Topper (1937)

☆ ☆ ☆

Topper (1937) – N. Z. McLeod

Cary Grant and Constance Bennett are killed in a car accident and become ghosts.  For their “good deed” (in order to get into heaven, one surmises), they decide to help an uptight old banker and his wife loosen up.  Since it’s the thirties, Grant and Bennett are the party all night types and the film has aspirations of screwballsiness.  However, it never quite takes full flight (although the scene in the Seabreeze Hotel with Eugene Pallette as the house detective very nearly gets off the runway).  Somehow, the gimmick of the ghosts being invisible holds things back (even though it is the origin of some of the funnier bits) – objects floating in the air just aren’t that humorous after the first few times.  But Bennett and Grant are especially good and Roland Young plays the banker as all spluttering reaction shots.  Not bad but not up there with the best comedies of this era.