Padme's Library: Friday's Film Adaption: Topper & Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith

Friday, January 9, 2015

Friday's Film Adaption: Topper & Topper Takes a Trip by Thorne Smith

Topper
Summary:
"[Thorne Smith] created the modern American ghost. A ghost with style and wit. A ghost that haunts us still."
--The New York Times

Thorne Smith is a master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee. Topper, his best-known work, is the hilarious, ribald comedy on which the hit television show and movie (starring Cary Grant) were based.

It all begins when Cosmo Topper, a law-abiding, mild-mannered bank manager, decides to buy a secondhand car, only to find it haunted by the ghosts of its previous owners--the reckless, feckless, frivolous couple who met their untimely demise when the car careened into an oak tree. The ghosts, George and Marion Kerby, make it their mission to rescue Topper from the drab "summer of suburban Sundays" that is his life--and they commence a series of madcap adventures that leave Topper, and anyone else who crosses their path, in a whirlwind of discomfiture and delight.

As enchanting today as it was when first published in 1926, Topper has set the standard in American pop culture for such mischievous apparitions as those seen in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Heaven Can Wait, Beetlejuice, and Bewitched.

Topper Takes a Trip

Summary:

The beloved characters--mortal and immortal--of Topper return in this uproarious romp through the south of France. One of Thorne Smith's best-loved comedies, it proves once again that he is the undisputed master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee.

Cosmo Topper, the mild-mannered bank manager who was persuaded to take a walk on the wild side by the ghosts of George and Marion Kerby in Topper, finds himself reunited with his dyspeptic wife for an extended vacation on the Riviera. But he doesn't have long to enjoy the peace and quiet before the irrepressible Kerbys materialize once again and start causing fracases, confusing the citizenry, alarming the gendarmes, getting naked, and turning every occasion into revelry or melee. Soon Marion decides that Topper as a ghost would be even more laughs than Topper in the flesh. And all she needs to arrange is one simple little murder.

Films

Topper

Release dates: July 16, 1937

Running time: 97 minutes

Cast:

Constance Bennett as Marion Kerby

Cary Grant as George Kerby

Roland Young as Cosmo Topper

Billie Burke as Mrs. Clara Topper

Alan Mowbray as Wilkins, the butler/valet/house servant

Eugene Pallette as Casey

Arthur Lake as Elevator Boy, and later as a bell boy

Hedda Hopper as Mrs. Grace Stuyvesant

Virginia Sale as Miss Johnson

Ward Bond (uncredited) as a cab driver in one scene

Cast notes:

Songwriter and pianist Hoagy Carmichael makes an uncredited cameo appearance, early in the film, as the piano player in the sequence where George and Marion are on the town the night before the meeting at the bank. He introduces the song "Old Man Moon", which is sung by Grant and Bennett (It's also sung later by Three Hits and a Miss).[7] It was Carmichael's screen debut.[7] As the couple leave the bar, George (Grant) says, "(Good)night Hoagy!", and Carmichael replies "So long, see ya next time."

Trailer:

Topper Takes a Trip
Release dates: December 29, 1938
Running time: 80 minutes
Cast:
Constance Bennett as Marion Kerby
Roland Young as Cosmo Topper
Billie Burke as Clara Topper
Alan Mowbray as Wilkins, Topper's butler
Verree Teasdale as Mrs. Nancy Parkhurst
Franklin Pangborn as Louis
Alexander D'Arcy as Baron de Rossi
Skippy (dog) as Mr. Atlas

Trailer:

Topper Returns
Release dates: March 21, 1941
Running time: 88 minutes

Cast:

Joan Blondell as Gail Richards

Roland Young as Cosmo Topper

Carole Landis as Ann Carrington

Billie Burke as Clara Topper

Dennis O'Keefe as Bob

Patsy Kelly as Emily

H. B. Warner as Henry Carrington

Eddie Anderson as Eddie

George Zucco as Dr. Jeris

Donald McBride as Police Sergeant Roberts

Rafaela Ottiano as Lillian

Trevor Bardette as Rama

Trailer:

Even though I haven't read the novels, I have always loved the films since I was a child. I think Topper is absolutely brilliant. Topper Takes a Trip is very funny although it is my least favorite of the trio of films. I included information on Topper Returns in the post even though it was not a book. I find the third film to be nearly as funny as the original. If you love true comedic genius and slapstick then this is definitely a film series to watch. Even though I haven't read the books, I look forward to checking them out and seeing how they stack up to the films.

RATING:

Author Bio:
James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking and supernatural transformations. With racy illustrations, these sold millions of copies in the 1930s and were equally popular in paperbacks of the 1950s.

Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a Navy commodore and attended Dartmouth College. Following hungry years in Greenwich Village, working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. He was an early resident of Free Acres, a social experimental community developed by Bolton Hall according to the economic principles of Henry George in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. He died of a heart attack in 1934 while vacationing in Florida.