After a long career producing comedy shorts, producer Hal Roach was always looking to expand into long-form films to complement his Laurel and Hardy features, and found a property in "Topper", a semi-risqué 1926 novel by Thorne Smith. Roach immediately wanted Cary Grant to play George Kerby, but he had difficulty getting the actor to agree to play the part, since Grant was concerned about the supernatural aspects of the story. A fee of $50,000 was sufficient to convince Grant to do the film.