I used to get a kick out of the 'Topper' TV series of the 1950's in which Leo G. Carroll had the role of staid banker Cosmo Topper; I used to catch it in reruns as a kid. Because I saw Carroll in that role first is why I probably favor him, but I'll tell you what, Roland Young does a fantastic job in this story. The time he was 'carried' down the elevator and stairs in the hotel by the invisible Kerby's is improvisational gold, his contortions and fumbling around is acting genius at work. He really won me over with that extended scene.
The odd thing is that this story went off on kind of a tangent for me when Marion Kerby (Constance Bennett) took up with Topper in almost a romantic sort of entanglement. It would have made more sense to me if husband George (Cary Grant) tag-teamed with his wife to fluster the old codger at his job and at home the way Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys did in the television show. I guess my bias is showing there again, but that's not to minimize this film, I thought it was fun and quite enjoyable. The support of Billie Burke as Clara Topper, and Eugene Pallette as the less than effective hotel detective add to the merriment, and it was cool to see those spot appearances by Hedda Hopper, Hoagy Carmichael and Ward Bond in an uncredited role.
The special effects for 1937 seemed to be quite clever, but you'll have to overlook some of the inconsistencies in ghost 'behavior', if that's a proper way to characterize it. While the ghosts of George and Marion visibly appear to Topper and others in the story, sometimes an invisible hand will slap a face or invisible lips leave lipstick on a cheek. But the one that got me was when Marion made herself visible in Cosmo's car eating an ice cream cone. How did the cone become invisible in the first place?
Well, not to lose sleep over any of it. The success of "Topper" brought along a couple of movie sequels, though Cary Grant didn't reprise the role of George Kerby in either one. However he did come back as a ghost a decade later in 1947's "The Bishop's Wife". Actually he's an angel in that one along the lines of Henry Travers' Clarence in "It's a Wonderful Life", but that's splitting hairs. Grant always had an exceptional comedic timing in his lighter films, and he might have had the best line in this picture when he stated to Marion and Topper, "Say, if I'm in the way, you folks can leave".
The odd thing is that this story went off on kind of a tangent for me when Marion Kerby (Constance Bennett) took up with Topper in almost a romantic sort of entanglement. It would have made more sense to me if husband George (Cary Grant) tag-teamed with his wife to fluster the old codger at his job and at home the way Robert Sterling and Anne Jeffreys did in the television show. I guess my bias is showing there again, but that's not to minimize this film, I thought it was fun and quite enjoyable. The support of Billie Burke as Clara Topper, and Eugene Pallette as the less than effective hotel detective add to the merriment, and it was cool to see those spot appearances by Hedda Hopper, Hoagy Carmichael and Ward Bond in an uncredited role.
The special effects for 1937 seemed to be quite clever, but you'll have to overlook some of the inconsistencies in ghost 'behavior', if that's a proper way to characterize it. While the ghosts of George and Marion visibly appear to Topper and others in the story, sometimes an invisible hand will slap a face or invisible lips leave lipstick on a cheek. But the one that got me was when Marion made herself visible in Cosmo's car eating an ice cream cone. How did the cone become invisible in the first place?
Well, not to lose sleep over any of it. The success of "Topper" brought along a couple of movie sequels, though Cary Grant didn't reprise the role of George Kerby in either one. However he did come back as a ghost a decade later in 1947's "The Bishop's Wife". Actually he's an angel in that one along the lines of Henry Travers' Clarence in "It's a Wonderful Life", but that's splitting hairs. Grant always had an exceptional comedic timing in his lighter films, and he might have had the best line in this picture when he stated to Marion and Topper, "Say, if I'm in the way, you folks can leave".