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Topper Returns

Topper Returns

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $17.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Topper Return's a classic!
Review: I was thrilled to find this movie on DVD! This has got to be the funniest movie I have ever seen! I remember watching one Saturday afternoon when I was a child. My 11 year old loves it too! No one can resist this movie!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Blondell Begins Her Descent
Review: One of the greatest screen personalities of the 1930s, Joan Blondell found herself being edged out of films by the decade's end. Soon she would be reduced to playing the Shelley Winters parts before Shelley Winters found her niche, and then actually competing with Shelley Winters for the same roles, which must have been terribly frustrating for a talented actress like Blondell. Here she is and you can just see a hint of desperation as she "jumps the shark" into a sort of limbo of "being a star" and "no longer a star." I can picture her face when handed the script, "And you get killed on page 15." What? And this is long before Janet Leigh's brave decision to let her character get killed off in Hitchcock's PSYCHO! But leave it to Joan, she took the part and really ran with it. All the way up to the end she was a classy actress and the definition of "star."

TOPPER RETURNS has a lot of fun with the idea of Joan Blondell as a "ghost of her former self." Roland Young, Billie Burke, and winsome Carole Landis offer suitable support. Eddie Anderson tries varying his Rochester persona here--he's great, but the script doesn't give him enough to do--or when it does (like playing with the trained seal) it's the wrong kind of thing. However, like Joan Blondell, he rises above it with style.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A REAL DELIGHT
Review: Skip "The Philadelphia Story" and "Adam`s Rib". T H I S is the all-time comedy of the golden age. Right, it i s a lowbudget comedy, but it doesn`t matter. The performances and the lines has not dated 1 bit. You`ll see STAR performances from Billie Burke, Roland Young, Rochester and.... no this isn`t fair: THEY ARE ALL GOOD as a matter of fact. TRIVIA: Carole Landis committed suicide in 1948 after an ill-fated infatuation with Rex Harrison. But; TOPPER RETURNS must be considered one of the craziest and funniest movies ever made. It`s for the whole family.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pure fluff
Review: The story is wafer thin and it matters little. There is more crammed in this little unsung film than most comedies. Despite the racist undertones, Rochester shows why he was regarded as such a great comic actor. It is a pity he did not make more films as he seems the equal of Bob Hope as the scared driver of Topper.

Indeed the whole film is a battle between which lunatic can hold the camera for more than a few seconds. There is just too much going on. I particularly liked Topper's wife who was so dizzy and stole scene after scene. It is a who dunnit, but that really does not matter as it is all great fun.

Sit back and enjoy a piece of nonsense.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: CHUCKLES AND LAUGHS!
Review: This is the first Topper I've seen minus Cary Grant. But Joan Blondell holds her own and carries the day. There are constant laughs to be had here and frequent giggles, the biggest instigator of them being the briskly clever dialogue and the performance of Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, who for many years performed with Jack Benny. His terror at the "ghostly" goings on is replete with humor.

It is a pleasure to see a young Dennis O'Keefe acting opposite Carole Landis, sweet, beautiful and a fine actress (what a tragedy she committed suicide over an ill-fated love affair with the then married Rex Harrison - or should I say what a waste, since in this film she displayed such potential as an actress). And there is a wonderful, laugh till your sides split, performance by Billie Burke, who lets all the stops out in this one. She seems to relish her role and uses her up and down tremolo voice, sometimes raising it to a hilarious screech. This is definitely one of her best films.

Watch it and have fun! Because it's a fun movie at heart.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: CHUCKLES AND LAUGHS!
Review: This is the first Topper I've seen minus Cary Grant. But Joan Blondell holds her own and carries the day. There are constant laughs to be had here and frequent giggles, the biggest instigator of them being the briskly clever dialogue and the performance of Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, who for many years performed with Jack Benny. His terror at the "ghostly" goings on is replete with humor.

It is a pleasure to see a young Dennis O'Keefe acting opposite Carole Landis, sweet, beautiful and a fine actress (what a tragedy she committed suicide over an ill-fated love affair with the then married Rex Harrison - or should I say what a waste, since in this film she displayed such potential as an actress). And there is a wonderful, laugh till your sides split, performance by Billie Burke, who lets all the stops out in this one. She seems to relish her role and uses her up and down tremolo voice, sometimes raising it to a hilarious screech. This is definitely one of her best films.

Watch it and have fun! Because it's a fun movie at heart.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: returning to Topper
Review: This movie is a classic! It is one of our all-time favorites. One of those old black and white murder-mystery-comedy movies of the golden age that we can watch again and again. Very enjoyable.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "I've never been on such a merry-go-round in my life!"
Review: This review is of the Alpha dvd release of "Topper Returns". I had never heard of Roland Young or the Topper series before I bought this dvd, but the plot looked so good I couldn't resist! My hunch paid off and this turned out to be one of the funniest classics I've ever seen!

Roland Young (playing Cosmo Topper) has a new mystery on his hands: who killed Joan Blondell, and why? She and Carole Landis had just arrived to stay at Carrington Hall, a huge mansion where Landis met her father for the first time. After Blondell is murdered, her ghost contacts Topper, the next door neighbor, and he is compelled (practically forced!) to solve the murder.

After Topper goes to the huge mansion (in the middle of the night), his wife (Billie Burke) gets suspicious and calls the police. In no time at all Carrington Hall has suspects, dumb cops, a taxi driver (Dennis O'Keefe), Topper and Blondell's ghost, Topper's wife, and the Toppers' scared chauffeur Eddie "Rochester" Anderson roaming around! There's one hilarious situation after another as Topper and Blondell's ghost search for clues and come closer and closer to solving the murder.

This side-splitting classic has snappy dialogue from beginning to end, and the cast is truly outstanding. What surprised me even more was the wonderful picture and sound quality of the Alpha dvd. This is probably the best Alpha dvd I've ever bought and at this price you cannot lose! I am a little puzzled about the picture of Victure Mature on the back cover of the dvd, but that's forgivable. If you enjoy screwball comedies then this is an absolute must for your dvd collection!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great old movie
Review: Topper Returns is an example of how old Hollywood could do classic work, with a movie that isn't great, but exceedingly good, and at times downright hilarious. Roland Young, the woman who plays his wife (forgot her name) Joan Blondell and Eddie Anderson make this a comedy, albeit a black comedy with it's overtones of murder, worth buying. And don't forget, it was nominated for two Academy Awards. It's good viewing for Mom, Dad and kids who aren't really young.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Topper Returns
Review: Topper Returns was great clean fun. The actors were great. I loved every minute of the movie. My only complaint was a film problem with a short section of the tape itself. It in no way reflected on the quality of the acting, the problem was a bad tape.


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