The best way to explain "Champagne" only makes it more confusing. It's a comedy that only works as a comedy when you watch it as a drama. Pull that off, and you get some clever, period-rich entertainment, but only if you watch it again. That's something a first viewing may not entice you to do.
"The rich are different than you or me..." F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that famous line around the same time young rich girl Betty (Betty Balfour) decides to board an ocean liner by ditching an airplane in the middle of the Atlantic. What a great way to sail away with her boyfriend (Jean Bradin), especially since their union is much opposed by her American plutocrat Daddy (Gordon Harker)! He sees the boy as a fortune-hunter. But what if there is no fortune left to hunt?
This Jazz Age-spirited comedy of status and love is remembered today as an early silent effort from director Alfred Hitchcock, who later dismissed it as his worst ever. But "Champagne" is better than most of his silent films and certainly way above later sound films of his like "The Paradine Case" and "Jamaica Inn." It also rates better than the later Hitchcock comedies "Mr. And Mrs. Smith" and "The Trouble With Harry."
"Champagne" has technique coming out of its ears, too, from an opening shot of a party seen through the bottom of a champagne glass to a startling transition shot of a leap off a balcony. Balfour is a fun lead who draws a rooting interest, a bit too smug in her wealth but with a palpably good heart. The ending is clever and quick in a very Hitchcockian way.
What the film doesn't offer much in is laughs, a problem for a comedy, especially a light one like this. Instead, you get rolling ship decks and overacting supporting actors. Harker, ever the ham, overdoes his cigar chewing and facial tics for lack of any substantive comic business, while Marcel Vibert as a maitre d' rubs his hands and raises his eyebrows with antic abandon.
Igenlode Wordsmith in an October 2012 review pointed up the problem of the second half of the film, namely all the comic potential left on the table when Betty gets work at Vibert's cabaret. By this time we have a good idea that Betty's problems aren't as serious as they seem, so we should be allowed to watch Betty cut loose and raise havoc. Instead, Hitchcock works up the suspense with a character played by Ferdinand von Alten whose place in this film is reminiscent of Ivor Novello in "The Lodger," that of a sinister, silent type, always on the lookout...or something.
I liked von Alten's performance quite a lot, particularly the second time I saw it, which is what makes a big difference. When you watch for the comedy, you do see it. But it's in the background. In the foreground is the suspense element Hitchcock works, and at times overworks, in the second half.
What compensates for this, and raises "Champagne" to the level of a mild recommendation, is how Balfour's character is used. She's both annoyingly carefree in her rich-girl cocoon and admirably spirited and independent in her drive to be who she wants to be, whatever the cost. Bradin, ironically, plays a bit of a stick who has more in common with Betty's father than she does, but her devotion to both men makes us care for all three. It also a striking issue, namely how much people can love one another when they not only fail to understand each other but don't see the need.
Seeing them come to terms with this is what makes the film work as a comedy, yet it's not enough unless you take their problem seriously, which as a comedy this isn't geared to do. Balfour's engaging if light performance does all it can to square the circle, and it's enough, just. "Champagne" may not be that substantive otherwise, but it's worth a sip.
"The rich are different than you or me..." F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that famous line around the same time young rich girl Betty (Betty Balfour) decides to board an ocean liner by ditching an airplane in the middle of the Atlantic. What a great way to sail away with her boyfriend (Jean Bradin), especially since their union is much opposed by her American plutocrat Daddy (Gordon Harker)! He sees the boy as a fortune-hunter. But what if there is no fortune left to hunt?
This Jazz Age-spirited comedy of status and love is remembered today as an early silent effort from director Alfred Hitchcock, who later dismissed it as his worst ever. But "Champagne" is better than most of his silent films and certainly way above later sound films of his like "The Paradine Case" and "Jamaica Inn." It also rates better than the later Hitchcock comedies "Mr. And Mrs. Smith" and "The Trouble With Harry."
"Champagne" has technique coming out of its ears, too, from an opening shot of a party seen through the bottom of a champagne glass to a startling transition shot of a leap off a balcony. Balfour is a fun lead who draws a rooting interest, a bit too smug in her wealth but with a palpably good heart. The ending is clever and quick in a very Hitchcockian way.
What the film doesn't offer much in is laughs, a problem for a comedy, especially a light one like this. Instead, you get rolling ship decks and overacting supporting actors. Harker, ever the ham, overdoes his cigar chewing and facial tics for lack of any substantive comic business, while Marcel Vibert as a maitre d' rubs his hands and raises his eyebrows with antic abandon.
Igenlode Wordsmith in an October 2012 review pointed up the problem of the second half of the film, namely all the comic potential left on the table when Betty gets work at Vibert's cabaret. By this time we have a good idea that Betty's problems aren't as serious as they seem, so we should be allowed to watch Betty cut loose and raise havoc. Instead, Hitchcock works up the suspense with a character played by Ferdinand von Alten whose place in this film is reminiscent of Ivor Novello in "The Lodger," that of a sinister, silent type, always on the lookout...or something.
I liked von Alten's performance quite a lot, particularly the second time I saw it, which is what makes a big difference. When you watch for the comedy, you do see it. But it's in the background. In the foreground is the suspense element Hitchcock works, and at times overworks, in the second half.
What compensates for this, and raises "Champagne" to the level of a mild recommendation, is how Balfour's character is used. She's both annoyingly carefree in her rich-girl cocoon and admirably spirited and independent in her drive to be who she wants to be, whatever the cost. Bradin, ironically, plays a bit of a stick who has more in common with Betty's father than she does, but her devotion to both men makes us care for all three. It also a striking issue, namely how much people can love one another when they not only fail to understand each other but don't see the need.
Seeing them come to terms with this is what makes the film work as a comedy, yet it's not enough unless you take their problem seriously, which as a comedy this isn't geared to do. Balfour's engaging if light performance does all it can to square the circle, and it's enough, just. "Champagne" may not be that substantive otherwise, but it's worth a sip.