''Topper Returns'' is a 1941 American
supernatural
Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium.
Origins
Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by
Roy Del Ruth
Roy Del Ruth (October 18, 1893 – April 27, 1961) was an American filmmaker.
Early career
Beginning his Hollywood career as a writer for Mack Sennett in 1915, Del Ruth later directed his first short film ''Hungry Lions'' (1919) for the pr ...
and starring
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on a film career, estab ...
,
Roland Young,
Carole Landis
Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...
and
Billie Burke. The third and final installment in the initial series of
supernatural
Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
comedy films inspired by the novels of
Thorne Smith, it succeeds ''
Topper'' (1937) and ''
Topper Takes a Trip'' (1938).
As in the prior films, Young plays Cosmo Topper, a mousy banker who gets into trouble because of his ability to see and speak with ghosts, and Burke plays his wife, who is constantly befuddled by his strange antics. The plot revolves around a murder mystery. Blondell portrays a slain woman who seeks the reluctant Topper and enlists his help in identifying her killer and saving her friend, played by
Carole Landis
Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...
. Most of the action takes place in a spooky mansion filled with eccentric characters, trapdoors and secret passages.
The film was nominated for the
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
for
Best Special Effects (
Roy Seawright and
Elmer Raguse) and
Best Sound Recording (
Elmer Raguse).
A TV series, ''
Topper'', premiered in 1953 and ran for two seasons. A
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
called ''Topper Returns'' (1973) was later made for a proposed TV series. There was also a
made-for-TV remake, ''Topper'', in 1979.
In 1969, ''Topper Returns'' entered the
public domain in the United States
Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by the intellectual property right known as copyright, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. Works automatically enter the public domain when their copyright has ...
because the claimants did not renew its
copyright registration
The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...
in the 28th year after publication.
Plot
Wealthy young heiress Ann Carrington and her best friend Gail Richards are riding in a speeding taxi driven by Bob, along the coast. A figure dressed all in black, with covered face and hat, aims a rifle with the telescopic sight crosshairs focused on the cab from a distance and shoots out the rear tire. The taxi flips on its side at the edge of a cliff, inches away from having fallen into crashing ocean waves below. Bob, the taxi driver, extracts his passengers from the vehicle and leaves them at the side of the road so he can walk back to a garage they passed.
Ann and Gail try hitchhiking and get passed by the first car. Gail raises Ann's skirt to expose her leg when a second car passes, and the driver ends up crashing into a tree. Next, they block the road by sitting on their suitcases so the next car is forced to stop. In the sports car is banker Cosmo Topper and his chauffeur, Eddie. The two girls brazenly load their luggage and climb into the car. They insist on being driven to Ann's destination, the Carrington mansion. The back seat of the car is loaded with luggage and Ann, so Gail volunteers to ride sitting on Cosmo's lap, ignoring his protests.
As they drive past Topper's house, Mrs. Clara Topper is out front with her maid and waves to the approaching car. She is surprised to see her husband drive past with a young blonde sitting on his lap and distraughtly concludes he is having an adventure. The girls are dropped off at the stately cliff top mansion next door to Topper's residence, where they are received by three creepy staff members, butler Rama, housekeeper Lillian, and another unnamed staff member.
Ann is directed to the study to see her father by the housekeeper, but her friend Gail is to stay behind. Ann is then intercepted by the creepy Dr. Jeris. Dr. Jeris warns Ann that her father, Henry Carrington, is in poor health and takes her to meet her father, who is sitting in a chair with a blanket over his legs. In the conversation, we find that Ann has been raised in the East at her mother's request. Ann has no memories of her father, as they have been separated since her mother and Carrington's business partner died in a cave while inspecting a company mine. Ann's father also reveals that the next day would be Ann's birthday and, according to her mother's will, she is to come into full control of the family fortune.
After leaving her father, Ann and Gail are to be shown upstairs to their rooms. Gail is waiting on the stairs, and as Ann crosses the main hall, a giant chandelier breaks loose from the ceiling. Ann escapes harm because Gail screams in time for Ann to stop and just barely be missed by the chandelier. The girls continue to their rooms. The first room is Gail's, decorated in an Oriental motif. Gail is unimpressed, as they have just returned from living in the East. Ann is then taken to her bedroom, which is spectacularly decorated. Gail discovers the rooms are adjoining. She makes such a fuss about how beautiful the room is that Ann insists that they trade, so Gail sleeps in what was supposed to be Ann's room.
In the middle of the night, a secret panel opens in the bedroom and the masked figure dressed all in black enters the bedroom and opens the windows. Gail is knifed to death as she gets up to shut the window, having been mistaken for Ann.
Gail's ghost separates from her body. Ghost-Gail walks out the window and goes down the road to the Topper's house to find someone who can help solve her murder. She finds Topper and convinces him to come to the Carrington mansion by threatening to create a scandal with his suspicious wife if he doesn't. Topper calls Eddie the chauffeur to get the car ready. Eddie grumbles and protests, but he drives Topper back to mansion. Eddie is unaware of the ghost and experiences a number of puzzles as doors open and shut, cushions depress, voices are heard, footprints appear on the snowy walkways, and so on. Eventually, he gets so scared that he runs away, drives back to the Toppers' house, and starts packing to leave. Mrs. Topper finds him and asks where Cosmo is, then demands to be driven to the house next door to find him. Eddie says he's had it and wants to go back to his former employer, Mr. Benny, but Mrs. Topper bullies him into driving her and Emily the maid to the Carringtons'.
Meantime, Topper, with the guidance of Ghost-Gail, finds the dead body of Gail, and goes downstairs to phone the police, but the phone doesn't work. Dr. Jeris, armed with a pistol, and the three staff members discover him, surround him, and keep him confined. He insists on going up to the bedroom to show them the body, but when they arrive, Gail's body is gone. The doctor and Mr. Carrington treat him as a lunatic. When Ann comes into the room, Topper tries to explain, but the housekeeper finds a note that Gail apparently wrote, saying she has left.
At this point, Mrs. Topper, her maid Emily, and Eddie arrive and insist Topper is in the house as they push their way in to look for him. By this time, it is nearly daylight, and Bob, the taxi driver, shows up at the house to collect his unpaid fare. Ann, who is wondering what happened to Gail, becomes frightened and asks Bob to escort her to her room to get the fare. They go up to the bedroom, where Bob volunteers to wait outside the room. While Ann is in the room, the black dressed assassin appears, but Ann sees him in the mirror, screams, and Bob responds in time to see the black figure escape through the window.
In the following sequences, there are many comings and goings with people disappearing and reappearing by way of concealed stairways and hallways reachable by moving or rotating wall panels. Mrs. Topper uses the phone and calls the police to report her missing husband and innocently mentions there has also been a murder. Soon police detective Roberts, with a squad of officers, comes in and starts asking questions. He gets confused by the conflicting answers and by tricks that Ghost-Gail plays.
Ghost-Gail has Topper hide in the kitchen's walk-in refrigerator. Eventually, Topper is found by his wife, and the bulk of the characters end up in the kitchen. Ghost-Gail lifts a pistol from police detective Roberts’ pocket, forces it on Topper, and manipulates him to lock everyone in the refrigerator. Ghost-Gail and Topper then proceed to look for her body to prove the murder. Eventually, Bob breaks the window in the refrigerator door and lets everyone out of the refrigerator. Ann is kidnapped by the figure in black and is ultimately rescued by Bob, with assistance from Ghost-Gail.
Lillian the housekeeper is eventually proved to be the writer of Gail's note. She admits that she was in on some of the deceptions but had nothing to do with the murder. The lights go out suddenly, Lillian screams, disappears, and is presumed dead. It turns out there is a secret chain in the fireplace that, when pulled, makes the chair in the center of the room tilt backward and dump the occupant into a vertical shaft that leads to a water-filled cave below the mansion.
Eventually, the threads come together. Topper and Ghost-Gail manage to retrieve her body from a small ship a short distance offshore from the water cave. The body is returned to the mansion and, despite the comic total confusion of the detective, Topper states that the killer must have been the person who was standing nearest the fireplace when Lillian was about to talk, and that person was none other than Mr. Carrington.
Mr. Carrington escapes the room and drives off in a car. Ghost-Gail climbs into Topper's sports car in pursuit. Eddie is in the back seat, terrified that the car is being driven at top speed on winding roads with an invisible driver. Mr. Carrington, being followed in hot pursuit, eventually loses control. His car leaves the road and crashes into a tree. He dies and becomes a ghost himself. Before anyone arrives, Ghost-Gail browbeats Ghost-Carrington into writing a letter to Ann, confessing that he is not her father, but her father's business partner. Her father died in the mine together with Ann's mother, and he has been impersonating Carrington in order to kill Ann and keep the fortune for himself.
Ghost-Gail gives the letter to Topper when the other characters arrive at the crash scene, and Topper hands it to Ann. Clara Topper sees that Cosmo was mostly telling the truth about his adventures with the two young ladies, and Bob and Ann comfort each other. Eddie quits, and Clara convinces the maid Emily to drive the Toppers home. Ghost-Gail thanks Eddie for the help, then Ghost-Carrington apologizes for dumping him in the water. This scares Eddie, who runs so fast he passes the Toppers' car.
Cast
*
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell (August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979) was an American actress who performed in film and television for 50 years.
Blondell began her career in vaudeville. After winning a beauty pageant, she embarked on a film career, estab ...
as Gail Richards
*
Roland Young as Cosmo Topper ("Toppy")
*
Carole Landis
Carole Landis (born Frances Lillian Mary Ridste; January 1, 1919 – July 5, 1948) was an American actress and singer. She worked as a contract player for Twentieth Century-Fox in the 1940s. Her breakout role was as the female lead in the 1940 ...
as Ann Carrington
*
Billie Burke as Mrs. Clara Topper
*
Dennis O'Keefe
Dennis O'Keefe (born Edward Vance Flanagan; March 29, 1908 – August 31, 1968) was an American actor.
Early years
O'Keefe was born in Fort Madison, Iowa, as Edward Vance Flanagan, the son of Edward J. Flanagan and Charlotte Flanagan ( ...
as Bob, the taxi driver
*
Patsy Kelly
Patsy Kelly (born Bridget Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly; January 12, 1910 – September 24, 1981) was an American actress. She is known for her role as the brash, wisecracking sidekick to Thelma Todd in a series of comedy shorts produced by Ha ...
as Emily
*
H. B. Warner
Henry Byron Warner (né Lickfold; 26 October 1876 – 21 December 1958) was an English film and theatre actor. He was popular during the silent era and played Jesus Christ in '' The King of Kings''. In later years, he successfully moved int ...
as Henry Carrington ("father")
*
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
Edmund Lincoln Anderson (September 18, 1905 – February 28, 1977) was an American actor and comedian. To a generation of early radio and television comedy audiences, he was known as "Rochester".
Anderson entered show business as a teenager on ...
as Eddie
*
George Zucco as Dr. Jeris
*
Donald MacBride
Donald Hugh MacBride (June 23, 1893 – June 21, 1957) was an American character actor on stage, in films, and on television.
MacBride launched his career as a chorister at St Thomas Fifth Avenue and then at Garden City Cathedral in New Yo ...
as Police Sergeant Roberts
*
Rafaela Ottiano
Rafaela Ottiano (March 4, 1888 – August 14, 1942) was an Italian-American actress. She was best known for her role as Suzette in '' Grand Hotel'' (1932) and as Russian Rita in '' She Done Him Wrong'' (1933).
Early life
Ottiano was born on Ma ...
as Lillian
*
Trevor Bardette
Trevor Bardette (born Terva Gaston Hubbard; November 19, 1902 – November 28, 1977) was an American film and television actor. Among many other roles in his long and prolific career, Bardette appeared in several episodes of ''Adventures of Su ...
as Rama
*
George Lloyd as Boat Captain
* Brick Sullivan as Darryl, Police Officer
* William O'Brian as Second Butler
*
Eddy Chandler as Jim, Police Sergeant
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
gives the film an 89% "fresh" rating based on 9 reviews, and an average of 7/10. ''
Variety'' said the "
lm begins to miss out when the story veers from its own premise to the level of a conventional mystery farce".
Preservation
''Topper Returns'' was preserved and restored by the
UCLA Film and Television Archive
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the film preservation, preservation, film studies, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
As a nonpro ...
. The restoration premiered at the UCLA Festival of Preservation in 2022. Restoration funding provided by the
Packard Humanities Institute
The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, ...
.
See also
*
List of ghost films
Ghost movies and shows can fall into a wide range of genres, including romance, comedy, horror, juvenile interest, and drama.
History
With the advent of motion pictures and television, screen depictions of ghosts became common and spanned a vari ...
References
Bibliography
* Fetrow, Alan G. ''Feature Films, 1940-1949: a United States Filmography''. McFarland, 1994.
External links
*
*
''Topper Returns'' at AllMovie*
*
*
{{Roy Del Ruth
1941 films
1940s fantasy comedy films
1940s comedy mystery films
1940s ghost films
American black-and-white films
American fantasy comedy films
American ghost films
American comedy mystery films
American sequel films
1940s English-language films
Films directed by Roy Del Ruth
Films set in country houses
Films with screenplays by Jonathan Latimer
United Artists films
1941 comedy films
1940s American films
Films scored by Werner R. Heymann
English-language fantasy comedy films
English-language comedy mystery films