Red Wine is a 1928 American comedy film directed by Raymond Cannon and written by Andrew Bennison, Charles R. Condon and Garrett Graham. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. The film stars June Collyer, Conrad Nagel, Arthur Stone, Sharon Lynn, E. Alyn Warren, and Ernest Hilliard. The film was released on December 23, 1928, by Fox Film Corporation.
Charles (Conrad Nagel) is the epitome of domestic regularity â a mild, meticulous man who wakes at precisely 7:26 a.m., shaves (cutting his chin on schedule every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday), and breakfasts on eggs boiled for one minute and eighteen seconds. His life, governed by habit and order, is shared with his sweet but conventional wife, Alice (June Collyer).
CharlesâÂÂs predictability earns him the nickname âÂÂOld Faithfulâ at the office, but things begin to shift when a bold and alluring new secretary, Miss Jones (Sharon Lynn), joins the firm. She turns heads â including CharlesâÂÂs â and her arrival prompts his friend and co-worker, Jack Stone (Arthur Stone), to suggest Charles needs to sample the "red wine of life." Jack tempts Charles to cut loose and attend a party at the notorious Club Exotique, urging him to âÂÂforget marriageâ and remember that âÂÂyouâÂÂre only young once.âÂÂ
After some hesitation, Charles gives in.
At the Club Exotique, heâÂÂs plunged into a night of exotic spectacle and drunken revelry. Spanish, Hawaiian, and Chinese dancers perform to the crowd's delight. Charles drinks heavily for the first time since college and quickly becomes the butt of a practical joke. Jack and his friends watch with glee as Charles grows increasingly inebriated, and they stage a scandal: after he passes out, they drape womenâÂÂs clothes around his hotel room to suggest heâÂÂs spent the night in sinful company.
The next morning, Charles awakens groggy, guilt-ridden, and deeply confused. Miss Jones teasingly greets him at the office with a knowing smirk, and Charles obsesses over the phrase Jack had repeated â âÂÂYoung onceâ â scribbling it like a confession. He is too ashamed to tell Alice.
Then comes a cruel twist of fate: that very night is the Davisesâ wedding anniversary, and Alice insists they celebrate at the very same Club Exotique. Despite CharlesâÂÂs desperate attempts to dissuade her, sheâÂÂs determined â âÂÂIâÂÂd like to be just a little bit wicked for once,â she says playfully.
At the club, Charles is immediately recognized by the waiters and dancers from the night before. Their teasing banter and suggestive glances bewilder Alice, who begins to suspect thereâÂÂs more to her husbandâÂÂs story than heâÂÂs letting on. Matters spiral when JackâÂÂs prankster friends return and mockingly refer to CharlesâÂÂs âÂÂlatest conquest.âÂÂ
Mortified, Charles storms out and confronts Jack on a nearby rooftop. The tension breaks when Jack finally confesses: nothing happened. After Charles passed out, it was all staged â the womenâÂÂs clothes, the room setup, the gossip. It was only a joke.
With the truth revealed, Charles rushes back to Alice, who is still at the club. There, amid the final strains of music and dancing, he takes her in his arms and explains everything. The misunderstanding is forgiven, and they share a tender waltz beneath the clubâÂÂs glittering lights.
As the music swells, Charles and Alice embrace, united once more in love and laughter. âÂÂYouâÂÂre right, dear,â Charles tells her softly. âÂÂWeâÂÂre only young once.âÂÂ
The soundtrack features the song "Once In A Lifetime" by Jesse Greer and Raymond Klages as the theme song.
Like many American films of the time, Red Wine was subject to cuts by city and state film censorship boards. In Kansas, with its themes of drinking and suggested marital infidelity, the Board of Censorship banned the film.