Supernatural
comedy remains a mainstay in American film thanks to renewed interest in the
subgenre through the 1980s with the overwhelming commercial success of films
like Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice as well as the kindred cult
followings of Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, House and The Witches of
Eastwick. Arguably the first time
the film industry took notice of the notion of funny ghosts or goofy
poltergeists as screwball comedy arrived in the 1930s with René Clair’s British film The
Ghost Goes West before the genre made its initial stateside appearance with
the beloved Hal Roach film series The
Topper Trilogy.
Loosely
based on Thorne Smith’s 1926 novel The
Jovial Ghosts, the Topper film
series zero in on the misadventures and silly antics experienced by a prim and
proper middle-aged banker named Cosmo Topper (Roland Young in his only Oscar
nominated role) when his daily routine is upset by the arrival of ghostly
hauntings. While most horror films or
horror comedy films rely on a tightrope walk between the funny and frightening,
the Topper series represents
something of an outlier when the notion of ghosts and goblins were treated as
slapstick comedy.
Initially
released in 1937, Topper became a
career boosting hit for all involved, spawning two sequels with Topper Takes a Trip a year later and
concluded by Topper Returns in
1941. Garnering a spot in the AFI Top
100 Funniest American Movies, Topper
eventually engendered a 1953 television series, a 1979 television remake and a 1989
sitcom called Nearly Departed,
manifesting itself throughout the twentieth century in varied
entertainments. With all three of the
original Hal Roach feature film comedies released on blu-ray for the very first
time by VCI Entertainment, the Movie Sleuth goes back in time to take a good
look at this seminal and still influential supernatural comedy film series.
Topper (1937)
Spoiled
rich and reckless yet happy-go-lucky couple George (Cary Grant) and Marion (Constance
Bennett) Kerby are living the high life, spending night after night out
clubbing and drinking when they aren’t driving their snazzy automobile to and
from their milquetoast banker/friend Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) trapped in a
dull marriage to his socialite wife Clara (Billie Burke). On the way home from the bank, the
intoxicated duo inadvertently crashes their car and die, awakening as
transparent spirits left to wander the Earth neither in Heaven or Hell due to
their lack of performing good deeds.
Eager to cross over into the next world, the Kerbys seize the do-gooding
opportunity to inject some life back into their soppy banker friend replete
with boozing, partying and all manner of silly hauntings and increasingly goofy
antics.
An
extended mixture of physical slapstick and screwball comedy of manners, Topper benefits from My Man Godfrey screenwriter Eric Hatch
who co-wrote the film with Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran and brilliantly funny
technical direction from Norman Z. McLeod.
While working from Thorne Smith’s novel, the film is decidedly tamer
than the source upon which it was based and leaves ample room for the visual
effects department to unveil all sorts of onscreen trickery including but not
limited to objects moving around by themselves or, in one bravura special
effect, reset Topper’s hairline. Mostly
the film works exceedingly well thanks to the vibrant personalities of Cary
Grant and Constance Bennett as the adventurous carefree go-getting Kerbys,
providing a stark contrast to the uptight and puny Topper played brilliantly by
Roland Young.
Opening
in the summer of 1937, Topper proved
to be both a hit with audiences and an integral springboard for producer Hal
Roach to branch out from the typical short-film fare into feature length
projects. Like many of the Roach
offerings of the mid-1930s, Topper is
heavy on physical acting, notably from Roland Young who received an Oscar
nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Listed
in the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Laughs, some of the most amusing
sequences in the film combine still striking visual effects of poltergeist
activity coupled with Roland Young’s performance with seemingly invisible
forces dragging him kicking and screaming from place to place. Seen today, while some of the scenes tend to
play out a bit longer than modern audiences would like, Topper remains a lighthearted supernatural romantic comedy of
errors, friendship and ample room for riotous laughter.
Score:
Topper Takes a Trip (1938)
Reuniting
Roland Young, Constance Bennett and Billie Burke with director Normal Z. McLeod
of the first Topper film, the
inevitable sequel to the smash hit Hal Roach produced supernatural comedy finds
itself loosely following the trajectory of Thorne Smith’s novel Topper Takes a Trip while also being
somewhat of a victim of circumstance.
Originally
written by Smith with George and Marion Kerby in mind and a somewhat sinister
plan to murder Cosmo Topper while on a trip to the Riviera with his wife so
they can be a trio of ghosts together, actor Cary Grant bailed on the sequel
and the plot was revised to accommodate his absence. Swapping out the actor with a ghost dog as
Marion Kerby’s new partner in crime, the revised story this time around finds
Cosmo Topper in the midst of a bitter divorce from his wife Clara and Marion
Kerby still left behind on Earth seizes the opportunity to try and bring the Toppers
back together. Meanwhile a new
potential, well-to-do French suitor seeks to win the heart of Topper’s wife,
but not if the ever mischievous spirit of Marion Kerby can help it.
Deviating
from the source almost entirely by swapping out one of the Kerbys for a
deceased house pet, aside from changing the setting with some newfound gags
involving language barriers and differences in cultural customs, Topper Takes a Trip bears the
distinction of serving up more of the same with better special effects
sequences but somewhat redundant gags.
While the international setting and open beach shorelines provide ample
room for sight gags involving a beach ball with a mind of its own as well as a risqué
joke involving a baron who mysteriously loses his swim trunks, Topper Takes a Trip while utilizing all
the same people sans one crucial cast member feels a bit like déjà vu with
fewer laughs than what came previously.
Topper Takes a Trip also commits one of
my least favorite artistic sins involving repurposing entire sequences from the
first film into it, a technique that’s passable in some instances and grating
in others. Still a lighthearted romp
with Academy Award nominated special effects by Roy Seawright, the film still
proved to be a success with audiences though the impression one comes away with
is that it is half the movie that Topper
was. While the original was dialogue
heavy and played off of the personalities of all three characters, gutting one
out and tossing in more visual effects sight gags doesn’t necessarily amount to
more comedy.
Where
it works well involves the mistaken identities, being in the wrong place at the
wrong time and many of the other varying predicaments the hapless Topper finds
himself caught up in. And of course
setting the story in France allowed ample room for ethnic stereotypes and a
comedy of errors involving language barriers and miscommunication. That said, being a fan of the first film made
this frankly hasty sequel to be a little redundant and I couldn’t help but grow
a little restless at the same jokes being peddled yet again.
Score:
Topper Returns (1941)
Who
would have suspected the one which had the least to do with the source of
Thorne Smith’s first two novels in the Topper
film series without the Kerbys or the director of the first two features
would in fact be the most fun and entertaining entry in the series? Ditching what came before almost entirely
save for the lovably feeble Cosmo and Clara Topper with Roland Young and Billie
Burke reprising their roles for one last time, Topper Returns like the Hal Roach produced Laurel & Hardy
comedy The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case
is a parody of whodunit murder-mysteries replete with The Old Dark House tropes and sight gags including secret rooms and
a living room char that can drop you into a subterranean basement.
Opening
on a new set of characters in an old dark mansion, young woman Gail Richards
(Joan Blondell) is murdered in her bedroom by a cloaked assailant ala The Bat Whispers and promptly seeks out
the help of the meek Cosmo Topper to track down her killer. As with the usual antics of the Topper series, Cosmo Topper inadvertently
sets himself up as the prime suspect and it becomes a screwball race against
time to clear his own name and find the killer before more bodies fall. Clearly a send up of whodunit haunted house
chillers and murder mysteries of the time, Topper
Returns by changing the setting and ultimately the premise provides a fresh
spin on the characters we’re familiar with by placing them in an unfamiliar
premise.
Where
the first two films were ostensibly romantic comedies involving ghosts wanting
to do good to earn a ticket to Heaven, Topper
Returns ropes the hapless hero into an unfinished business ghost story with
more than a few surprises up its sleeve.
Some of the funniest scenes don’t even involve Roland Young or Billie
Burke but rather, Topper’s chauffeur played by Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson (Gone with the Wind). Playing a bemused and often frightened character
which would become the actor’s trademark seen again years later in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, it was
inarguably the most welcome addition the Topper
film series had seen yet.
Replacing
McLeod with future Ziegfeld Follies
director Roy Del Ruth and working from a screenplay by Jonathan Latimer, Topper Returns is admittedly a somewhat
mixed bag plotwise as the prior films depended on Topper’s affiliation with the
Kerbys. Here, it’s a new random
character unknown to Topper who seeks to avenge her own death rather than add
some light into Topper’s life and why she picks him as her ally other than to
have another Topper film is a bit
fuzzy.
That
said, one hardly cares as the laughs and sight gags come tumbling out and the
film builds up towards a thrilling and frequently funny climax with greater
speed and energy than the first two films.
It’s a tough call to make on this one since the story and picture itself
are somewhat weaker on paper but the end results are a lot more entertaining
and swift. One of the rare cases where
objectively speaking it’s a weaker film than the one which started it all and
yet it proved to be the most exciting and fun of the three.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki