The second TOPPER film – TOPPER TAKES A TRIP (1938) – is curiously unavailable for appraisal (unless you happen to be one of those born-lucky U.S. residents who have the privilege of a TCM connection) but it seems to have followed the same route as its predecessor…except for the non-reappearance of Cary Grant which, following the release of one of the peaks of the Screwball genre THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), he had become a bona-fide film star in his own right and his services had evidently become too expensive for Hal Roach's limited pockets! <br /><br />The third entry in the series, then, gave the formula an ingenious twist by marrying it with the popular old dark house-type of film. While I wouldn't go so far as to say that Topper's presence within this context is redundant, it does feel a bit contrived and, at times, he seems reduced to a supporting player in his own star vehicle. Still, the film (scripted by future noir expert Jonathan Latimer and Gordon Douglas, who would become a director of some distinction and had actually just helmed the minor Laurel & Hardy comedy SAPS AT SEA [1940]) is a deft combination of various familiar yet irresistible elements which render the mix all the more pleasing.<br /><br />And so it is that, for the next 90 minutes or so, we are in the company of a ditzy blonde (Joan Blondell who's killed off early and becomes the ghost in this case), a put-upon heiress (ill-fated Carole Landis), a mysterious masked assailant (whose identity when revealed proves quite clever), an ailing father (H.B. Warner), an enigmatic maid (Raffaela Ottiano from THE DEVIL-DOLL [1936]) a sinister doctor (horror regular George Zucco), a frightened manservant (hilarious Eddie "Rochester" Anderson who actually steals the film – with even an in-joke about his long-running collaboration with comedian Jack Benny on radio), a dumb cop (a typically flustered Donald MacBride), etc. For the record, the best gag has Rochester falling repeatedly through a hole in the ground to the riverbed beneath the old house, and then being persistently kept from re-emerging by a playful seal!