Topper Returns (United Artists) (1941)

Palsy Kelly in “Topper Returns.” 18 A—One Col. Head (Mat .15; Cut .25) Newcomers Get Ghost Lessons Billie Burke and Roland Young found themselves in the envious position of being experienced seniors among a group of wide- eyed freshmen, during the filming of the Hal Roach mystery-comedy, “Topper Returns,” which comes on .... to the .... Theatre. While the rest of the cast were babes in the cinematic woods, where the typical Topper film magic was concerned, Mr. Young and Miss Burke, who play Topper and Mrs. Topper, could smile knowingly, having gone through their initiate in the original “Top¬ per” and its follow-up, “Topper Takes a Trip.” Even Roy Del Ruth was a tyro when he undertook to direct “Top¬ per Returns.” Running the pre¬ vious films in the studio projection room helped him hurdle the ob¬ stacle of having a ghost for a leading lady, in the shape of lovely Joan Blondell. But it wasn’t until the second week of production that he really felt at home with type¬ writers tapping away merrily by themselves, self-juggling vases in mid-air and moving rowboats with invisible rowers. Once he felt him¬ self master of the situation, how¬ ever, he was like a small boy in the fun-house at the beach. The most puzzled person in the cast was Joan Blondell, who goes through most of the picture as a lovely ghost with a sense of humor. She knew for certain that she was flesh and blood, but there were many doubtful moments when the special effects department began turning her on and off. As for Carole Landis, Dennis O’Keefe, Patsy Kelly, H. B. War¬ ner and Eddie “Rochester” Ander¬ son, they eventually learned to walk around the set with their heads half - turned over their shoulders. FILLERS Joan Blondell went on a hic¬ coughing marathon when her champagne-drinking scene in “Top¬ per Returns,” now at the .... Theatre, was filmed. She had a difficult time turning on the hic¬ coughs, but once she started she couldn’t stop. The company had to break for lunch prematurely be¬ cause Miss Blondell continued to make explosive sounds. Eddie (Rochester) Anderson climaxed the completion of his se¬ quence with Slicker the Seal by fainting during shooting of “Top¬ per Returns,” coming on .... to the .... Theatre. For hours he was compelled to remain in the water with the seal. Eddie fainted when the seal gave him a whiskery kiss and nudged him off the dock. “Going-on-with-the-show” item: Rafaela Otliano, who plays a menacing housekeeper in “Topper Returns,” now showing at the .... Theatre, worked through the pic¬ ture with a broken foot. She kept her injury a secret until she fin¬ ished her role. Her long dress covered the bandages and she kept off her feet between scenes. The owner of the large, expen¬ sive automobile which H. B. War¬ ner drives in the chase sequence of “Topper Returns,” which starts a run at the .... Theatre on . . . . , almost swooned in horror when he visited the set during film¬ ing of the end of the chase. There lay his car, apparently a total wreck. He cheered up, however, when he realized the car was un¬ damaged — the prop boys had merely done a dismantling job. * * * Easiest job of the year fell to Irene Martin. As stand-in for Joan Blondell, who goes through most of “Topper Returns” at the .... Theatre as a ghost, Irene had little to do but sit on the sidelines and let the special effects experts do their stuff with Miss Blondell. Irene read books and knitted three sweat¬ ers. Unlike most boys, Donald Mac- Bride never wanted to be a police¬ man or a fireman when he was a youngster. So, now he is playing the part of a flatfoot in the Hal Roach mystery comedy, “Topper Returns,” currently on view at the .... Theatre. Even now, he doesn’t like being a gendarme. “Folks don’t like coppers,” he says. Carole Landis attracts trouble. In her current film, Hal Roach’s “Topper Returns,” coming on ... . to the .... Theatre, Carol is the target for a falling 250 pound chandelier. Of course, elaborate precautions were taken to insure the success of the scene, but don’t think Carole wasn’t covered with debris before the scene was over. GAY COMEDY-MYSTERY UNREELED IN ROACH’S ‘TOPPER RETURNS” Carole Landis and Joan Blondell look scared to death and it’s not astonishing—their car has just been shot at in this scene from Hal Roach’s “Topper Returns,” the mystery-comedy starting a run at the .... Theatre on ... . 9B—Two Col. Scene (Mat .30; Cut .50) The Story (Not for Publication) Hilarious Fun-Fest Has Great Stars In Top Roles (Advance Reader) Comedy, mystery and romance are blended in the swiftly paced story which unfolds in the new Hal Roach production, “Topper Returns,” which is slated for its local premiere at the .... Theatre on ... . thru United Artists re¬ lease. “Topper Returns,” which was directed by Roy Del Ruth, is based on an original story by Jonathan Latimer, carrying the famous characters created by the late Thorne Smith still further into the realm of hilarious, ecto¬ plasmic high-jinks. The cast of “Topper Returns” is headed by such Hollywood lumi¬ naries as Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis, Billie Burke, Dennis O’Keefe, Patsy Kelly, Ed¬ die (Rochester) Anderson and Rafaela Ottiano. Roland Young and Billie Burke are back as Cosmo Topper and his fluttery spouse, the roles they made famous in the two previous Roach hits, “Topper” and “Topper Takes a Trip.” In “Topper Returns,” Cosmo Topper again manifests his some¬ times embarrassing fascination for ghosts, and the lovely, shapely spirit which haunts him this time is Joan Blondell as the unearthly Gail Richards. Ann Carrington has just returned from the Orient and is en route to see, for the first time, her father, Henry Carrington, at his country home in upper New York State. She is accom¬ panied by her bosom friend, wise-cracking Gail Richards. They take a taxi from New York City, driven by Bob, a dynamic and resourceful young cabbie. Nearing the Carrington estate, a mysterious person, secreted in the woods along the road, fires at a tire on the cab, causing a blow-out and almost catapulting the machine over a cliff into the water far below. The two girls and Bob are given a lift by Cosmo Topper and his chauffeur, Eddie, a ghost-fearing negro who declares that the Carrington house would be haunted were it not inhabited. They drive past the Topper home en route to the Carrington estate, and Mrs. Topper is shocked to see Gail sitting on her husband’s lap. The atmosphere of the Carrington house seems charged with mystery and menace. The girls meet Dr. Jeris, Carrington’s physician, the housekeeper Lillian, the butler Rama, and finally, Henry Carrington. Carrington tells Ann he had never sent for her because it had been her mother’s wish that she be reared in the Orient, the country she loved. He tells her how her mother died, in a Sumatra mine accident, along with his business partner, Walther Harberg. He also informs her that by the terms of her mother’s will the estate will be hers after the morrow. That night a heavy chandelier falls, narrowly missing Ann. And Gail, sleeping in the room originally assigned to Ann, is stabbed to death. She rises as a ghost who can materialize at will and exercise a very unghostlike ability to meddle in the affairs of mortals. With Topper, to whom she discloses her identity, she sets out to learn who murdered her. Topper’s sleuthing is complicated by the arrival of his in¬ dignant wife and her maid, Emily. Accused of having a hand in Gail’s death, Lillian is about to point out the real murderer when the lights in the living room go out and she disappears abruptly. Topper discovers a mechanism by the fireplace which flips over the chair in which Lillian had been seated, dropping the occupant into a pit. A tableau is arranged, with all the interested people, including Police Sgt. Butler, assembled. Topper announces that he knows the identity of the murderer of Gail and Lillian. He goes on to say that whoever was standing in front of the fireplace, able to reach the mechanism to operate the trick chair at the time Lillian was sitting on it, is the guilty person. Even with this clue, the best efforts of Topper and the police are not sufficient to give them the solution to the crimes. Only after an automobile chase, in which the murderer is killed, does Gail’s ghost elicit a confession from the murderer’s ghost which clears up the mystery. Plenty of Romance Carole Landis, curvaceous blonde star of “Turnabout” and “Road Show,” has the romantic feminine lead of Ann Carrington, and op¬ posite her is Dennis O’Keefe, as a flip, Johnny-on-the-spot taxicab driver. H. B. Warner, the versatile character actor, plays the villain of the piece, while Eddie Ander¬ son, Benny’s famous Rochester, appears as Topper’s chauffeur. Comedienne Patsy Kelly is seen in the role of Emily, Mrs. Top¬ per’s maid. Almost the entire action of “Topper Returns” occurs in the Carrington mansion, an old, eerie place fitted with sliding panels, chairs that do nip-ups, depositing the occupant into dungeons, trap doors, secret passages between the walls. It is one set in which, despite its collections of comfort¬ able chairs and divans, no one lounged. It was impossible to re¬ lax, said the stars, when the chair under you might suddenly turn over. The huge chandelier, which takes a wild jump during one of the eerie scenes, was two weeks in the making. It was an ornate fix¬ ture of metal and glass and it cost $800. It weighed exactly 250 pounds. Before the scene was shot, it was necessary to compute the speed of the chandelier’s fall to the floor—just so the stars wouldn’t be in the way. H. B. Warner in “Topper Returns.” 20A—One Col. Head (Mat .15; Cut .25) Page Eleven