jarrodmcdonald-1 The film picks up where the original story left off. If you haven't seen the first Topper, there are several flashback scenes at the beginning to bring you up to speed. This is classic screwball comedy combined with supernatural fantasy, something that seems to match writer Thorne Smith's particular talents and Hollywood's fascination with anything and everything whimsical.Roland Young is impressive as the befuddled title character and Billie Burke delights audiences as his wacky wife. The issue one has with the series is not its continual use of thinly stretched gags (playing on the idea that only Topper can communicate with the dead), but rather its obvious use of camera editing to create magical special effects. For example, ghostly Constance Bennett drinks a martini that seems to disappear one gulp at a time (obviously accomplished by stopping the film, emptying some of the alcohol, then resuming camera action). Most viewers probably see such an effect as fake and contrived. Despite the basic technology, the film does retain appeal, thanks in large part to the winning performances of its actors. Especially Miss Bennett who adds an element of glamour to the whole affair.

audiemurph This may be an odd suggestion, but I think this film actually benefited from the absence of Cary Grant. Now I love Cary Grant, but in the original Topper, he is conspicuous by his absence from much of the action, and it is a distraction: after all, he was supposed to be the star. Here, however, we get to focus exclusively on the wonderful Roland Young and the drop-dead gorgeous Constance Bennett.Young is quite frankly great as the bumbling and often mumbling Cosmo Topper. He is so good at pretending to be pulled, pushed and twisted around by the invisible Mrs. Kirby that you really completely believe unseen forces are constantly roughing him up. And he so thoroughly throws himself into dancing by himself, kicking his feet around in a jig, and kicking at invisible dogs, that it is a real joy.Have I mentioned that Constance Bennett is gorgeous? How many marriages on the set must have been broken up by her walking around in a bathing suit for a good portion of the film? Billie Burke was also much more interesting here than in the original. The writers surely delighted in giving her so many inane and nonsensical lines, which she, in her well-meaning but confusing daffiness, plays to perfection.Finally, Franklin Panghorn has a lovely and meaty role as a manager of a French hotel; but his French accent has to be one of the worst ever. Luckily the film is filled with upset, screaming Frenchmen all always yelling at the same time.I don't think everyone will agree with me, but I found "Topper Takes a Trip" to be at least as enjoyable as the original (except for the long introduction with its extensive borrowing from the original). Highly recommended.

BaronBl00d This sequel to the funny Topper lacks the entire sophistication of that film yet is able to stand all by itself as a worthy successor based on the performance of Roland Young once again playing the amusing, befuddled Cosmo Topper - he who sees dead people way before it became fashionable by The Sixth Sense and on a cast of wonderful character actors doing their "bit." Topper Takes a Trip does have some major flaws; however. The film opens with Young in a courtroom going through divorce proceedings from his even more befuddled wife Billie Burke. Topper explains to the courtroom how he was befriended by the ghosts of Constance Bennet and Cary Grant(who could not join his former cast-mates because he was now too big a star but magnanimously agreed to allow them to use footage from the original - Swell Guy!). This whole beginning seems very forced as it tries to make sure that all is explained in case you missed the first film. Once they get out of the courtroom, Topper and one ghost and her ghostly dog go on a drinking binge and discover that Mrs. Topper's best friend has taken her to Paris to try and get her hooked up with a Baron there. Topper and companions follow and the laughs go from a trickle to an avalanche at times as Young does all kinds of crazy things with the aid of his spectral friend. The hotel is headed by Franklin Pangborn whose performance really is a comic treat. Pangborn made me laugh so hard with that sardonic look and witticisms. Butler Alan Mowbray follows and adds a fine turn as the Topper's butler. The rest of the cast is also suitably funny. It is important to remember just how influential these films were in this little sub-genre and that the special effects used were state-of-the-art at the time(Oscar nominated in this case. Many scenes stand out for me as truly masterful bits of comedic timing: Young dancing with a ghost on the dance floor, Alexander D'Arcy(the Baron) being bulldozed by a huge beach ball while shortless in the sand, and Young being cramped in his small room standing out particularly.

David (Handlinghandel) The Topper movies do not hold up well today for several reasons. Two are primary: Through no fault of their own, the gimmick of disappearing and reappearing has become very ho-hum in large part because of television shows like "I Dream Of Jeannie" and "Bewitched." ("Blithe Spirit" is another movie affected by this, also, of course, retroactively.) Equally significant is their reliance on the ostensible hilarity of being drunk. We know today that is not funny and finding these movies charming is therefore very difficult.This first sequel, also, is very routine. It begins with clips from the original Topper movie, with Constance Bennett (in this movie too) and Cary Grant, who is not in the movie itself.Many of the performers are great character performers but their characters are not filled out. They are sketched in. Billie Burke and Alan Mowbry are among those who suffer. Not to mention Franklin Pangborn, playing a desk clerk as he frequently did but here a desk clerk in Paris who speaks English with a (bad) French accent.The two standouts are D'Arcy as a baron who woos the Burke, who is separated from Roland Young (also a fine performer but just not funny in these movies.) The scene on the beach in which invisible Constance Bennett snatches away his bathing suit is about as close as the plot gets to genuine humor.Veree Teasdale, as Burke's tough society woman pal, walks away with the whole thing. She is extremely funny. Is her role a bit of stereotype? Yes. But the writers fleshed it out