Courtesy of STUDIOCANAL

Films featuring drinking are common, but the vigorous consumption of alcohol as a metaphor for success sits uneasily with the modern view that heavy drinking is unhealthy. However, in Champagne Charlie (d. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1944) the career of happy-go-lucky miner Joe Saunders (Tommy Trinder) is charted with songs extolling the virtues of drink as he makes his way from pub singer to reluctant music hall star. As his fame grows, so does the value of the drink he sings about.

Set in London's music halls of the 1860s, the film centres on the developing rivalry between Saunders and established star The Great Vance (played with typical gusto by Stanley Holloway), who regards the upstart performer as trespassing on his territory. "How dare you sing a drinking song," Vance demands, "I sing about drink."

The rivalry is initially played out on the boards; Saunders, under the stage name George Leybourne, and Vance up the stakes with each new song, starting with ones about beer before rapidly moving through gin, wine, rum, brandy, sherry and finally champagne. The feud, which culminates in an incompetent duel with pistols, is finally forgotten when the theatre owners try to have the music halls shut down as disorderly houses.

The film's sub-plot, following the growing relationship between the daughter of redoubtable music hall owner Bessie Bellwood (Betty Warren) and a foppish nobleman, attempts to expose hypocritical upper-class attitudes to working-class entertainment and 'below stairs' marriages, but its overly-plotted structure robs it of much of its potential, and it fits awkwardly with Trinder and Holloway's comic sparring.

Another plot point that fails to develop initially appears to be central to the film. Saunders travels to London with his brother Fred, whose hopes of becoming a boxer are dashed when it becomes clear that working down the mines has ruined his health. Joe's original motivation for staying on in London is to earn enough money to get his brother out of the pits. But this is quickly forgotten as the song-count rises.

Champagne Charlie often struggles under the weight of unnecessary complexities, but the central feud between Trinder and Holloway is played out with such enthusiasm that these are easily forgotten. And importantly, the key element in any musical - the songs - are memorable. The title tune was a genuine Victorian favourite, while others were specially written for the film by Lord Berners and T.E.B. Clarke.

Anthony Clark

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