Turnabout

I’m a fan of the movie Topper, written by Thorne Smith, a writer of humorous, racy (for the time) fantasy fiction. There was usually something off-the-wall about his stories, like the ghosts (played by Cary Grant and Constance Bennett in the film), or a fountain of youth, or some sort of transformation. In this one a husband and wife switch bodies. Mostly this provides an opportunity for John Hubbard to camp it up. It wore out its welcome at about the halfway point, so we didn’t finish it. And I’m sorry to say that though I tried to like several of Smith’s novels, they just didn’t work for me. They seem horribly dated, and many of the characters spend most of their time drinking themselves into oblivion. It just isn’t funny anymore.