Waste of time

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The 3rd and final instalment of the Topper series of ghostly films, produced by Universal in 1937,'38, and '41. These were all inspired by several books written by Thorne Smith. The related film "I Married a Witch", filmed at Paramount, was also based on a Thorne Smith novel. The Topper series all involved one or more ghosts of a recently deceased person, who alternate between visible(mostly to Topper)and invisible. They may exert physical effects, as if they had a physical body. This provides the basis for mysterious and sometimes comical happenings. All these films were photographed in B&W, although a colorized version of the present film is available at YouTube. B&W may be preferable for murder mysteries of this era, providing a more sinister atmosphere. Unlike the first 2 Topper installments, this is a ghostly murder mystery. It's not billed as a comical mystery, although there is some humor here and there. Roland Young returns as the middle-aged Topper, and Billie Burke returns as his neurotic befuddled wife. But, Joan Blondell takes the place of Constance Bennet, as the main ghost. Also, there is no one comparable to Cary Grant's role in the first of this series. Joan, as the main ghost, helps solve the disappearance of her body, and who was responsible for her murder. Ann Carrington(Carole Landis) and her friend Gail Richards(Joan Blondell) arrive at the Carrington mansion after a near fatal crash of their taxi, caused by a gunman shooting out one of their tires. They had journeyed from the Far East, where Ann had spent her whole life, and where her mother, estranged from her father, had recently died from an accident. She had come in response to a letter saying her father was very ill, and she was the heir apparent of his estate. The girls met a sinister-looking collection of functionaries at the mansion, including Lilian: the housekeeper, Dr. Jeris: Mr. Carrington's personal physician, and Rama: the butler. Later arrivals include Cosmo Topper, his chauffeur: Rochester Anderson, his wife, his maid, and Bob: the cab driver. Also, several police spend much time trying to solve the murder case. Upon arrival, the massive central chandelier crashes, nearly hitting Ann. The girls are assigned their respective bedrooms, but Gail much prefers Ann's room, so Ann allows her to switch rooms the first night. This will prove fateful for Gail, as a man in all black enters her room and stabs her fatally during the night, escaping out her window. Gail's ghost travels to the nearby Topper residence and gets in Cosmo's bed, initially in invisible form. She asks Topper to accompany her to the Carrington's, to try to determine who killed her. Cosmo does this, and they find the body as before. However, when Cosmo goes downstairs to use the phone, various inhabitants converge on him. When he takes them to show the body, it's gone.Later, a man looking like the one that killed Gail, enters Ann's room at night and nearly knifed her, but screams brought a savior. Still later, the same person grabs Ann and takes her behind a secret panel. Again, someone saves her....I leave you to discover the remainder of this tale....Gail's killing may have been a random event. However, several happenings suggest probably someone was targeting Ann, and killed Gail by mistake, not knowing they had switched bedrooms for the night.The murder mystery itself, is fairly interesting, with a 'surprise' resolution. Joan and Rochester try to inject some humor there and there, with only modest success. Billie Burke, no doubt, comes across as more irritating than funny. To me, she's moderately amusing, with her inimical speech and frequent airhead remarks. Carole Landis serves mainly as eye candy, in one of her many supporting movie roles in the '40s. Ultimately, she was disappointed in the way her life was playing out, and took an overdose of pills, when not quite 30. Some of you may be uncomfortable with the idea that the spirits of the dead can appear in bodily or invisible form, manifesting physical abilities when invisible. In this respect, these ghosts are infringing on the characteristics of The Invisible Man, or Woman, who are not ghosts, but living people who have achieved reversible invisibility through special potions or electronics. They also exhibit physical capabilities, when invisible. The object of these fantasies is to imagine their unlikely existence, and the fun or sinister things these ghosts or people could do to drive the rest of us crazy.

This is definitely still a worth-to-watch film if you are into the comedies from this era, but while the first Topper movie was a true classic, this is not much more than a lovely little time-passer. But what makes it really different from the first two Topper films is that, instead of doing another romantic comedy, this time they ventured into murder mystery territories. With mixed results.The plot is simple: Carole Landis, a girl in her early twenties returns from the Far East where she grew up, to meet his father for the first time and to inherit the family fortune. Which, of course makes her a target for a mysterious killer, who, after two failed attempts finally kills... her friend Gail (Joan Blondell) who accompanied her on the trip and switched rooms with her for the night. After this, her ghost approaches Mr. Topper, whom they met on their way to the mansion and they team up to figure out who the killer is. And then the usual madness ensues, which just gets even crazier when the police and Mrs. Topper shows up at the scene as well.But by this time the story is already a mess and it isn't getting any better later. We don't even really know why Gail goes to Mr. Topper's house right after she was murdered and that's just the first of the many things that doesn't get explained properly (or at all). Including the end. Which has a great, really unexpected twist, which could easily save the movie if played out well, but instead it just disappoints and actually leaves more questions open than what it solves.But despite all these gaping plot holes and the very routine and seemingly very rushed mystery script, there are several things that still makes this fun to watch. First of these are the great effects, that sometime really makes you wonder about who they managed to do them. And then, there is the great set of character actors: Joan Blondell as the lively American city girl (who, obviously doesn't seem to care much that she was just killed and remains almost disturbingly cheerful), George Zucco as the suspicious friend-of-the-family, Donald MacBride doing a great job as usual as the dumb police sergeant, and Eddie Anderson (as the Toppers' chauffeur) doing the Mantan Moreland part, getting scared and trying to run away all the time, but eventually taking an active part in solving the case. And the best of all, Billie Burke as Mrs. Topper, who, while a total airhead, is still by far the most lovable character of all and serves some of the best jokes as well. And that's the other thing that saves the movie: the great jokes and the comedy parts.And actually that is why I think, that (while I just love murder mysteries) the Topper series should stayed what it was: pure comedy. As the movie shines when we get to the fun parts, but the mystery part of he story is so half assed that it does not add anything to the whole, just distracts and annoys the viewer.

This gem of an old movie is every bit worth watching.Even without the unsurpassed Cary Grant and his unique charms, this follow-up has more comedy per frame than the original "Topper" film. Whereas the earlier benefits from Grant and his suave charisma, this sequel excels because it gets everyone and everything working just right for its comic tempo.I think the main reason behind that is simple enough to grasp. The main character of the film and the series is "Topper", not the Cary Grant character. But as it happens, the character and the actor playing that main character took its time "developing", and in this movie it reached its zenith. Cary Grant character however needed no further development, being happily dead. The same can be understood in another way: Young/Ghost took his time beating Grant/Ghost off: he was overshadowed, not just literally, by the younger, more charming and superior acting presence that Grant was.Whereas to some, Young's acting in "Returns" might look like a mere bleak copy of Grant's acting in "Topper", I do not buy that for a mo. disagree.

I must I admit that the other two installments are very funny screwball comedies, but this one tops them all.The mainstays of Roland Young and Billie Burke are back as the tentative couple who are always one-part bumbler and the other-part clueless. Their scenes are always funny as Young tries so hard not to let on to his clueless wife what is really going on! But the star who carries this one is none other than that bombshell comedienne herself, JOAN BLONDELL. Just when you think she is only going to be a sidekick, she turns into THE kick. Her comic flair and range serve her well. As do the talents of the Donald MacBride as the Police Captain. (It's amazing how many defenders of the law he actually played during his long career - which by the way goes all the way back to the silents.) [1914]. The other star in his own right is Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. He shines numerous times in this outing as the Topper driver. Every comedy needs a great last scene or last line. And this time, it belongs to Rochester. Many people do not know that he became a wealthy man and lived in the "Hills" alongside many of the film star greats of the time. No mean feat for a "man of color" in those days. What a great talent he was! All in all, so many others also bring this ensemble work to work...notably the always underused Patsy Kelley, whose frumpish comedic gifts rounded out this wonderfully funny movie.Sit back and enjoy this ghostly screwball gem!