Product: Topper Returns (UK PAL Region 0)
Rating: 4.0
A great black comedy to watch on Halloween night
This is the third movie in the Topper series but without the charm of Cary Grant. Sexy, wise-cracking Gail Richards (Joan Blondell) accompanies her best friend Ann Carrington (Carole Landis) to see Ann's ailing father at his mansion. During her stay at the creepy mansion, she is found murdered after trading her bedroom with Ann, who was the intended target of the killer. In the tradition of Topper movies, Gail's ghost comes back and she persuades the sweet and caring Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) who had given the ladies a lift earlier, to help identify the masked killer. The madcap adventure begins with one after another, following up leads to her murderer. The real hoot is that Eddie the chauffeur (Eddie Anderson) see's "strange things" for which there are no clear explanations; doors opening and closing by themselves, people talking to nothing and getting answers, extra sets of footprints in freshly fallen snow he can't figure out. The house is crowded with other members of the household. Besides Ann, her father Henry Carrington (H.B. Warner), Clara Topper (Billie Burke), Emily, the Topper maid (Patsy Kelly), Dr. Jeris (George Zucco), a dumb cop (flustered Donald MacBride), and housekeeper Lillian (Rafaela Ottiano) provide a good deal of "creepy" feeling to lighten of your Halloween experience. It is all in good fun and no serious scary moment of course. Finally the identity of the killer is revealed. It is worth watching the movie to find out the identity of the masked killer!My favorite scenes are: When Topper gives the two ladies (and their suitcases) ride in his small car, while Gail sits comfortably on his lap, and Clara Topper watching from her window who gets real furious. Another moment is when Eddie, the chauffeur keeps falling repeatedly through a hole in the ground to the riverbed beneath the house, and then being persistently kept from re-emerging by a playful seal!This is one of Joan Blondell's best movies, but she did not get many opportunities to make "big successful" movies like Billie Burke and other famous actresses, but she had the opportunity to be immortalized at the Grumman Chinese theater in Hollywood with her feet and handprints (1937).1.Topper / Topper Returns (Enhanced) 19412.TV Classics: The Adventures of Topper3.Topper (TV Series)4.Nightmare Alley (Fox Film Noir)5.Dinner at Eight