Topper (1937)

Topper (1937), directed by Norman Z. McLeod.

A happy but dissolute rich couple -- Cary Grant in full tuxedo charm, Constance Bennett (top billing!) doing a rather good Carole Lombard impression -- crash their car, die and carry on pretty much as before in ghostly form. They decide to make their stuffy banker -- Roland Young (The Young in Heart (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940)) -- into their "project". Maybe that's why they are still on earth, to give him some joy. Or maybe just give him "the business".

A fun screwball fantasy set in those popular Depression locales: glittering nightclubs and Art Deco apartments. Plenty of physical humor with Roland Young particularly uninhibited in struggling with invisible forces. Rather good FX of the period with objects moving on their own: you can see the threads now and then.

First in a series including a 1950s TV show.

Many familiar faces:

• Billie Burke: Topper's even stuffier wife, loosening up in the end.

• Alan Mowbray: butler.

• Eugene Pallette: hotel detective.

• Hedda Hopper: society dame.

• Ward Bond: (uncredited) cab driver.

Also uncredited in his first film appearance: singer/songwriter Hoagy Carmichael, performing "Old Man Moon" with assistance of the drunken couple.

Available on Blu-ray from VCI, a company not known for video excellence. The first reel does show heavy DNR but after that the image improves considerably, so the original was either nicely preserved or had a good restoration. Good blacks and detail.