Champagne Charlie is a 1944 British musical film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and loosely based on the rivalry between the popular music hall performers George Leybourne (born Joe Saunders), who was called "Champagne Charlie" because he was the first artist to perform the song of that title, and Alfred Vance, who was known as "The Great Vance".

Leybourne and Vance, portrayed by Tommy Trinder and Stanley Holloway, were London's big music hall stars of the 1860s and 1870s, of the kind called lions comiques.

The film's female leads are a music hall owner and her daughter, portrayed by Betty Warren and Jean Kent.

Joe Saunders and his brother Fred arrive in London from Leybourne in Kent, and go to the Elephant and Castle pub, the haunt of Tom Sayers, a leading boxer.

While his brother, an aspiring boxer, is having a trial bout with Sayers, Joe Saunders is persuaded to sing a song to entertain the bar's customers.

Initially reluctant, but persevering, his performance is a hit, leading to an offer from the landlord of a regular engagement at £1 a week and two free beers a night.

Despite their rivalry, Vance and Leybourne begin to develop a grudging respect for each other and agree to stage a joint performance in support of the owner of one of the other music halls.

A relationship also develops between Bessie Bellwood's daughter Dolly and Lord Petersfield, the young son of the duke in charge of the panel cracking down on the music halls.

During the first performance of Leybourne's latest song, a major riot is started by men paid by the theatre owners, who call upon the police to intervene.

[6] Holloway had served in the First World War, but in 1939, too old for active service at 49, he made his contribution mainly in short propaganda pieces for the British Film Institute and Pathé News, narrating documentaries aimed at lifting morale in war-torn Britain.

[10] The News Chronicle critic wrote that "To have any sort of musical, let alone British, maintaining a spontaneous running gaiety and an irresistible tunefulness is a new and blissful experience.