Champagne for Caesar

Champagne for Caesar (1950)

Genres - Comedy  |   Sub-Genres - Sophisticated Comedy, Satire  |   Release Date - May 11, 1950 (USA - Unknown), May 11, 1950 (USA)  |   Run Time - 99 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

This comedy stars Ronald Colman as Beauregard Bottomley, a self-styled genius in need of a job. He applies for a position with a large soap company, but Burnbridge Walters (Vincent Price), the firm's willfully eccentric president, falls into a "trance" while interviewing Beauregard and decides not to give him the job. When Beauregard overhears his sister Gwenn (Barbara Britton) listening to a game show sponsored by Walters' soap company, he discovers the perfect means to get revenge -- each time a contestant answers a question correctly, they double their prize money. Beauregard gets a spot on the show and starts winning -- and doesn't stop. Before long, the company owes him $40 million and Beauregard hasn't even broken a sweat. Beauregard is poised to bankrupt Walters and destroy his company, so the soap tycoon persuades Flame O'Neal (Celeste Holm) to pose as a nurse who will (a) find out if there's anything Beauregard doesn't know, and (b) distract him romantically. While a critical success and something of a cult item, Champagne for Caesar was a box office disappointment on its initial release; Ronald Colman appeared in only two more films before his death eight years later.

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Keywords

game-show, genius, trivia, distraction, scheme, soap-opera, tycoon, revenge