Topper Returns (United Artists) (1941)

ROLAND YOUNG STYMIES HIMSELF WHILE PORTRAYING COSMO TOPPER -- $> - The Comedian of “Topper Returns” Is Forced to Smash Art Works Roland Young in “Topper Returns.” 15 A—One Col. Head (Mat .15; Cut .25) TROUSER CUFFS Although Roland Young’s ward¬ robe numbers between forty and fifty suits, he goes through the entire footage of Hal Roach’s mys¬ tery-comedy, “Topper Returns,” which is now on view at the .... Theatre, bundled up in an overcoat and a muffler. Yet every day he appeared on the set immaculately attired in a different outfit. “My tailor goes to all my pictures,” he explained, “principally, I’m afraid, to see his suits in action. I didn’t want to disappoint him, even though all he’ll see is an assorted collection of trouser cuffs. CALORIC BINGE CAUSES RUMPUS ON STUDIO SET Roland Young, the art collector, caused plenty of grief for Roland Young, the actor. A lover and collector of Chinese porcelains, Young had no suspicion when he was signed for Hal Roach’s “Topper Returns,” now at the .... Theatre, that his hobby would play hob with his career. As in the original “Topper,” Young was faced with the hilarious necessity of hobnobbing with a ghost. In this case the lovely apparition was Joan Blondell, who involves <S> the unwilling Topper in a hunt for her murderer. The grief arrived in a scene in which the invisible Miss Blondell, tipsy on champagne, decides to juggle a three foot Ming vase. She playfully tosses it to Young, who fumbles, and it smashes to smithereens. At least that’s what the script said. The vase, of course, was only a reproduction of the original, which rested safely in another part of the set. But it was a masterly imitation, and that’s where the trouble began. Three times Joan tossed the vase at Young, and three times he hung on to it for dear life. The scenes, naturally, were ruined. “I just can’t let it go,” he apologized to director Roy Del Ruth. “My ‘mind tells me it’s just a cheap copy, but at the last minute I get a sneaking feeling that it might be real, and I’m a goner.” It was canny Joan Blondell who solved the dilemma. She simply suggested that the studio print shop make and attach a “Made in Germany” label to the bottom of the vase. On the next “take,” Young, an Englishman, saw the label and forgot he was an art collector. He dropped the vase like a hot potato. “Perfect!” shouted director Del Ruth. “Thanks,” said weary Roland Young to psychologist Joan Blon¬ dell. Miss Ottiano Analyzes Her Brand of Villainy If you hate Rafaela Ottiano, one of the screen’s better feminine villains, you are not alone in your attitude. Miss Ottiano hates herself so thoroughly that when she is working in a picture she never sees the daily “rushes,” and she can’t summon up enough courage to view any film in which she ap¬ pears until about a year after it has been released. “I can’t look myself in the face,” laments Miss Ottiano, who is currently playing the part of Lillian, the sinister housekeeper, in the Hal Roach mystery-comedy, “Topper Returns,” at the .... Theatre. “If they’d ever give me a chance to play a sweet character I might get over the idea that I’m such a detestable person. “But I don’t suppose I’ll ever have the chance, so since I’m destined to be a menace I might as well do a workmanlike job of it.” She has done a good job. The movie-going public is pretty well convinced that Miss Ottiano is a dyed-in-the-wool, full-time menace. She has but to step into a scene, and the audience immediately knows she is up to no good. In “Topper Returns,” Miss Ottiano is an accomplice in murder. She dresses in severe black, speaks ominously and looks about as re¬ assuring as a hungry tigress. In fact, she can put more men¬ ace in such a simple act as wind¬ ing a clock than most actors can while strangling a baby. Miss Ottiano says that frequently per¬ sons who meet her for the first time in private life are uneasy in her presence. “They act as if I were carry¬ ing a concealed weapon,” she says. “That is all right with me. It is something of a testimonial to my work as a screen villainess.” She said that recently she at¬ tended a cocktail party during which a person told her, a short while after they had been intro¬ duced: “You’re rather a nice per¬ son after all, Miss Ottiano. You know, I have always hated you.” Crystal-Gazing , Hal Roach’s “Topper Returns,” which starts a run at the .... Theatre on .... , like the first picture of the famous series, offers automobile fanciers a peep into the future. The super-streamlined car seen in the original “Topper” so intrigued the public that the Hal Roach Studio was deluged for months by letters of inquiry, many from persons who wished to buy the car or one like it. The huge roadster, streamlined as a drop of water, used in “Topper Returns” is a foreign-made vehicle, original* ly costing $23,000. “Topper Returns,” which is a United Artists release, was di¬ rected by Roy Del Ruth, with Joan Blondell, Carole Landis, Ro¬ land Young and Billie Burke. The case of Billie Burke versus the five pound chocolate layer cake has been tried, and judgment ren¬ dered for the plaintiff. It all started when director Roy Del Ruth insisted on an honest-to- goodness cake, instead of a prop one, for a scene in the Hal Roach mystery - comedy, “Topper Re¬ turns,” which starts a run at the .... Theatre on ... . The setting was the kitchen of a foreboding mystery house where Billie Burke, as Mrs. Topper, finds herself during a search for her missing spouse, Cosmo Topper, played by Roland Young. In her inimitable characterization of a fluttery matron, Miss Burke spies the cake, calmly sits down, and with a mistress-of-the-house air orders a pot of tea. And that’s where the battle of the layer cake began. For while the script demanded that she in¬ dulge liberally of the iced choco¬ late cake, her self-imposed diet in¬ sists just as strenuously that she refrain from sweets. The problem was worthy of a Solomon’s wisdom, and Miss Burke’s solution did her credit as a hair-splitter. During rehearsals, she held stoically steadfast to her diet, and merely pantomimed eat¬ ing the cake. But during actual shooting of the scene, she threw caution to the winds, sliced a huge chunk, and went on a caloric binge. “My conscience is clear,” de¬ clared Miss Burke, picking the last crumb from her plate. “It was simply a case of keeping my right hand from knowing what my stomach was doing.” Billie Burke and Patsy Kelly are thoroughly mystified by the antics of Eddie (Rochester) Anderson in this scene from Hal Roach’s “Topper Returns,” the hilarious mystery-comedy coming on ... . to the .... Theatre. 7B—Two Col. Scene (Mat .30; Cut .50) Dramatic Formula In designing the huge Car¬ rington mansion, the fore¬ boding scene of two murders in Hal Roach’s mystery-com¬ edy, “Topper Returns,” which will have its premiere at the .... Theatre on . . . . , art director Nicolai Remisoff followed the dramatic form¬ ula that mystery requires space. Whoever heard of a haunted four room apart¬ ment?” he demanded. So, Remisoff achieved his shivery impression architecturally. He built the mansion on the lines of a Victorian mauso¬ leum and used shadow-throw¬ ing pillars and heavy drap¬ eries. Then he furnished it with relics usually associated with mysterious lands and strange peoples, including mounted animal heads. Page Twelve