The riches-to-rags (and perhaps back to riches) story was among Alfred Hitchcock’s favorite structures of the Roaring Twenties. He approached it seriously in “Downhill” (1927), about a well-off young man abandoned by his father, and “Easy Virtue” (1928), about a rich woman shunned by society for getting a divorce.
He didn’t get the story out of his system, but he was in the mood for something lighter with another of his silent-era batch, “Champagne” (1928). It’s co-written with regular collaborator Eliot Stannard, who also penned those aforementioned films, from a story by Walter C. Mycroft.
The bubbly Betty Balfour does the heavy lifting in this lightweight jaunt as “The Girl.” She only knows being rich, and she’s a bit out of control, taking her father’s (Gordon Harker) plane to the middle of the Atlantic just to meet a ship her boyfriend (Jean Bradin) is on.
“Champagne” (1928)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: Alfred Hitchcock, Eliot Stannard (screenplay), Walter C. Mycroft (story)
Stars: Betty Balfour, Jean Bradin, Ferdinand von Alten
Wispy whimsy
“Champagne’s” plot slowly engaged me. Good scores (added years later) can be found on both the Plex and YouTube versions to carry you along on this wispy cloud of a pleasant Sunday matinee. The piano on both cuts matches up well even in the frantic sequences that illustrate the partying lifestyle the girl is initially part of and later observes from the outside.
Bartenders shake up their concoctions and young women flail around the dance floor, alone or with men or with a gaggle of women. Hitch, who also does the editing, uses a faster frame rate here to demonstrate the energy and give a flavor of whimsy and borderline slapstick (a quick gag: handprints show on The Boy’s suit back after a hug from the baking Girl). A good time is had by all, but a slightly better time is had by the upper crust.
The Girl knows nothing other than being spoiled, but Balfour makes her consistently likeable after her thoroughly self-centered introduction where she has to be “rescued” by the cruise ship’s crew. When her father pretends to lose his millions, purely to teach her a lesson, she becomes sympathetic because she throws herself into new challenges with the same gusto as in her bratty phase.
The comedy is not sharp, relying on standard gags such as The Girl’s initial baking attempt leading to rock-hard biscuits. And while the father’s position is understandable, it seems The Girl could do without the other two men in her life.
On paper, The Boy is admirable because he doesn’t want The Girl for her money – despite what the father thinks. But Bradin – contrasting his suave looks — plays him like a bland milquetoast and it’s hard to understand why these two like each other. When The Girl wants to dance on a break from her job as a hotel restaurant flower girl, The Boy sits there morosely.
Worth a toast
Then there’s Ferdinand von Alten as The Man, an older gentleman who chastely courts The Girl on the cruise ship – while staying a respectful distance from her engagement to The Boy — and continues to stay in her life. The slightest bit of mystery clings to him, and by the story’s end his behavior clicks into place more so than The Boy’s.
Mild spices play in the background and might’ve made more impact for 1920s viewers. Is that hotel restaurant some sort of mid-range brothel, too? The degree to which the father and The Boy are ashamed of The Girl for working there seems to suggest as much.
“Champagne” is not a high-proof film, though. The Girl doesn’t learn any lessons despite her travails. When she finds out she’s rich after all, she’s happy, but it seems she could’ve gotten by if she were actually poor. She’s the type of person who can’t absorb lessons, but maybe doesn’t need to because she’s good at going with the flow.
Since Balfour understands the vibe, it’d be nice if everyone else could’ve gotten on her page; it would’ve allowed for some chuckles. Which isn’t to say the movie is dire, just that it’s not out-and-out funny. 1920s viewers would’ve had a pleasant time, though, being swept into The Girl’s upper-class lifestyle for a while.
The appeal hasn’t been sanded off all that much in the century since. It’s worth raising a glass to toast “Champagne.”
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