BEFORE: I'm supposed to be packing a suitcase for our flight to Dallas right now, but I've got a few hours before we have to head to the airport - I can still knock off one last review, pack and grab a couple hours of shut-eye. So the blog is dark next week, I'll be back on Monday, 10/29.
I don't have a copy of "Topper Takes a Trip", for some reason TCM didn't run that one back when they ran these other two films. Maybe they don't have the license to air that one? Anyway, Topper is back and he's seeing ghosts again - I'm still not really clear on whether he's unusually gifted, or if he just seems like someone that the ghosts can confide in, because it seems that time and time again, they always need his help.
Roland Young carries over from "Topper" as the title character.
THE PLOT: A fun-loving young woman finds herself murdered after trading bedrooms with her wealthy friend. Her ghost seeks aid from a banker to find out who killed her and why.
AFTER: Well, at least this film seems a little more appropriate for Halloween time - in addition to a ghost that only Topper can see, there's a genuine murder mystery to solve, in a big mansion with a lot of trap doors and secret passages behind bookcases and stuff. (There used to a couple of restaurants in NYC that were all decked out like the scary mansions you see in the movies, I wonder if they're still operating...).
Of course, Mrs. Topper is always jumping to the wrong conclusions, thinking that her husband Cosmo is having an affair - that woman needs to get some self-confidence. I thought in the first film she decided to become the kind of woman that wears silky lingerie in order to keep Cosmo's interest. I'd like to think that worked out, but here she's back to thinking that he's up to no good, just because he and his chauffeur give a ride to a couple of women whose taxi broke down, and one woman had to sit on his lap. Umm, why not just have both women sit in the back seat? Or maybe put the luggage in the trunk, I'm just saying. Come on, Cosmo was totally digging this, let's be honest. He probably even put some nails down in the road just to make this happen.
Anyway, that woman is Gail Richards, friend to Ann Carrington, who's visiting her father for the first time, just before she turns 21. But she makes the mistake of envying her friend's bedroom, so whoever set out to murder Ann kills the conveniently same-height, same-weight Gail. Gail's ghost didn't see who killed her, so that gives her an unresolved reason to stick around on the mortal plane, and she seeks the help of Topper, who lives next door. She appears in his bedroom (hey, it was the 1930's, couples didn't sleep in the same room, at least not in movies...) and threatens to let his wife see her there if he won't help her.
This involves being driven over to the Carrington mansion by his loyal (but constantly complaining) driver, then sneaking in to the house to find the dead body, but then the body disappears after the house's residents wake up to find Topper calling the police. The driver heads back home and tells Mrs. Topper where Cosmo went, so naturally she has to follow too, along with her servant. (Damn, these people were rich, they still each had their own servant, and this was during the Depression!).
I still can't figure out for sure if this film takes place in New York, Los Angeles or somewhere else, but it scarcely matters. It's just a big old regular mansion with a lot of secret passages and trap doors, and that could be built anywhere. This is set on the coast somewhere, that's all that really matters.
It's a big door-slamming free-for-all with butlers, cab drivers, screaming wives and eccentric millionaires, and then when the police finally show up, the head detective just manages to make everything even more confusing as he tries to get to the bottom of it all.
You may recognize the actor who played Mr. Carrington from "It's a Wonderful Life", since he played Mr. Gower in that classic film. And you may recognize the chauffeur as Jack Benny's sidekick, a role he played for many years, and he even refers to it here when his character wants to quit working for Mr. Topper and threatens to "go back to Mr. Benny". And George Zucco is here, playing Dr. Zeris, a character whose presence in the mansion is never fully explained, like is he Mr. Carrington's personal doctor or just a guy hanging around? It's too bad I couldn't fit in those Mummy movies that TCM is running this year, because George Zucco is in several of them, and that would have made a great link. But those films will air while I'm on vacation, and when I get back, there won't be any room in my October schedule to squeeze them in. So I'm going to have to rely on some indirect links to get back to more modern films - I'm not proud of that, but I've got to do what I've got to do.
Also starring Joan Blondell (last seen in "The Cincinnati Kid"), Carole Landis (last seen in "A Day at the Races"), Billie Burke (also carrying over from "Topper"), Dennis O'Keefe (last seen in "Swing Time"), Patsy Kelly (last seen in "Rosemary's Baby"), H.B. Warner (last seen in "You Can't Take It With You"), Eddie "Rochester" Anderson (ditto), George Zucco (last seen in "Sherlock Holmes in Washington"), Donald MacBride (last seen in "Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Hollywood"), Rafaela Ottiano (last seen in "She Done Him Wrong"), Trevor Bardette (last seen in "The Mating Game").
RATING: 5 out of 10 smacks from a seal (WTF?)
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