From my favorite movies..

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Topper (1937) *** (out of 4)Marion and George Kerby (Constance Bennett, Cary Grant) are a fun-loving couple who party all night long and don't quit until there's no more fun to be had. George is business partners with Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) who lives an incredibly boring life where he's pushed around by his nagging wife. The Kerby's are killed in an auto crash but their ghosts come back and they plan on showing Topper a good time.Throughout the 1930's there were all sorts of comedies based inside haunted houses. This film here was somewhat different because it was given an A-budget and a terrific cast. This MGM production was a huge hit when it was released and it kicked off a franchise that remains popular to this very day. There are certainly a lot of nice jokes in the film but there's no question that the film really benefits from its terrific cast, which includes Grant who shot to super-stardom thanks to this.The entire cast is really terrific but there's no question that Grant deserves a lot of the credit for the film being as funny as it is. Grant would become one of the greatest leading men in Hollywood history and that classic charm that everyone loves is on full display here and this is certainly the first time where he hit on all levels. The character is a really fun one and there's no doubt that Grant does everything he can with it. Bennett and him share some terrific chemistry together throughout. Young is also wonderful in the role of the meek man who finally gets a chance to live. Eugene Palette is hilarious in his role as a hotel detective and we also get Hedda Hopper, Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray.The film's weakest sequence is actually a long stretch when Grant is missing from the picture. There are some really funny moments scattered throughout the picture but my personal favorite was when the Topper character is drunk and we're given the effect that he's being carried around. The special effects are extremely good and it's amazing to see how much the "invisible" touch had improved since Universal's THE INVISIBLE MAN in 1933.

I really wanted to like this, and I expected to. I like Cary Grant. I like lots of comedies of the same period. What happened? Unfortunately, the George and Marion characters don't come off as likable. They seem painfully self-involved and completely unconcerned about anyone else except themselves. They drive to endanger (not funny), they drive drunk (not funny), they make it a game to inconvenience someone who appears to be a friend of theirs who owns a tavern and wants to go home when it's well past closing (who can blame him?), they hand a police officer an empty milk bottle when they're parked where they shouldn't be and tell him to dispose of it… sorry, but I don't like people who act like that. I don't find it charming. I thought one of the biggest pains in the butt in cinema history was the supposedly quirky Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's", and George and Marion give me just about the same vibe. Nothing about them appeals to me.Their "good deed" in getting Topper to let his hair down only succeeds in embarrassment and consternation for the poor guy, for the most part. It seems to end "well", I suppose, but it's awkward and uncomfortable to watch. Apparently it was a hit in its day, so I can't argue with that, but personally I didn't care for it at all.

This is one of the earliest films Hollywood made about ghosts that showed spirits after death. While the comedy is OK, the real stars of "Topper" are the artists behind the scenes who made the special effects work. In modern times, we are used to all kinds of special effects in films, as well as computer-generated imagery. But back in the 1930s – less than 10 years after film became wholly rounded with sound and video, special effects such as this must have truly amazed audiences. The quality is so good that it still comes across as real many decades later.Although Cary Grant was firmly established by this time, he took second billing to Constance Bennett. She was a star in her own right and had been around Hollywood a decade earlier than Grant. Hollywood also tended to tout its leading ladies above the men in those days.Anyway, Bennett and Grant are OK in this film as Marion and George Kerby. But their roles aren't particularly special – beyond being the means for much crafty special effects. The plot is quite simple. The script doesn't have a lot of punch or humor in the dialog. It has some, but nothing on the level movie buffs came to enjoy in most Grant films. The most enjoyable performances in the film are by Roland Young as Topper and Billie Burke as Mrs. Topper. A cast of very good supporting actors adds a little flavor.But for the special effects in this film, it wouldn't rate that high against other Grant and Bennet films of the 1930s and 1940s.

George & Marion Kerby like to live life to the max, they party hard and pursue the good time with carefree abandon. During one devil may care drive home fuelled with excess, they crash into a tree and are instantly killed, yet strangely their spirits are still on earth, and it would seem they need to achieve something of value before they can hit the big house in the sky. Enter regimental prig Cosmo Topper, a friend and colleague of the Kerby's, and someone who is about to become their pet make over project!Based on Thorne Smith's novel, The Jovial Ghosts, this is a truly delightful picture, it steams along at a fair old clip, and clocking in at just one and half hours in length, it never outstays it's welcome. It would have been very sad if this had become a one joke movie, I mean just how many ghost gags can you pull off before it gets tiresome? Thankfully the makers of this breezy romp have pulled it all together to consistently tickle the ribs. The spooky effects for 1937 certainly hold up well, for sure they are far from perfect, but with the tone of this particular piece being one of mirth and cheekiness, I find that the effects carry a decidedly uplifting charm.The film boasts a wonderful turn from Roland Young as Cosmo Topper, as he lurches from one incredulous situation to another, he carries the film with consummate ease. As the Kerby's we get the bright Constance Bennett and the irrepressible comic talent of Cary Grant, with Bennett only bagging the role of Marion when the already cast Jean Harlow sadly passed away a month before the shoot. Grant stepped into the role of George after W.C. Fields vacated it, and we can only guess what sort of picture we would have got with the original cast choices. Yet I simply can't envisage the film being improved upon because Grant & Bennett literally do bounce of each other with cracking results.From one spooky set up to the next, Topper is a cure for the blues, be it fisticuffs with cops, or turning a hotel inside out, it is quite simply a delicious piece of 30s comedy pie. 8/10