A Volta do Fantasma

You can't beat a movie where Billie Burke is afraid some other woman will run off with Roland Young! Roland Young reprises his role as "Topper," that poor man who sees ghosts, in this third "Topper" movie; the TV show would have Leo G. Carroll in the title role. I remember it well - I'd like to say I remember it from syndication but alas, I think it was the original series. I'm that old.

This time around, George and Miriam Kerby have finally passed over and aren't bothering Topper anymore, but he's still attracting ghostly presences. This time it's (ail Richards (Joan Blondell). Topper gives her and her friend Ann Carrington (Carol Landis) a ride to the Carrington estate. There Ann will be seeing her very ill father for the first time in many years, as she was raised in France. As Ann is to inherit everything, it's no surprise when a chandelier nearly beams her. Later that night, she switches rooms with Gail, who is enamored with the elaborate suite that Ann has, and Gail is murdered. She does what every person in Topper's world does when they die - she contacts him to help her find out whodunnit.

This is your typical haunted house mystery with a very witty and clever script. It's great fun - lots of darkness, sound effects, screams, and slapstick performed by a talented cast. Carol Landis was a gorgeous woman who didn't quite make it to big stardom and died at the age of 29, possibly realizing her time had passed. She's about 22 here, beautiful and with a graceful presence. Joan Blondell is top notch, pretty and funny. She just sailed through films like this. Roland Young is great as the befuddled, nervous Cosmo who just doesn't know how he gets into these situations.

Billie Burke is back as his heartbroken wife who fears she's losing her husband to yet another blonde. No one can say "Oh, Cosmo, Cosmo" like Burke. When she sees him drive by with Blondell on his lap, she's appalled and reads him out. "You could have at least waved," she sobs. "How could I?" he responds."She was on my lap!"

Sometimes these films are uncomfortable because of racism. In this film, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is the chauffeur. While Anderson's part is somewhat stereotypical in that he acts terrified at times, his character seems to have a nice give and take with Topper. And let's face it - Eddie isn't the only one scared here. Anderson was a well-known personality, thanks to his wonderful association with Jack Benny. He was a very funny and talented man who never seemed particularly subservient. "Coffee," Benny would say. "No, thanks, I've had some," he'd answer. He brings a lot to "Topper Returns," and not in a way that's demeaning.

Recommended for its good script and great cast.

I often watch films like this with a real sense of detachment. It isn't that I don't enjoy them; it's that they seem dated and irrelevant to me. The cast of this film doesn't let that happen. First of all, everything is played tongue-in-cheek. Except for the bad guys, who are themselves parodies of humorlessness and the leading lady, everyone is a viable character. From Topper to his wife (Billie Burke, the good witch in "The Wizard of Oz; she is wonderful as the flighty matriarch); from Joan Blondell, the ghost, seeking the reason for her death; to Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, who actually makes a reference to working for Mr. Bennyand keeps finding himself falling down a well where there is a sea lion; to the terrific slow burns of the police detective. It all works wonderfully. I know it's not one of the great comedies of the century, but I laughed out loud several times, even though I was watching alone. This is a delight and not to be missed.

I agree with the comments that this 1941 "sequel" to the 1937 classic is actually a better film despite the absence of Cary Grant. This movie is loaded with talented people - Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis, Billie Burke, George Zucco, Patsy Kelly, Eddie Anderson, Dennis O'Keefe, Rafela Ottiano, all of whom have their moments to shine. Blondell is the only bona fide major movie star in the group but it's very much an ensemble cast picture in a way you don't often see in movies from the period. Mainly a slapstick comedy, it works as a mystery too, I was surprised by the murderer's identity. Anderson and Burke are particularly funny and Blondell is a delight, very sassy and very sexy, she looks a few pounds heavier than in her 1930's Warner Bros. films but those extra curves look sensational on her, making her more Mae West-like than ever.

For the third and final Topper film, Roland Young is now shed of the Kirbys from the two previous films and he and Billie Burke are now starting on a needed vacation with Eddie Anderson as chauffeur and Patsy Kelly as maid. Hey it's the best way to travel.

But the other world isn't finished with him yet. Carole Landis and her friend Joan Blondell are on their way to spend the night with her father, H.B. Warner, at the old family haunted estate. If it wasn't haunted before it sure gets haunted after Blondell is murdered by mistake because the killer is after Landis.

Of course that magnet for the other world Cosmo Topper attracts ghosts like moths to a flame and of course the now other worldly Blondell enlists him to find out who murdered her.

Rounding out this cast of some of the best character actors around are Dennis O'Keefe as a taxi driver trying to collect a fare, Donald MacBride as the perennial dumb cop and George Zucco as the doctor/friend of the Landis/Warner family.

The mystery has plenty of plot holes in it and we're never really told the reason why Landis is being targeted. One thing I will say though, given that the reader of this review might be knowledgeable in the typecasting of all these faces, don't think you've identified the culprit by that.

Roland Young probably could have gone on making more Topper films, but I'm willing to bet he decided to quit while ahead. In any event Cosmo Topper probably decided to go with the flow and left the banking profession to become a psychic.

Since both films were on my DVD I watched both of them tonight. I found this film more charming than the Cary Grant film (and that is saying something!) Not only was Joan Blondell a barrel of fun but the house was great. There were secret staircases, chairs that tuned into secret hallways. I found Jack Benney's sidekick (Chester, I believe) a total riot. This man did not mind playing this role I am sure. (Jack Benney for all his "stingy" ways was not stingy in real life, especially with this man.) The other character that was completely zany and filled with great fun was Billie Burke. She did not carry the same personality over from the first film. In the original "Topper" she played a snobbish upper crust lady who had no fun in her. For "Topper Returns" she plays a zany character so much like Gracie Allen you would think that George Burns was "Topper" and Gracie his wife. Anyway, it was a very funny, delightful film.

This film may not have been one of the "greats", but if you just want to laugh--have a go at this one.