Classic 30s Movie: “Topper”

May is Classic 30s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Wayne Kline.

Movie Title: Topper

Year: 1937

Writers: Screen play by Jack Jevne & Eric Hatch & Eddie Moran, novel by Thorne Smith

Lead Actors: Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Eugene Pallette

Director: Norman Z. McLeod (a good comedy director)

Plot Summary: A hard-partying couple wakes up as ghosts after a madcap sports car crash. Their one regret about their short life is never having done a good deed. So before heaven calls, they will do one. Put some fun into the humdrum life of a stuffy banker friend in a stale marriage to an even bigger fuddy-duddy. Then an evening of dancing goes too far and leads to gossip and jealousy and the possible breakup of the fun-loving couples.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 30s Movie

Topper is a clever mix of three genres:

A screwball comedy.
A fantasy ghost story.
And a romantic triangle love story.

It was a huge hit in the summer of 1937.

Screwball comedies were needed in the 1930’s because it was a horrible time for the world:

Depression, poverty and dust bowls in the USA.
Fascism, Communism and world war brewing in the rest of the world.

Movies were a way to escape.

Poverty is drab so moviegoers were treated by wealth and glamour at least for 2 hours watching a film. Screwball comedies were a willful rejection of the depression of the Depression.

In screwball comedy, an uptight character runs into a force of carefree anarchy. Often it’s an stodgy male set free by a wacky woman.

Here the fuddy duddy is banker Cosmo Topper.

The crazy force isn’t just a female. It’s a couple. Constance Bennett and Cary Grant as George and Marion Kerby. Both are madcap ghosts.

The couple strategy is shrewd. Cary Grant encourages his wife to go drinking and dancing with Topper as a way to loosen up the old guy. But then Topper enjoys it too much and makes a fool of himself, causing gossip. Cary is subject to jealousy and so is Cosmo’s wife.

It spawned many sequels. Topper Takes a Trip and Topper Returns. And a TV show. And a 1979 TV movie.

And many ghost comedies. The 1988 Beetlejuice also featured a husband and wife helpful ghosts who also had been killed in a car crash.

It made Cary Grant a star and launched Grant on a slew of screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and The Awful Truth.

It revived Constance Bennett career.

It’s the first feature-length ghost story to be a box office hit.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie

Cary Grant is of course handsome, charming and funny. But the real gold is Roland Young.

Roland Young was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for this role. He is great at doddering drunkenness.

The tour de force. Cary and Constance got him plastered. They have to get him out of a hotel room and he can hardly stand. They turn themselves invisible and walk him through a crowded lobby. The astonished onlookers gape at the strange and hilarious sight. A drunk with arms held out staggering and almost falling. Of course the actor is doing it all himself.

My Favorite Dialogue

Cary Grant, as George Kerby: “My pet, resting’s the sort of thing you’ve got to work up to gradually…very dangerous to rest all of a sudden.” —

Cary to the drunk banker: “Don’t teeter, Topper.”

Cosmo Topper: My wife objects to drinking.
George Kerby: Then she shouldn’t drink.
Cosmo Topper: She doesn’t.
George Kerby: What’s her objection?

Hotel Manager is suspicious after hearing a woman in a Topper’s room:

Hotel Manager: Perhaps you can explain the red on this cigarette.
Cosmo Topper: Yes, I… cut my tongue when I was shaving this morning.

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie

The Topper customized streamlined Buick roadster (which resembles a Cord and a Duesenberg) was the most famous film car until the Batmobile.

Drunk driving was seen as hilarious, even when it’s shown to kill.

There’s no sadness in death in this movie.

It’s so simple. No afterlife messengers tells the ghost couple anything. On their own, they decide they should do a good deed.

Hoagy Carmichael makes his film debut as a nightclub piano player and introduces the song “Old Man Moon.

It was produced by legendary Laurel and Hardy producer Hal Roach. In 1985, he made it into the first movie ever colorized.

The original casting was Jean Harlow for Cary’s wife and W.C. Fields for Topper.

To see the entire movie, go here.

Thanks, Wayne!

To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

We already have a set of classic 40s movies, 5os movies, 60s Movies, 70s movies, 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 30s movies. And thanks to the GITS community, we’ve got at least 22 movies in the works and hopefully!

Those who I put in bold have already sent me their posts. If you haven’t sent yours to me, please do so as soon as you can!!!

All Quiet on the Western Front — Michael Waters
Bride of Frankenstein — Marija Nielsen
Bringing Up Baby — Melinda Mahaffey
Captain Blood — John Arends
City Girl — Adam Westbrook
Dracula — Sheila Seaclearr
Duck Soup — David Joyner
Gone With The Wind — Mark Twain
Gunga Din — Steve Huerta
It Happened One Night — JoniB22
Make Way for Tomorrow — Susan W
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — Amber Watt
Rebecca — Katha
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves — Will King
Sabotage — Jeff Xilon
Stagecoach — Thenewlight
The 39 Steps — Felicity Flesher
The Adventures of Robin Hood — Clay Mitchell
The Petrified Forest — supergloss
The Women — Liz Clarke
Topper — Wayne Kline

I am still looking for volunteers. If there’s a 30s movie you’d like to write about, please post your suggestion in comments or contact me via email.

Thanks to everyone who steps up for this ongoing project!

For the original post explaining the series, go here.

For all of the 30s movies featured in the series, go here.

Click REPLY and see you in comments about today’s classic 30s movie!