates, then changes it and answers incorrectly, to the tremendous relief of Waters and the disappointment of the crowd.
Back home, a subdued Beauregard and Gwenn wait to see what happens next. To the joy of both, Happy and Flame each appear, willing to marry Gwenn and Beauregard after all. Waters also appears, bearing gifts, including champagne. It turns out that Caesar used to be Waters' pet parrot. As Beauregard and Flame drive off to be married, Beauregard reveals that he and Waters agreed to a backroom deal where he would lose, but receive his own radio show, as well as Milady Soap stock. Beauregard then admits that he genuinely didn't know the answer to the final question.

Tags: satire

Review:
But one day a particularly arrogant head of a soap manufacturing company dismissed him without an explanation during the interview.But Colman takes an unusual way of getting even.
But in fact he turns out to have an exceedingly good grasp on reality and the more mundane treacheries associated with every day life.Although this is Ronald Colman's film, whenever he's on Vincent Price steals the show totally with his portrayal of the megalomaniacal soap king.
It's the kind of outrageous part that actors can really chew the scenery with and Vincent Price had a full course meal.Celeste Holm plays the femme fatale that Price hires to do Colman in and she's good at her job.
But the seemingly unworldly Colman is more than up to her tricks.Art Linkletter who was just getting nationally known as a radio and television host plays, what else, the host of Price's quiz show.
Linkletter did some dramatic television work later on Wagon Train, GE Theater, and Zane Grey Theater, but this is his only feature film role as other than Art Linkletter.Champagne for Caesar was an independent production by Harry Popkin for United Artists.
Though he got great critical reviews, Colman was shorted on his money for this film by Popkin.
It was still not settled when Colman died in 1958.Legal problems aside, Champagne for Caesar is one very funny film and should not be missed by fans of Ronald Colman or Vincent Price..
On one level, Champagne for Caesar showcases the comic talent of Vincent Price and Ronald Colman in one of the best screwball comedies to come from the tail end of Hollywood's golden age.
Colman and Price are not two names commonly associated with comedy but as this movie shows they should have been.This movie deserves to be rediscovered by an audience niche who will appreciate it.
Excellent comedy starring comic Ronald Colman as Beauregard Bottomely, who is described as being the last scholar in America.
The prize is not much, it's more of a masquerade program where you dress up as a historical personage or an inanimate object, or an animal, and the questions they ask you are based on your costume, a bit of fun really.Beauregard is (rightly) disgusted by what he presciently sees as the the herald of intellectual Armageddon: "If it is noteworthy and rewarding to know that 2 and 2 make 4 to the accompaniment of deafening applause and prizes, then 2 and 2 making 4 will become the top level of learning." Anyway quite by chance he ends up applying for a job at the company that sponsors the show, only he doesn't get it because he's too superior in the interview (not arrogant mind you, he actually is superior, but that just doesn't do in a hierarchy).
When he is given the cold shoulder he decides to get his own back by appearing on the quiz show.Hilariously, he turns up dressed as the Encylopaedia Britannica, which basically means the quizmaster can ask him any question he feels like.
You can't help but enjoy yourself, and Vince Price is simply hilarious in what is perhaps a career best performance as the anti-intellectual soap company boss Burnbridge Waters with solipsistic tendencies..
I especially love the scene where he is in the isolation booth watching to see how far Ronald Colman can get in his quest of winning the contest.
Too bad this movie, and especially Mr. Price wasn't nominated for an Academy Award because it is a really funny film.
I suppose to some people Vincent Price's performance in this film is a bit on the "hammy" side, it is exactly that way of overacting which makes it fun to watch him.
Why this movie is not considered up there with the great comedies of the 1950's is beyond me - I mean, Some Like It Hot is funny for two viewings, tops.
All of these are scenes with Vincent Price, who gives what is probably among the top five comedic performances in the history of American film here -- at least if you consider those by non-comedians.
So this is really his only true comedy performance, and he is brilliant as corporate nutjob Burnbridge Waters.Everybody else here is great*: Ronald Colman is simply perfect as Beauregard Bottomley, an unemployable with a genius range IQ.
Celeste Holm is great as always as temptress Flame O'Neill, hired by Waters to rattle Colman's character to the point where he starts losing on the quiz show.
Barbara Britton as Bottomley's sister Gwenn is another charmer, cute as a bug's ear.*Then there's Art Linkletter: OK, he's great as the quiz show host -- he did that for a living in real life.
I haven't seen this for years so my mind is a little sketchy on the exact plot but it goes something like this: Beauregard Bottomley (Ronald Colman) a VERY intelligent man goes on a radio quiz show.
Colman and Holm are good also but it's Prices movie all the way through.Unfortunately this remains virtually unknown.
Here is a film that stars Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, Celeste Holm and Art Linkletter????
Colman who is so well known for his romantic voice and looks and just coming off as Oscar winning performance in the dark but brilliant "A Double Life" plays Bouregard Bottomley, a man who knows "everything about everything", except how to get a job.
He goes to the Milady Soap Company and is almost hired except he had the audacity to make a joke in front of company President Birnbridge Waters, played by Vincent Price.
It seems that Milady sponsors a quiz program and Bottomley decides to go on as a contestant and take Price for all he is worth and thereby hangs this uproarious tale.For all of the dramatic accomplishments by the principals, Colman, Price and Holm are tremendously funny with Price as a particular standout.
Ronald Colman in a departure from his normal films, Celeste Holm as the vamp with a giggle/laugh that would keep anyone awake, Vincent Price, Art Linkletter and Barbara Britton doing what they each do so splendidly.
The movie is clever and quite funny, but the biggest surprise is how good Vincent Price is in it.
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.
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.
Ronald Coleman is sympathetic and amusing as the meek genius who threatens to drive a popular quiz show out of business, the rest of the cast helps out quite a bit, and the story is pleasantly goofy and unpredictable.
As a satire on the 50's quiz shows, it is even more interesting in light of the more recent trivia show fads.Coleman's low-key approach works well as the trivia genius Beauregard, and he is complemented very well by the more exaggerated performances of Celeste Holm, Art Linkletter, and especially Vincent Price, all of whom get some fine moments of their own.
The first portion was clever and enjoyable but later, after they introduce a wicked woman, the film just seemed to fizzle--mostly because the writing seemed to fall apart.When the film begins, Beauregard Bottomly (Ronald Colman) goes to get a job with a soap company.
As many fun films from the 40s and 50s, it has a dash of camp, but is an A-list Hollywood comedy displaying the dominance of radio, quiz shows and the onset of television.
Ronald Colman and Vincent Price KILLED as comic actors.
Celeste Holm is sent by the bad guys to discombobulate the genius hero as a femme fatale.For anyone wondering, Caesar is Ronald Colman's parrot.
I watched Champagne for Caesar as a fan of Vincent Price, and I wasn't disappointed.
Ronald Colman is very good, and so is Celeste Holm but it is Price who steals the show, in one of his better non-horror roles he is absolutely hysterical.
Funny movie with a great comedic performance by Vincent Price.
The game show is sponsored by a soap company run by a pompous Vincent Price, who gives the best comedy performance of his life and steals every scene he's in.
Put together Ronald Colman, as the eccentric who knows it all, Vincent Price, in his prime as the villain, and the game show craze of radio and television of the 40's and 50's, and you have the makings of one shrewdly funny movie...
Vincent Price doesn't take it lying down, he could be an extraordinary villain in his younger days..a love interest is introduced to both Colman and his bill paying sister, as monkeywrenches in the thought process, this provides the catalyst of a very entertaining comedy....
This 1950 film, "Champagne for Caesar," takes place with the hand-off of the on-air quiz show, "Masquerade for Money," from radio to TV.
The film has some witty lines, mostly as Beauregard Bottomley goes tete-a-tete on the air with Happy Hogan, and off the air with Burnbridge Waters.
Milady Soap Company sponsors "Masquerade for Money." Vincent Price is hilarious as Burnbridge Waters, owner of Milady Soap.
Plot-wise, it concerns ageing book-worm Ronald Colman looking for work and being snubbed by the soap-manufacturing company run by Price; the latter also sponsors a TV quiz show, so our intelligent hero decides to get even by going on the program and winning a fortune!
His ruse is all-too-successful so, before allowing him to cop the grand prize of $40 million, Price engages a woman (Celeste Holm, then still playing 'siren' roles) to distract Colman from his goal!
On the big day, however, both he and sister Barbara Britton (who, in the interim, had struck a relationship with the show's bland comic host!) realize that their suitors probably had the money that would be coming to them in mind, so they not only break off their respective engagements but Colman even deliberately gives the wrong answer on the live show (which obviously sends Price in an ecstatic fit)!
I have yet to see Colman in a bad picture and Vincent Price's performance is simply a revelation in a film which shows an America of bygone days - more's the pity.
The scenes with Celeste Holm giggling in the bedroom when Ronald Colman is trying to sleep are hysterical.
In normal Hollywood practice he'd probably be played by George Sanders or Clifton Webb with a sneer of effortless superiority (and I'd find myself supporting him anyway, in opposition to the author's intent); here, he is awarded the matinée-idol charm of Ronald Colman, whose perfect timing and reactions display a quite unexpected talent for comedy.And Vincent Price, of course, as the egomaniac executive with more than a little emphasis on the 'maniac', is quite simply insanely funny.
It is to the film's credit -- and that of Mr Colman and Miss Britton as the brother and sister in question -- that I found myself accepting the result as a genuinely happy ending for the characters' sakes, even if I couldn't exactly have been said to have hoped for it from the start.The chief charm of this film lies in its wickedly sharp script: it lags in some of its wordless sequences and straight romantic drama, but the characters are never so entertaining as when they are sniping at each other, and at its best -- when the victims are not only confounded but richly deserved -- it is not only hilarious but very, very satisfying.
It is the last film of real interest and amusement that starred Ronald Colman, and the first of two he did with Vincent Price.Answer: CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR.Ronald Colman had an amusing charm that meant that many of his dramatic films had comic moments.
It is interesting that it was near the end of his career that he finally got one.CHAMPAGNE FOR CAESAR is about Beauregard Bottomley, a brilliant man who is not gainfully employed, and is annoyed at a popular quiz show that is hosted by Art Linkletter (a rare film appearance for the radio and television personality), and that is sponsored by "Milady's Soap", a company run by one Burnbridge Waters (known to his "friends" as "Dirty" Waters).
Waters is played by Vincent Price.
It was a very funny film, with Price enjoying a villain who was outrageously comic - watch him when he momentarily thinks he can push an unsuspecting Colman into a vat of soap at the factory.
Colman is not as blatantly funny, but has his moments too - like when he reveals that Holms has what he calls "Bottomley trouble".
Linkletter in his only film performance of note does well spoofing his then known hosting of the quiz show "Truth or Consequences", and then shows up as an unexpected suitor of Colman's younger sister (Barbara Britten).
He turns out to be an unexpected connecting link between Colman and Price - one that shows that even film villains like Vincent Price can occasionally have soft spots in their persona's..
I still found it a lot of fun though.Ronald Coleman is Beauregard Bottomley, a walking encyclopedia; Vincent Price is Bainbridge Waters who runs the Milady Soap Company that sponsors a quiz show that Coleman is determined to put out of business.
Ronald Coleman would be hard to equal let alone eclipse as a (literally) walking encyclopedia but he meets his match in Vincent Price in what is arguably sole comic role as a scenery-chewing soap magnate who sponsors an early television quiz show.
Celest Holm who gets above-the-title co-star billing makes a late appearance in a role reminiscent of Lola in Damn Yankees but is well worth waiting for whilst Barbara Britton has a nice 'prescence' as Coleman's lovelorn sister.
Funny film, but not Colman's crowning achievement.
It's not bad enough to make you want to turn the film off, but it is annoying in a few scenes.Of course, the star here is Ronald Colman.
This was Colman's followup film to his Academy Award winning role in "A Double Life", and his last truly starring lead role.Colman's supporting actors include Celeste Holm as the -- well, is she his ally or his downfall?
Vincent Price in a nice turn of comedy as the owner of the soap company.
And yes, Price does well here in his comedic role as the president of the soap company who sponsors the quiz show in question.One question, why do they keep calling it a radio show when it was being broadcast on television?
No point rehashing the plot or the actors' performances except to put in my vote for Vincent Price as the plot-stealer; anyone who's ever seen him on the original "Hollywood Squares" knows about his sense of humor, and from what I've read about him, he was a truly nice person, willing to spend time talking with fans for more than a few seconds.What I want to talk about is from the benefit of hindsight.
When "Champagne for Caesar" was released, there were at least two shows on the air where the jackpot increased every time a contestant gave a right answer: "The $64 Question," which seems to me to be the source of "Masquerade for Money"'s format; and "Break the Bank," with jackpots that sometimes reached into the thousands of dollars.
Ronald Colman has the right demeanor to be the genius Beauregard Bottomley, and as for Art Linkletter, well, why not hire a real-life game-show host (he hosted "People Are Funny," by the way; Ralph Edwards was hosting "Truth or Consequences" in 1950)?
Ronald Colman, as adept at light comedy as heavy melodrama, is perfect as the intended victim of wonderfully wacky tycoon Vincent Price.
Nearly seventy years ago quiz shows were still a relative novelty, which makes this film interesting both as an early satire of the form and yet still remarkably topical; the emphasis on money being still only too familiar.'Champagne for Caesar' is also historically noteworthy for being Ronald Colman's final starring vehicle and Vincent Price's first demonstration - after spending most of the forties as a malevolent smoothie - of what a succulent ham he could be in comedy roles (I stand to be corrected, but is this Vincent's hammiest performance ever?
Colman's final two films were the all-star 'Around the World in Eighty Days' and 'The Story of Mankind', the latter of which reunited him with Price.
The rest of the cast are all good too, even Art Linklater - although I couldn't buy his burgeoning romance with Colman's sister, which was one of several elements which spins the plot out unnecessarily, making the film a bit overlong.
And, of course, there's the inimitable Price hamming it up in grand wacko style, along with an acerbic Celeste Holm as Colman's perfect foil.
Caesar isn't anyone important to the plot, simply the wise-cracking parrot that genius Ronald Colman and his spinster sister Barbara Britton are taking care of until they can find the rightful owner.
What works about this comedy is Ronald Colman, and from the beginning you can't help but like this genius, who unlike Clifton Webb in "Sitting Pretty", manages to stay "fairly" humble about his intelligence.
After being turned down for a job with the show's sponsor's owner (a droll Vincent Price), Colman vows revenge and goes onto the game show.
Like Karloff and Lugosi, Price was a horror film veteran who showed he could do a lot more when given the chance, especially when given funny material.
Ronald Colman and Vincent Price try comedy here along with Celeste Holm and the results are awkward at best.The movie is a take-off on the eventual quiz shows of the 1950s.Colman is perfectly cast as the genius who can't be stumped and Price, of course, is naturally ruthless in his attempt to get Colman off the air.
Price brings in Holm in an attempt to get Colman off the track.