Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Michael_Elliott Topper (1937) *** (out of 4)Marion and George Kerby (Constance Bennett, Cary Grant) are a fun-loving couple who party all night long and don't quit until there's no more fun to be had. George is business partners with Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) who lives an incredibly boring life where he's pushed around by his nagging wife. The Kerby's are killed in an auto crash but their ghosts come back and they plan on showing Topper a good time.Throughout the 1930's there were all sorts of comedies based inside haunted houses. This film here was somewhat different because it was given an A-budget and a terrific cast. This MGM production was a huge hit when it was released and it kicked off a franchise that remains popular to this very day. There are certainly a lot of nice jokes in the film but there's no question that the film really benefits from its terrific cast, which includes Grant who shot to super-stardom thanks to this.The entire cast is really terrific but there's no question that Grant deserves a lot of the credit for the film being as funny as it is. Grant would become one of the greatest leading men in Hollywood history and that classic charm that everyone loves is on full display here and this is certainly the first time where he hit on all levels. The character is a really fun one and there's no doubt that Grant does everything he can with it. Bennett and him share some terrific chemistry together throughout. Young is also wonderful in the role of the meek man who finally gets a chance to live. Eugene Palette is hilarious in his role as a hotel detective and we also get Hedda Hopper, Billie Burke and Alan Mowbray.The film's weakest sequence is actually a long stretch when Grant is missing from the picture. There are some really funny moments scattered throughout the picture but my personal favorite was when the Topper character is drunk and we're given the effect that he's being carried around. The special effects are extremely good and it's amazing to see how much the "invisible" touch had improved since Universal's THE INVISIBLE MAN in 1933.

edwagreen Inane farce with Roland Young, a stuffy banker, with his even more stuffier wife, Billie Burke, victimized by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett, Young's friends, a care-free, highly eccentric wealthy couple dying too soon in a car accident.The so called fun begins when they're dead and they begin to play havoc in the life of Young.This is a film dedicated to the belief that conventional living isn't necessarily the way to go. You can only go so far with such films. As in the case with this picture, at times it turns into silliness beyond belief.Roland Young was nominated that year as best supporting actor for his antics in this highly unconventional film.

MARIO GAUCI I had first caught this on late-night Italian TV in its original language (and with forced subtitles) but, having missed the first 15 minutes back then, I'm now counting this as a first viewing. Produced by famed Laurel & Hardy 'discoverer' Hal Roach, it's small wonder that the score by their regular composer Marvin Hatley here recalls those for the comic duo's films but, in spite of the occasional lull, TOPPER otherwise displays much of the wit and sophistication prevalent during the heyday of Screwball Comedy.The film, based on a Thorne Smith novel (he'd also provide the source for Rene' Clair's marvelous I MARRIED A WITCH [1942]), has a lot to answer for: not merely the fact that it spawned two official sequels, a TV series in the 1950s, was itself remade as a TV-movie in the 1970s and is apparently being reworked for Steve Martin(!) as we speak – but it also launched Cary Grant's career as an exponent of zany comedy. Besides, it even took the supernatural into mainstream cinema (having previously been the prerogative of the horror genre) and, with this in mind, the special effects – similar to those in Universal's Invisible Man series of films – still hold up very well more than 70 years later.Roland Young (in an Oscar-nominated performance) is the titular henpecked banker whose wild friends (Grant and Constance Bennett) are killed in a road accident; their mischievous antics while alive recall those of the drunken revelers of James Whale's splendid REMEMBER LAST NIGHT? (1935) and, unable to enter the gates of Heaven without at least having done one good deed, they take it upon themselves to give Topper a good time…leading, of course, to no end of complications and misunderstandings for the meek middle-aged man. The supporting cast is equally well-chosen and delightful: Billie Burke as Topper's snobbish wife, Alan Mowbray as his equally stiff but helpful butler and Eugene Palette as the flustered hotel detective to which the narrative reverts for the last third of the film. In fact, this section is probably the film's comic highlight where Grant, Bennett and Young meet again as porter the elevator boy from the couple's hotel (an encounter which had already cost him the previous job!).P.S. The copy I acquired played fine on my cheaper DVD player model until the 95th minute where it froze and wouldn't proceed further! However, when I inserted the disc into my PC's DVD-ROM, it played without a glitch!! Supernatural happenstance or what?

kenjha Enjoyable fluff about a stuffy banker who loosens up a bit after meeting the freshly-minted ghosts of a couple of fun-loving bank stockholders. Grant and Bennett (in her most notable role) seem to be having fun as the ghostly couple who don't let death cramp their style and Young is perfectly cast in the title role of the banker. Burke, the good witch from "The Wizard of Oz," plays Topper's overbearing wife. The cast also features Palette as a hotel detective and Lake, who would go on to play Dagwood Bumstead in "Blondie" films, as an elevator boy. While the antics of the invisible ghosts lead to some amusing scenes, the film rarely rises above the level of a sitcom.