Topper Returns is a 1941 American supernatural comedy thriller film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Joan Blondell, Roland Young, Carole Landis and Billie Burke.

Blondell portrays a slain woman who seeks the reluctant Topper and enlists his help in identifying her killer and saving her friend, played by Carole Landis.

[8] Wealthy young heiress Ann Carrington and her best friend Gail Richards are riding in a speeding taxi driven by Bob, along the coast.

A figure dressed all in black, with covered face and hat, aims a rifle with the telescopic sight crosshairs focused on the cab from a distance and shoots out the rear tire.

Bob, the taxi driver, extracts his passengers from the vehicle and leaves them at the side of the road so he can walk back to a garage they passed.

Gail raises Ann's skirt to expose her leg when a second car passes, and the driver ends up crashing into a tree.

The back seat of the car is loaded with luggage and Ann, so Gail volunteers to ride sitting on Cosmo's lap, ignoring his protests.

She is surprised to see her husband drive past with a young blonde sitting on his lap and distraughtly concludes he is having an adventure.

Ann has no memories of her father, as they have been separated since her mother and Carrington's business partner died in a cave while inspecting a company mine.

Gail is waiting on the stairs, and as Ann crosses the main hall, a giant chandelier breaks loose from the ceiling.

She finds Topper and convinces him to come to the Carrington mansion by threatening to create a scandal with his suspicious wife if he doesn't.

Eddie is unaware of the ghost and experiences a number of puzzles as doors open and shut, cushions depress, voices are heard, footprints appear on the snowy walkways, and so on.

When Ann comes into the room, Topper tries to explain, but the housekeeper finds a note that Gail apparently wrote, saying she has left.

In the following sequences, there are many comings and goings with people disappearing and reappearing by way of concealed stairways and hallways reachable by moving or rotating wall panels.

Ghost-Gail lifts a pistol from police detective Roberts’ pocket, forces it on Topper, and manipulates him to lock everyone in the refrigerator.

It turns out there is a secret chain in the fireplace that, when pulled, makes the chair in the center of the room tilt backward and dump the occupant into a vertical shaft that leads to a water-filled cave below the mansion.

Topper and Ghost-Gail manage to retrieve her body from a small ship a short distance offshore from the water cave.

Eddie is in the back seat, terrified that the car is being driven at top speed on winding roads with an invisible driver.

Clara Topper sees that Cosmo was mostly telling the truth about his adventures with the two young ladies, and Bob and Ann comfort each other.