Viaggio nell'impossibile

Topper Takes a Trip just never gets going. It's an OK comedy sequel to the 1937 smash hit but without Cary Grant. That leaves Marion (Constance Bennett) alone to hound Topper (Roland Young) but the film is missing the marital sparring that made the first one so good.

Mrs. Topper (Billie Burke) is seeking a divorce because Topper and Marion had stayed at a hotel together in the first film. Slim plot device then has the Mrs. heading to France for a quickie divorce where she falls among thieves: her "friend" and a phony baron. Topper and Marion head to France to stop the divorce and foil the setup.

Roland Young is still very good with his blank face and funny body movements (when the invisible Marion is prodding him). But there's just too much talk in this one. Bennett is as always beautiful and breezy. Burke is hilarious as the dithery Mrs. Topper in a way that no one else could copy. Alan Mowbray is back in the thankless butler role as is Spencer Charters as the judge.

Verree Teasdale plays the acid friend, Alex D'Arcy the faux baron, and Franklin Pangborn is the French hotel manager. Grant appears via flashback from the original film, but his absence is not well explained. Asta (the dog) is funny too.

Not a bad film but it could have been funnier.

"Topper Takes a Trip" is a nice follow-up to "Topper," and has the same cast but no Cary Grant as George. He's shown in the beginning as the film goes over how George and Marion got to be ghosts in the first place. Alas, Grant's ghostly presence hangs over the entire film and puts a big hole in this movie.

Constance Bennett is her usual gorgeous self as Marion. She is compelled to come back without George and soon realizes that she's there to help Cosmo once again - though the Kerby's idea of helping Topper leaves much to be desired. This time, though, she discovers a dog, Atlas, in spirit also and brings him along. Mrs. Topper (Billie Burke) learning that Cosmo was with a woman in a hotel has sued for divorce. At the trial, Cosmo claims the woman was the late Marion and begs to tell his story.

The judge understandably gets too confused and throws the case out. Mrs. T sails for France and Cosmo, Marion, and Atlas follow. One of the best scenes takes place in a casino where Cosmo just can't help winning, thanks the ball landing on one number and then mysteriously jumping to another thanks to guess who.

Very cute, with another fine performance by Roland Young as Cosmo. The special effects are still marvelous

"Topper Takes A Trip" is a charming, airy, lyrical fantasy comedy. No one ever made a fantasy comedy like this. The playing of all actors and the set design mix screwball comedy with fantasy elements, making an appealing, sexy, subtly witty comedy that was the best sophisticated comedy feature ever to come out of the Hal Roach Studios.

The cast is a dream. Although all three actors' characters do not appear to each other, the chemistry between Roland Young, Constance Bennett, and Billie Burke is a joy to watch. The musical score by Marvin Hatley not only complements the film beautifully, it features pieces that sound more from the 1960's than 1939. A remarkable score that deserves major recognition by film scholars, students, and buffs.

Roland Young and Billie Burke made several films together for different studios however it was in this film and in Selznick's "The Young In Heart" that showed them at their absolute best as a team. They also deserver greater critical recognition for their work.

The camerawork and set design evoke a polish and sheen common to '30's romantic comedies. A handsome look that stimulates suspending disbelief for a fantasy film. "Topper Takes A Trip" is, undeniably, the best of the three Topper films produced by Hal Roach.

This film starts in court, with the divorce proceedings between Cosmo Topper and his wife. A flashback explains how the events of the original film, La via dell'impossibile (1937), supposedly caused this. However, the real reason (which does not get sufficiently clear until much later) is that Mrs. Topper's lawyer is trying to manipulate her into marrying a French fortune hunter. It appears that the events of the previous film just gave the crooked lawyer an opening that she could exploit.

The original film was based on a novel by Thorne Smith, and this sequel is based on the novel's sequel. The fun-loving dead Kerby couple who previously rescued Mr. Topper from boredom somehow get reactivated from heaven as ghosts to correct the unfortunate side-effect of their good deed. Except that George Kerby (Cary Grant) didn't like the film's script, or wanted more money than was available, or just had something better to do with his time, and so wasn't available. So unlike in the novel, in the film Marion Kerby (Constance Bennett) returns alone. Which comes across as odd because unlike in the novel, the film doesn't portray an actual romance between Marion Kerby and Cosmo Topper, choosing to depict the Kerby marriage as totally harmonious.

For added variety in the invisibility-based slapstick scenes, Marion finds herself a cute dog ghost as a sidekick. Unfortunately, the dog is never really used properly. Like the original film, this sequel could no doubt have profited a lot from breaking the prejudice of the early sound film era and hiring a slapstick expert rooted in the silent film era as an adviser. But they clearly didn't, and so the physical comedy, which should have been the strongest point, again comes across as having the handbrake on. Of course this was true already in the original film.

The original film somehow managed to be above average through a consistently high quality of script and acting. This and Cary Grant seem to be the second most important things missing in this sequel.

At least this is a proper sequel, unlike the second sequel, Bionda in paradiso (1941), which just uses the Toppers for an unrelated though similar ghost story script set in a horror house.

It recycles considerable footage from the first Topper film as background information. I guess that's a way of getting Cary Grant in there, even though he didn't shoot any new scenes for Topper Takes a Trip. (I bet they used his face in the advertising, too. If I had paid money to see this film, thinking Cary Grant was in it, I would have felt quite disappointed!) Constance Bennett stars as the ghost of Mrs. Kerby. She had some amusing moments, but I personally think she lacked the sparkle and sass of Joan Blondell, who starred in Topper Returns (my favorite of the three entries). The only scene at which I laughed out loud was that of the fortune-seeker on the beach, trying to woo Mrs. Topper while the ghost of Mrs. Kerby thwarts him with unseen hands at every turn. She strips his trunks off him while he's lying under the sand, then torments him with a giant beach ball that inexplicably keeps rolling over him while Mrs. Topper squeaks with alarm. So yes, that was funny, but if I had to choose one of the Topper films never to see again, it would be this one. Billie Burke, as usual, is a scene-stealer, but Alan Mowbray also made a worthy contribution here as the butler Wilkins.