CHAMPAGNE (UK, 1928, Alfred Hitchcock)

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The opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's CHAMPAGNE (1928). Source: YouTube.

 
 

Another rare comedy in the Hitchcock canon, 1928’s CHAMPAGNE stars “Britain’s Queen of Happiness” Betty Balfour as a young woman forced to find employment after losing out on her father’s fortune.

Balfour plays “Betty,” a carefree (and, at times, reckless) heiress who gets herself entangled with men her father disapproves of, as he believes they are only interested in her money. That all changes when the family fortune from their champagne business is lost. A comedic inversion of the classic “rags-to-riches” story ensues, one that finds Betty and her father moving into a rundown apartment. As it turns out, her father had been lying to her about the loss of the champagne fortune all along — he did it merely to teach her a lesson.

CHAMPAGNE remains a “curio” in the truest sense of the word. Its light, low-stakes story is markedly un-Hitchcockian, as the famous director had already established himself as a suspense master with the 1927 homicidal chiller THE LODGER, and would go on to become the foremost filmmaker of horror, thriller, and mystery films of the 20th century. While Hitchcock did make a few inspired and successful dabbles in comedy throughout his career (1928’s THE FARMER’S WIFE, 1941’s MR. AND MRS. SMITH, 1955’s THE TROUBLE WITH HARRY), CHAMPAGNE was not one of them, largely due to its threadbare plot, which scarcely impressed critics and audiences of the time. Hitchcock later admitted his own disappointment with the final product to François Truffaut, citing the lack of a substantive story as the reason for the project’s failure.

Nonetheless, CHAMPAGNE remains a fascinating and anomalous early work by one of our most beloved and influential filmmakers, and Balfour’s star power alone is well worth the price of admission. Additionally, the film foreshadows the meticulous and inventive visual style that would characterize Hitchcock’s most iconic works; look no further than the opening sequence (see above), which elaborately conveys the action of champagne being poured out of a bottle.

CHAMPAGNE
(UK, 1928)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

  • 105 minutes
  • 35mm
  • Black & white
  • Silent film with English intertitles
Distribution Format/s: DVD, Blu-Ray, DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: Kino Lorber

Institutional Price: $500

To order call: 212.280.8654 or click here for information on ordering by fax, e-mail or post.