The Topper Trilogy: Supernatural Comedy in Public Domain

Hal Roach Studios produced three Topper features between 1937 and 1941, adapting Thorne Smith's 1926 novel of the same name. The films defined supernatural comedy as a genre and gave Cary Grant one of his most charming early screen vehicles. All three are now in the public domain.

The premise

Cosmo Topper (Roland Young) is a stuffy banker — repressed, conventional, miserable. His life changes when he buys a luxury car previously owned by the late George and Marion Kerby (Cary Grant and Constance Bennett), a glamorous society couple killed in a recent crash. The Kerbys, it turns out, are now ghosts — and they've decided to haunt Topper specifically, in order to perform "one good deed" that will let them move on. Their idea of a good deed: liberating Topper from his stifling marriage and life.

Topper (1937)

The first film established the formula. The picture was a major hit and earned Roland Young an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Cary Grant and Constance Bennett play the Kerbys with deliberate, breezy charm — they treat death as a minor inconvenience that has slightly limited their party-going. The film's special effects — invisible characters knocking things over, mysteriously opening doors, etc. — were sophisticated for 1937 and held up the picture's reputation for technical accomplishment.

Most importantly, Topper was Cary Grant in his charm-comedy element. Grant had been at Paramount since 1932 in increasingly forgettable supporting roles. Roach put him in a leading-man comedy that allowed Grant to develop the on-screen persona — wry, sophisticated, slightly subversive — that would define the rest of his career.

Topper Takes a Trip (1938)

The sequel reduced Cary Grant's role to a brief cameo (Grant's career was about to explode at Columbia with Bringing Up Baby and Holiday) and centered on Constance Bennett's Marion ghost and Roland Young's Topper traveling to the French Riviera. The picture is slighter than the original but extends the formula effectively.

Topper Returns (1941)

The third film is a near-total reboot. Constance Bennett was unavailable. The Kerbys are gone. Instead, Joan Blondell plays Gail Richards, a new ghost murdered at a creepy mansion who recruits Topper to solve her murder. The picture is more of a haunted-house mystery than the previous Topper films, but Roland Young's performance and the supporting cast (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is particularly funny) keep the franchise's tone intact.

The Hal Roach factor

Hal Roach is best remembered today for Laurel and Hardy, Our Gang/The Little Rascals, and Charley Chase shorts. The Topper trilogy is Roach Studios's most polished feature-length work — a demonstration that the studio's comedic instincts translated to A-list productions with major stars. Roach's later studio difficulties (financial collapse in the 1950s) put a substantial portion of his catalog into the public domain, including the Topper trilogy.

The 1953 TV series

The Topper property continued into television in 1953. A CBS series ran 78 episodes (1953–1955) with Leo G. Carroll as Topper and Robert Sterling/Anne Jeffreys as the ghostly Kerbys. The TV series remains under separate copyright through its production company.

Why the trilogy matters

The Topper films invented the supernatural-comedy format that The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Heaven Can Wait (1943 and 1978), Beetlejuice (1988), Ghost (1990), and dozens of other films would inherit. The premise — likable ghosts manipulating mortal lives toward better outcomes — was Roach's invention in cinematic form.

The trilogy is also one of the cleanest documents of Cary Grant's transformation from contract player to defining-icon-of-his-era star. Watching Grant in the first Topper, you see the screen persona emerging in real time. He's still finding the voice; by Bringing Up Baby (1938), six months later, he'd found it completely.

Where to start

Start with Topper (1937). It's the canonical entry and the one where the Cary Grant/Constance Bennett ghost chemistry is at its most appealing. Roland Young's Oscar-nominated performance is the heart of the picture. From there, Topper Takes a Trip (1938) extends the formula, and Topper Returns (1941) shows the franchise's resilience when its original stars moved on.