Word: topper
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...subdued his mane-shaking mannerisms but had somewhat slowed his brilliant technique. He still flailed the keyboard like a maddened thresher, still followed through a rippling run as though he were plucking a rabbit from a topper. But his stubby fingers, which he always soaked in warm water before a performance, though still steely-supple, had just perceptibly lost something of their cascading fluidity. Critics no longer unconditionally rated him as No. 1 among the world's great pianists. But he still had what it took to hold an audience: a great past, a great presence...
...Topper...
...builders of swank automobile bodies, sued Mrs. Blanche J. Parks, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. newspaper publisher, for $600, balance she owed on a $5,000 body for her Rolls-Royce. Mrs. Parks's reason for not paying up: her escort could not sit in the back seat with his topper...
Marion makes Topper follow his wife to the French Riviera. There, appearing and disappearing with clocklike regularity, she plays tricks with Topper's headgear (see cut), cheats at roulette, removes a pair of bathing trunks from Mrs. Topper's gigolo, and in a climactic scene disappears from a ballroom floor, leaving Topper to dance a sudden solo...
Admirers of the late Thome Smith, from whose books Topper and its sequel were derived, will doubtless be enchanted by the gaiety and humor of these proceedings. Less prejudiced cinemaddicts may feel that the comic possibilities of its trick photography are less inexhaustible than its producers supposed. Once the side-splitting spectacle of doors opening without apparent human aid has lost its novelty, the picture's only surprises are occasional droll antics by Actors Young and Burke, and a few scraps of bright dialogue. Best line: Mrs. Topper's comment on Gallic manners: "Too bad the people...