Topper Returns (1941)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

best movie i've ever seen.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The 3rd and final instalment of the Topper series of ghostly films, produced by Universal in 1937,'38, and '41. These were all inspired by several books written by Thorne Smith. The related film "I Married a Witch", filmed at Paramount, was also based on a Thorne Smith novel. The Topper series all involved one or more ghosts of a recently deceased person, who alternate between visible(mostly to Topper)and invisible. They may exert physical effects, as if they had a physical body. This provides the basis for mysterious and sometimes comical happenings. All these films were photographed in B&W, although a colorized version of the present film is available at YouTube. B&W may be preferable for murder mysteries of this era, providing a more sinister atmosphere. Unlike the first 2 Topper installments, this is a ghostly murder mystery. It's not billed as a comical mystery, although there is some humor here and there. Roland Young returns as the middle-aged Topper, and Billie Burke returns as his neurotic befuddled wife. But, Joan Blondell takes the place of Constance Bennet, as the main ghost. Also, there is no one comparable to Cary Grant's role in the first of this series. Joan, as the main ghost, helps solve the disappearance of her body, and who was responsible for her murder. Ann Carrington(Carole Landis) and her friend Gail Richards(Joan Blondell) arrive at the Carrington mansion after a near fatal crash of their taxi, caused by a gunman shooting out one of their tires. They had journeyed from the Far East, where Ann had spent her whole life, and where her mother, estranged from her father, had recently died from an accident. She had come in response to a letter saying her father was very ill, and she was the heir apparent of his estate. The girls met a sinister-looking collection of functionaries at the mansion, including Lilian: the housekeeper, Dr. Jeris: Mr. Carrington's personal physician, and Rama: the butler. Later arrivals include Cosmo Topper, his chauffeur: Rochester Anderson, his wife, his maid, and Bob: the cab driver. Also, several police spend much time trying to solve the murder case. Upon arrival, the massive central chandelier crashes, nearly hitting Ann. The girls are assigned their respective bedrooms, but Gail much prefers Ann's room, so Ann allows her to switch rooms the first night. This will prove fateful for Gail, as a man in all black enters her room and stabs her fatally during the night, escaping out her window. Gail's ghost travels to the nearby Topper residence and gets in Cosmo's bed, initially in invisible form. She asks Topper to accompany her to the Carrington's, to try to determine who killed her. Cosmo does this, and they find the body as before. However, when Cosmo goes downstairs to use the phone, various inhabitants converge on him. When he takes them to show the body, it's gone.Later, a man looking like the one that killed Gail, enters Ann's room at night and nearly knifed her, but screams brought a savior. Still later, the same person grabs Ann and takes her behind a secret panel. Again, someone saves her....I leave you to discover the remainder of this tale....Gail's killing may have been a random event. However, several happenings suggest probably someone was targeting Ann, and killed Gail by mistake, not knowing they had switched bedrooms for the night.The murder mystery itself, is fairly interesting, with a 'surprise' resolution. Joan and Rochester try to inject some humor there and there, with only modest success. Billie Burke, no doubt, comes across as more irritating than funny. To me, she's moderately amusing, with her inimical speech and frequent airhead remarks. Carole Landis serves mainly as eye candy, in one of her many supporting movie roles in the '40s. Ultimately, she was disappointed in the way her life was playing out, and took an overdose of pills, when not quite 30. Some of you may be uncomfortable with the idea that the spirits of the dead can appear in bodily or invisible form, manifesting physical abilities when invisible. In this respect, these ghosts are infringing on the characteristics of The Invisible Man, or Woman, who are not ghosts, but living people who have achieved reversible invisibility through special potions or electronics. They also exhibit physical capabilities, when invisible. The object of these fantasies is to imagine their unlikely existence, and the fun or sinister things these ghosts or people could do to drive the rest of us crazy.

I have to say that I never thought of murder mysteries as fun to watch. In this case, this all-star cast featuring Billie Burke, Roland Young, and Carole Landis are great in this comedic twist about murder, mayhem, and secrets at the Carrington home in the country. When two young beautiful women need a lift to Carrington place, they are picked up by Topper and his driver played by the wonderful Eddie Anderson. The Carrington home is spooky and creepy like any haunted mansion. Anyway, a mistaken identity ends up when Gail is killed instead of Ann Carrington, the heiress to the estate. Gail's ghost comes to Topper to get help in solving her murder and helping her friend, Ann, from meeting the same fate. Despite the seriousness of murder, this film is quite comically funny at times when slapstick humor is introduced. I love Billie Burke as Topper's jealous wife. It's a great cast and it's a lot of fun to watch too!

Most of the film takes place in a spooky mansion with secret doors, hidden passageways and a creepy knife-wielding killer lurking in the shadows.Roland Young reprises his role as Cosmo Topper, the straight-laced, bespectacled banker. In the original, Cary Grant and Constance Bennet were the ghosts who only Topper could see. This time it's Joan Blondell who is accidentally murdered.Billie Burke is the hysterical and somewhat dotty Mrs. Topper. Donald MacBride is a flustered police sergeant straight out of keystone cops.Check out Joan Blondell's friend, Carole Landis, as the rich girl who was the intended murder victim. Landis was in her early 20's and committed suicide at 29. She was an absolutely gorgeous woman who, unfortunately, is not remembered.The actor who steals the film is Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as the chauffeur. He played Jack Benny's sidekick Rochester on radio and TV. He has the movie's best lines and was an extremely talented comedian.This was the final film in the series after TOPPER (1937) and TOPPER TAKES A TRIP (1939). If you want to see one of the original haunted house mysteries with lots of darkness, sound effects and screams this is it.

For the third and final Topper film, Roland Young is now shed of the Kirbys from the two previous films and he and Billie Burke are now starting on a needed vacation with Eddie Anderson as chauffeur and Patsy Kelly as maid. Hey it's the best way to travel.But the other world isn't finished with him yet. Carole Landis and her friend Joan Blondell are on their way to spend the night with her father, H.B. Warner, at the old family haunted estate. If it wasn't haunted before it sure gets haunted after Blondell is murdered by mistake because the killer is after Landis.Of course that magnet for the other world Cosmo Topper attracts ghosts like moths to a flame and of course the now other worldly Blondell enlists him to find out who murdered her. Rounding out this cast of some of the best character actors around are Dennis O'Keefe as a taxi driver trying to collect a fare, Donald MacBride as the perennial dumb cop and George Zucco as the doctor/friend of the Landis/Warner family. The mystery has plenty of plot holes in it and we're never really told the reason why Landis is being targeted. One thing I will say though, given that the reader of this review might be knowledgeable in the typecasting of all these faces, don't think you've identified the culprit by that.Roland Young probably could have gone on making more Topper films, but I'm willing to bet he decided to quit while ahead. In any event Cosmo Topper probably decided to go with the flow and left the banking profession to become a psychic.