1950's "Champagne for Caesar" serves as a time capsule on life in the late 1940s, when radio quiz shows were vastly popular and ready to make the jump to television. "Masquerade for Money" is the nation's top quiz show, allowing contestants to earn a modest total of $160 each week just by correctly answering basic questions, the brainchild of Milady Soap president Burnbridge 'Dirty' Waters (Vincent Price), making a star out of its host, Happy Hogan (Art Linkletter). At the film's center is Beauregard Bottomley (Ronald Colman), a certified genius with several degrees but not the ability to secure suitable employment, his attempt to amuse Waters at Milady Soap earning only derision from the humorless executive. This intended slight spurs Bottomley into action, exploding on to the show disguised as an encyclopedia, supplying all the right answers and insisting on continuing the following week. His popularity not only increases the show's ratings but also Milady's profits, but every right answer doubles his winnings until he is now in position to bankrupt his rattled nemesis and take over the company. Waters tries an ace up his sleeve in an attempt to distract Bottomley, calling upon a cold hearted female genius (Celeste Holm) to probe for his Achilles heel. This is the point where the soap satire degenerates into soap opera, doubly so since Bottomley's sister Gwenn (Barbara Britton) is being courted by Happy Hogan, a downturn that never proves fatal but does diminish the laughs. Caesar is a dipsomaniac parrot who prefers champagne to a cracker, and though Mel Blanc is credited with the voice it's definitely someone else. Vincent Price enjoys one of his most delightful roles, occasionally 'spaced out' in his own little world, and able to keep up with the esteemed Ronald Colman (the two would be reunited for Colman's last film, 1957's "The Story of Mankind").
Review of Champagne for Caesar
