A lesson in champagne life!

Champagne (1928)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock

1928 must have been a very good year for a young Alfred Hitchcock. His maiden film as a director as well as a few others came alive on screen and since then champagnes have been popping. News had it that Hitchcock did not really enjoy post-production cocktail parties and was rarely seen after shooting times. The silent movie 'Champagne' is a 1928 production that made its way to my collection of Hitchcock's movies - that means only 'No. 13'(1922-lost film), Mountain Eagle (1925-lost film), 'Always tell your wife' (1923) and 'Elstree Calling'(1930) are still elusive!

'Champagne' starts with a Wall Street magnate fuming mad (literally, evidenced by puffs of cigar fumes) whilst reading about the antics of his headstrong daughter flying across the Atlantic to meet up with her secret lover. In the next scene, passengers of a cruise ship are excited over the apparent rescuing of a stranded plane in the middle of the ocean.
The lovers meet on board but they do not show their affection in public. Meanwhile, there is another gentleman on board who has both eyes set on the heir. The lovebirds' plan to be married by the Captain crumbles after a lovers' tiff.

The ship reaches Paris. Betty has a whale of her time immersing herself in luxury. Her father appears at her doorstep to inform her that they were poor now after Wall Street crash!

Betty starts working as a flower girl in a nightclub. The earlier suitor (aboard the ship) befriends her. Talk about coincidence, her boyfriend also appears there. Furious that her sweet girl is working in a place like that, he brings in her father who clarifies that the whole story of insolvency was made up to make her realize the importance of money. Angry for being fooled, she follows the suitor who incidentally was going back to America. As in all good Indian movies, the happy ending is told aboard the ship - that the suitor is actually her father's good friend who was summoned by Betty's father when he got news that she was planning to elope. After discovering that the boyfriend is a good guy, the father consents to the marriage and they toast to the union.

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