Champagne for Caesar

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Champagne for Caesar is a 1950 US comedy movie about a trivia quiz show, directed by Richard Whorf and written by Fred Brady and Hans Jacoby. The movie stars Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, Barbara Britton, and Art Linkletter. The film was produced by Leo C. Popkin for his Cardinal Pictures, and released by United Artists.

[edit] Synopsis

The quiz show features a format where the prize doubles with each successive question, as on the contemporary The 64,000 Dollar Question.

Colman stars as snobbish scholar Beauregard Bottomley, who finds it demeaning that the public is interested in people who can answer a few simple questions. He gets on the show and easily answers the maximum 5 questions, then dares the host -- played by real-life radio/TV host Linkletter -- to ask him a 6th one... and then a 7th.

Eccentric soap tycoon Burnbridge Waters (Price) who is both sponsor and producer of the show, senses a ratings jackpot and plays along, calling Bottomley back for one question per show. The questions become more erudite, but Bottomley keeps winning. As the stakes continue to double, Waters becomes alarmed and attempts sabotage, but Bottomley is not stopped. After his run is finally ended by the question "What is your Social Security Number?", Bottomley reveals privately that, having proved his point, he had himself suggested the question he could not answer.

The title refers to Bottomley's alcohol-loving parrot.