Topper Takes A Trip (1938)

When Topper (Roland Young) gets into trouble and his wife (Billie Burke) leaves him, Marion Kerby (Constance Bennett) returns from the after life to help him set his affairs in order. Based on the novel TOPPER TAKES A TRIP by Thorne Smith and directed by Norman Z. McLeod (HORSE FEATHERS). A sequel to the previous year's hit screwball comedy TOPPER but this time without Cary Grant and he is missed. It takes a good forty minutes for the laughs to kick in and even when they do, they're sporadic. Most of the beginning of the movie is devoted to the back story using clips from the first film in order to explain what's going for those who missed it. Cary Grant even gets a thank you credit for allowing the use of his image. Frankly, not only is it not as good as the first one, it's not as good as the third one (TOPPER RETURNS) either. Roland Young gets another chance to show how adept he is at physical comedy and Constance Bennett spends half the movie as invisible but she's a charmer anyway. With Alan Mowbray, Franklin Pangborn, Verree Teasdale and Alexander D'Arcy who has the film's funniest bit when he loses his swimming trunks.