Topper (1937)

Topper
Directed by Norman Z. McLeod
Written by Jack Jeyne, Eric Hatch, and Eddie Moran based on the novel by Thorne Smith
1936/USA
Hal Roach Studios
Repeat viewing

[box] Cosmo Topper: So I’m a ditherer? Well, I’m jolly well going to dither, then![/box]

I was thoroughly entertained by this sophisticated comedy.

George (Cary Grant) and Marion (Constance Bennett) Kerby are a madcap wealthy young couple somewhat in the mode of Nick and Nora Charles but without the crime solving. One night they go on a spree and then visit the office of stuffy banker Cosmo Topper (Roland Young).  George is speeding back when the brakes on their fancy convertible fail and they crash into a tree. Their ghosts emerge from their dead corpses at the scene of the accident.  They cannot meet their maker without doing a good deed and they decide it should be showing the henpecked Topper how to have a good time.  With Billie Burke as Topper’s wife, Alan Mowbray as the Toppers’ butler, and Eugene Pallette as a hotel detective.

Cary Grant and Constance Bennett are just the epitome of urbane charm in this escapist fable.  Roland Young is at his whimsical best, too.  I thought it was refreshing that everybody could see the ghosts when they materialized, not just Topper.  It was just that they had to conserve their ectoplasm so didn’t materialize unnecessarily.

Clip – George, I think we’re dead