STATE THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 October 1941, Page 8

STATE THEATRE

“THE GREAT DICTATOR.”

The return season of "The Great Dictator" will be brought to a close tonight. "TOPPER RETURNS.” Comedy, mystery, and romance are blended in the swiftly paced story which unfolds in the new Hal Roach production, "Topper Returns,” whicn will be shown tomorrow. “Topper Returns” carries the famous character's created by the late Thorne Smith, with a new glamour ghost, still further into the realm of hilarious, ectoplasmic high-jinks. The cast of “Topper Returns” is headed by such Hollywood stars as Joan Biondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis, Billie Burke, Dennis D’Keefe, Patsy Kelly, Eddie (Roches,er) Anderson, and Rafaela Ottiano. Roland Young and Billie Burke are jack as Cosmo Topper and his fluttery spouse, the roles they made famous in Lhe two previous hits, "Topper and ‘Topper Takes a Trip.” In "Topper Returns,” Cosmo Topper again manifests his sometimes embarrassing fascination for ghosts, and the lovely, shapely spirit which haunts him this lime is Joan Blondell as the unearthly Gail Richards. Carole Landis gives an excellent performance as the romantic iead, while opposite her is the debonair and easy-going Dennis O’Keefe, the hero of the piece. Eddie Anderson, Jack Benny’s famous Rochester, is at his humorous best and appears as the chauffeur who can’t learn to like ghosts. Rafaela Ottiano, the screens feminine “menace,” does an excellent bit of first-class frightening.