{"id":6042,"date":"2008-12-21T11:32:16","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T18:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6042"},"modified":"2020-12-31T23:55:18","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T06:55:18","slug":"topper-returns-1941","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6042","title":{"rendered":"Topper Returns (1941)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t every day a girl gets murdered!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster-197x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-60937\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster-197x300.png 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster-673x1024.png 673w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster-84x128.png 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster-177x270.png 177w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Topper-Returns-Poster.png 717w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen the friend (Joan Blondell) of an heiress (Carole Landis) is accidentally murdered, her ghost enlists the help of Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) in identifying the killer.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Amateur Sleuths<\/li>\n<li>Carole Landis Films<\/li>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Fantasy<\/li>\n<li>Ghosts<\/li>\n<li>Joan Blondell Films<\/li>\n<li>Murder Mystery<\/li>\n<li>Roland Young Films<\/li>\n<li>Roy Del Ruth Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nRoy Del Ruth directed this final installment in the inexplicably popular <em>Topper<\/em> trilogy, which banks on much of what made the first two so successful: plenty of ghostly special effects and tedious slapstick humor. While it&#8217;s no masterpiece, the presence of Joan Blondell as the <em>ghost de jeur<\/em> (replacing Constance Bennett&#8217;s &#8220;Mrs. Kirby&#8221;) adds a much-needed touch of sass and vigor to the proceedings, and the Old Dark House &#8220;whodunit&#8221; plot at least provides viewers with a welcome narrative hook (I&#8217;ll admit the ending caught me by surprise). Best of all: Billie Burke as Cosmo&#8217;s airhead wife is given mercifully few scenes! <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joan Blondell as Gail<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/topper-returns-blondell.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/topper-returns-blondell.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6044\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo. As noted previously, the <em>Topper<\/em> sequels are certainly not must-see viewing &#8212; though Blondell makes this one more bearable than its predecessors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0034303\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/movie\/review?_r=1&#038;res=9A05E0DA113BE33BBC4051DFB566838A659EDE\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/5870\/topper-returns#articles-reviews?articleId=115789\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t every day a girl gets murdered!&#8221; Synopsis: When the friend (Joan Blondell) of an heiress (Carole Landis) is accidentally murdered, her ghost enlists the help of Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) in identifying the killer. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Amateur Sleuths Carole Landis Films Comedy Fantasy Ghosts Joan Blondell Films Murder Mystery Roland Young Films Roy Del Ruth Films Review: Roy Del Ruth directed this final installment in the inexplicably popular Topper trilogy, which banks on much of&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=6042\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6042"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60939,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6042\/revisions\/60939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}