Product Description

An unemployed genius becomes a contestant on television's biggest quiz show and proceeds to win the company from the show's sponsor in this riotous comedy favorite! Vincent Price gives a career best performance as the eccentric owner of the Milady Soap empire, along with pitch perfect turns by Academy Award winners Ronald Colman (Lost Horizon) and the effervescent Celeste Holm (All About Eve). A rollicking, romantic film guaranteed to tickle your funny bone!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33323 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-12-17
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 100 minutes

Amazon.com
A little-known comedy gem, this never-more-timely sendup of quiz shows and media promotions stars a delightfully aloof Ronald Colman as Beauregard Bottomley, the "last scholar." Beauregard, out of work and living with his sister (Barbara Britton), hits on the idea of making a bundle on the Masquerade for Money radio show, produced by Milady Soap and hosted by a good-natured dolt (yes, that's Art Linkletter).

Initially, Beauregard is in it for the loot, but this soon changes as the show's apoplectic boss, Burnbridge Waters (Vincent Price), mobilizes his staff--and in-house Mata Hari (Celeste Holm)--to finish off the seemingly unflappable contestant. Now front-page news, Beauregard means higher ratings and increased soap sales. Burnbridge realizes he has created a monster.

Directed by Richard Whorf from a script by Hans Jacoby and Fred Brady, with music by Dimitri Tiomkin, this sophisticated, rapid-fire lark will remind some of vintage Preston Sturges (Sullivan's Travels). It benefits immeasurably from the casting of Colman and Price as antagonists. Colman does a shrewd parody of his erudite charmers, and Price proves that he had the makings of a top-flight comedian well before he turned to ham-and-stakes horror. The title refers to Beauregard's alcoholic parrot and its choice of beverage. --Glenn Lovell

Customer Reviews

Picture is fun and smart. The sound, just awful.
"Champagne for Caesar" was a film I saw in my early days of film going. I've always remembered it as a smart and funny film, especially notable for Celeste Holmes sophisticated turn as Ronald Coleman's charming nemesis and Vincent Price's off-the-wall performance as the eccentric manufacturor of "Milady Soap, The Soap That Sanctifies."

I looked forward to this DVD but must report that technically it falls too far short to recommend. About a quarter of the way into it, the sound turns extremely harsh and is almost unlistenable. Later still, intrusive scratches and smudges-- that surely could have been eliminated--suddenly intrude, spoiling the moment.

"Champagne for Caesar" remains a charming romp but not in this presentation.

Bad transfer
I won't go into the story line as others before me have covered that. Let me instead deal with the quality of this DVD. It stinks! Mainly because of the sound. At points it sounds like the actors are talking under water. At first I thought I had a bad disc, so I returned it for replacement, but got the same problem. So I wrote to the company that put this out on DVD and this was their response: Thank you for your inquiry. We are sorry to hear that you are disappointed with your latest Image Entertainment purchase. Unfortunately the problem that you are describing concerning the soundtrack of this film is the result of damaged film stock. Image Entertainment made three attempts to find the best available master for this film and the finished product was made using the best remaining film stock available.

Bottom line is, buy this ONLY if you can't do without this film. Otherwise there are lots of other wonderful films on better DVDs.

Zany cult film from 1950.
This film has Oscar winner Ronald Colman's last starring performance. (He only had small roles in two later films.) After its failure at the box office, Colman did a radio show ("The Halls of Ivy"), and in 1954 starred in a TV adaptation of that radio show for a year. Meanwhile, "Caesar" developed a cult following when it was shown on TV (appropriately, since it is all about the way TV saturates a nation's consciousness). Now that the film's available on DVD, perhaps it can find a new audience. Colman is matched by two strong character actors in this film: Vincent Price, even more flamboyant than he was in "His Kind of Woman" (1951), and Celeste Holm, another Oscar winner (for supporting actress in "Gentleman's Agreement"), who doesn't appear until halfway through but dominates the second half as a wide-eyed femme fatale. The surreal offices at the Milady soap company show superior art directors at work. The dialogue is crackling and quotable, but the plotting has problems (several times, we are told what's about to happen before it does). Moreover, the two love relationships aren't convincing (Colman's character looks happier living his sister, played by the lovely and charming Barbara Britton). The continuing gimmick with the drunken parrot (voiced by Mel Blanc) is hysterical. All in all, a film well worth seeing.