Topper Trip
Added 3/9/2008
If you haven't experienced the Topper movie trio, you just must. We all love them!
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Topper Takes a Trip
Added 12/4/2007
TOPPER TAKES A TRIP is almost the equal of the original film, "TOPPER." It lacks the presence of Cary Grant as Constance Bennett's partner as George & Marion Kerby and their ectoplasmic adventures; (Grant makes only a cameo appearance).
The script follows Thorne Smith's book fairly faithfully, except the glaring absence of Mr. Kerby. However it is clever and funny and keeps the clever interplay between the bewildered Cosmo Topper, played to perfection by Roland Young and his companion, Marion Kerby played by Constance Bennett. Good fun and very entertaining.
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The weak link in the trilogy
Added 6/8/2005
There are three classic Topper films from the golden age of movies. The first, with Cary Grant, is a winner. The third, with Joan Blondell, is even better. But Topper Takes A Trip, the second in the series, is a complete dud. The script is simply embarrassing and wholly unfunny. The scenes (e.g. the bartender and the dog)are often pathetic. It took some doing to make a flop with the likes of the stars in this film. Even Franklin Pangborn is awful. But reading lines like that, how could he be otherwise? Best forgotten.
6 out of 11 people found this helpful.
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DELIGHTFUL SEQUEL.
Added 8/27/2002
This follow-up to the highly successful TOPPER - which was made earlier that year (1939) - picks up where the last film left off. After reestablishing the auto accident which killed the drunken Bennett and Grant in the first film and turned them into ghosts, we are treated (sans Cary Grant) to a hilarious 85 minutes. Clara Topper (Burke) spots Marion Kirby (Bennett) in her husband Cosmo's room. Clara goes to Paris - with Cosmo following - in order to get a divorce because she believes her hen-pecked husband has been seeing another "woman". Unable to explain to Clara that Marion is only a ghost, Cosmo tries to fast-talk Burke into a reconciliaton. Several floating martinis later, Bennett manages to reconcile the couple, and is now able to join her husband in their celestial home. The trick photography by Roy Seawright is astonishing for its day. Cushions which deflate when invisible figures sit on them, cigarettes being smoked in mid-air and pencils writing notes by themselves are all executed with great skill. The sight of the Kirby's dog Skippy - also a ghost - is hilarious when only his tail fails to become invisible or when he bites the ankles of totally flabbergasted men! A third film, TOPPER RETURNS is a surprisingly pleasant diversion from 1941: it stars Joan Blondell as Marion Kirby.
10 out of 11 people found this helpful.
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Comedy at its best
Added 1/3/2000
Topper movies have been some of the best clean cut comedy ever. These are the types of movies you can watch over and over and still continue to laugh. More comedy movies of today should be made this way. I know there are "Topper" lovers as myself and would enjoy being able to see them on the American Movie Classic channel or just on regular tv from time to time. The only move I own is Topper Returns and would love to have these others. I grew up watching these movies and will continue to watch them. Please bring them back.
20 out of 20 people found this helpful.
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Add a star (****) for the picture; subtract a star (**) for the lousy colorization. Whatever happened to the original b&w version?
Cary Grant and Constance Bennett are two recently deceased fun-loving, rich party-goers who come back to haunt the life of straight-laced banker Cosmo Topper (played by Roland Young). Bennett turns Topper's life so upside-down that he leaves his wife to have a good time with her. Of course it's all made right again before too much damage is done. The first 1/3 and the last 1/3 are the best parts; the middle part sort of drags. The picture is lots of fun. Worth a watch.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Cary Grant Step-Up
Added 7/10/2004
More than any other this was the film that made Cary Grant a certifiable star and vindicated his decision to free-lance in Hollywood rather than sign a studio contract. His light-hearted turn as the ghostly George Kirby, other-wordly pal and helpmate to banker Cosmo Topper, proved to be a box-office hit and Grant was shortly thereafter working with directors of the caliber of Howard Hawks, George Marshall and Alfred Hitchcock. Roland Young does some fine reaction comedy here; not easy, remembering he was often reacting to an empty set and the effects were put in later.
5 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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See Arthur Lake as an Elevator Boy and a Bellhop.
Added 2/21/2003
Cary Grant and Constance Bennett go out for a drive when suddenly a tire blows out and they go off the side of the road. When they come to, they both realize they individually have turned into a ghost. They decide to cause all kinds of havoc with the people around them. Billie Burke is in this film. Two years later she played The Good Witch (the one who appeared in the big pink bubble) in The Wizard Of Oz (1939). Hedda Hopper, who spoke of celebrity gossip on radio and newsreel, plays "Mrs. Stuyvestant". Arthur Lake has funny scenes as a nervous Elevator Boy and then later as a Bellhop. The next year, Arthur Lake became "Dagwood Bumstead" and played that character for the next 12 years in the "Blondie" film series from 1938-1950. This was the first film to be computer-colorized, a horrible technique that was used in the 1980's. This was Not restoration. The computer only had pale colors, such as, yellow, brown, green, pink, light blue, light green. The computer would chase the colors onto an item or person. This is why you see the flesh tone of someones face moving around. Which may not be the true flesh tone of the actor. It is like putting tinted plastic wrap on the screen itself. Computer-colorization did improved somewhat with other black & white films and some are quite watchable. There is more interest and detail in watching a computer-colorized film that was originally black & white. However, let me make something perfectly clear, When you see on VHS or DVD that a film has been RESTORED and DIGITALLY REMASTERED, that is a different process. That means the actual negetive or master of the film has been carefully restored to its original deep, rich colors and brightness. The film has been preserved for many more years. All scratches and pops are gone. But to get back to this version of TOPPER, this is only the computer-colorized version that I have written this review for.
4 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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