Champagne

Alfred Hitchcock's second film for British International Pictures, made during his silent period before he broke through with The Man Who Knew Too Much. A champagne heiress announces her engagement to provoke her father, who fakes bankruptcy to teach her a lesson, and the film follows the complications that spiral from the ruse. Hitchcock later dismissed the film as one of his weakest, saying he took it on without much interest in the material, and the thin story bears that out. What survives is the visual invention: a famous opening shot of a champagne cork popping into the camera, and a number of gags built around bottles and bubbles. It is a minor Hitchcock, but a revealing one for anyone tracing how he learned his craft. The 1928 film entered the United States public domain on January 1, 2024.