Rating: 
Summary: Great Satire with a Great Cast
Review: Several years ago, I saw Vincent Price on a talk show, and he was asked what his favorite was of all the movies he had made. He replied that it was a movie he considered "way ahead of it's time", titled "Champagne For Caesar". I was very excited to hear him say that, because it has been one of my favorite movies since I discovered it late one night on a local tv station back in the 60's. This is a very funny satire of quiz shows and of tv advertisers, backed by a stunning cast which includes Ronald Colman as Beauregard Bottomly, a genius who knows everything except how to keep a job. He embarks on a quest to destroy a sponsor of a tv quiz show, by answering enough questions to bankrupt them. Celeste Holme co-stars as the beautiful, intelligent femme fatale sent to find his weakness. Vincent Price is the owner of the soap company who sponsors the quiz show, and his performance as the wickedly funny "Dirty Waters" is one of the many bright spots of this film. Art Linkletter has a supporting role as "Happy Hogan", the host of the quiz show, with some very funny moments between him and Vincent Price. Mel Blanc is the voice of "Caesar", an alcoholic parrot. Everybody in this film is excellent, and this is a movie that shouldn't be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Phone call from Einstein
Review: The film starts with a great opening-shot: a beautiful blonde basking in the sun - but the protagonist is not she, but the gentleman in the neighboring bungalow: Beauregard Bottomley (Ronald Colman), the last scholar. In a constant pursuit of knowledge, he reads and reads and reads. He piled up his informations until he reached the highest pitch of erudition. He knows everything - with two exceptions: Who turned his parrot into a drunkard, and how to find himself a job. The intellectual level of quiz-shows (sample of the questions: how much is two and two?) scandalizes him. He is quite a dogmatic wiseacre: When the labor exchange sends him to apply for a job as pollster for "Milady soap - the soap that sanctifies) and Burnbridge Waters (Vincent Price), the boss, has a flash of genius ("I'm thinking of putting on the market an all-purpose cake of soap that will also be used to clean teeth") does he have to crack jokes? Waters, used to be handled with kid gloves is hurt in his feelings: "I loathe humor and you're humorous". The disgracefully dismissed Bottomley dreams up a clever revenge: Milady is worth 40 million dollars and Waters sponsors "Happy Hogan", a double-or-nothing quiz-show. Bottomley enters the competition with the intent of swallowing Waters assets to the last flake of soap. He is self-confident, quick at repartee and knows absolutely everything. Every week he doubles his winnings. The show becomes a hit, the ratings rise just as the sales of soap. Bottomley becomes a fifteen-minutes-of-fame-celebrity, only in the early days of television they lasted longer. While he wins and wins, Waters grins and bears it. But after Bottomley's winnings hit the $40.000 mark the nervous strain becomes too much for him. He orders Hogan to spy on Bottomley's sister: find out his Achilles heel! Bottomley appears at Milady's to inspect his prospective property. Only superhuman self-control keeps poor Waters from pushing him into a pool of boiling suds. At last Waters learns of Bottomley's weak spot: he yearns for love...Waters is jubilant: Nothing could be easier! Flame O'Neil (Celeste Holm) is the right woman for this task. She has everything - except a heart. And so Waters sets her on Bottomley. Mission: shatter his nerves, derange his intellect and find out the one question he won't be able to answer... The plot is imaginative, the dialogue is witty and the humorous description of tv-stars and their audience around 1950 is to the point. What this film needs is a director like Lubitsch or Wilder to coddle it up. The material is good, not polished. In fact, it's a time-capsule of its era: plain, prosy, upright...But this film is saved by its stars. Vincent Price has never been better (except in THEATRE OF BLOOD). He has not one frame of mind, but four: in trance, foaming with rage, of ominous politeness and on the brink of a heart-attack. Try to imitate his speech: take a deep breath and let the words fall out of your mouth sideways...Celeste Holm as chirping, giggling Mata Hari is the right woman to drive a man crazy: She takes Colman's temperature, feels his pulse, shakes up his pillow, but it's only after she makes him believe that she shares his taste for literature that he flounders in her net. I wish Ronald Colman would have had more sophisticated material for his last performance as romantic lover. With him the cinema lost a true gentleman.
Rating: 
Summary: Dirty Waters
Review: This film is a gem! A friend passed on the VHS to me knowing that I was looking for a copy, having opted against the DVD after reading the Amazon reviews. The entire cast is marvelous, in particular Art Linkletter as the perfect foil to Ronald Colman's acerbic smart-aleck. Everyone, however, pales a bit in comparison to Vincent Price who is almost unbelievably funny as the scheming CEO of a company that manufactures soap as well as sponsoring a broadcast quiz show; his performance alone is reason enough to make this a keeper rather than a rental.
The sound on the VHS, BTW, isn't very good either at times, however, it's just in few spots; the picture is okay. If the DVD is no better than this, it might be worth picking up but not at list.
Incidentally, Mr. Price possessed an unbelievable range--one has only to see him in the films in which he appeared prior to his becoming a horror icon (which isn't to be disparaged; those films are great fun). In addition, he was an incredibly cultured man, kind and courteous, who was considered an authority on the finer things in life, such as art and food. I had the privilege of seeing him perform live many years ago when he was touring in a revival of a one-man show called Diversions and Delights in which he played a post-Reading Gaol Oscar Wilde. The show was held in a tiny theater on W. 23rd Street here in Manhattan, our seats were practically onstage, and I can't honestly say that I've ever enjoyed an evening of theater more. Mr. Price was electrifying and to this day I can't watch his movies without regretting that no one had the foresight to film a performance of Diversions and Delights. The world lost a great actor, a great connoisseur, and--most importantly--a great gentleman with his passing.
Rating:
Summary: AHEAD OF ITS TIME!
Review: This understated flick is a "reel" sleeper that will sneak up on you. I saw it 30 years ago and just bought it this week and I can't wait to see although I have over 5,000 titles in stock. Vincent Price and Ronald Coleman are at there best.
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