ALFRED HITCHCOCK: Champagne (1928)

Socialite party-girl Betty Balfour gets her comeuppance in this light comedy from Hitchcock; one of his rare out-and-out comedies. The Roaring 1920's atmosphere is the main attraction here and there's plenty of champagne corks popping and flappers kickin' up their heels. The leading lady's airplane entrance into the movie is a hoot and so flamboyant!

Hitchcock and his crew spend most of their creativity on technical feats such as the opening with a champagne bottle bursting open. According to biographer Patrick McGilligan, a lens was attached to a large bottle of champagne, so one could see from the bottom to the opening what was going on on the other side of the room as the champagne burst out. It is one of Hitchcock's most celebrated effects.

While he toyed with technical innovations, the actual story of the movie bored him, and he was not happy on the set. However, during filming he did meet and befriend a young still photographer named Michael Powell - the future director of The Red Shoes and Peeping Tom.

Hitchcock would later tell Francois Truffaut in their famous published interviews in the late sixties that Champagne "was probably the lowest ebb in my output."

You can read more about leading lady Betty Balfour here.

Champagne is included in a collection of 20 early Hitchcock titles released by Mill Creek Entertainment that I own.