Having watched the mildly amusing antics of the first Topper movie and vaguely remembering an enjoyment of the Leo G. Carroll television series, I was unprepared for how terrible this episode of the long-running ghost story was. Joan Blondell as the ghost is constantly making wisecracks, none of which can be regarded as witty. Eddie "Rochester" Anderson is thoroughly wasted in a role that is overtly racist. Falling down a well not once, not twice but three times only to be inexplicably clubbed by a seal, has to be one of the low points of his comic career. The murder mystery angle is worthy of a bad Scooby Doo episode. And the whole thing seems only barely tolerable as fodder for the Mystery Science Theatre treatment.
Review of Topper Returns
