Cardboard Lover, The (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Robert Z. LeonardRelease Date(s)
1928 (August 4, 2026)Studio(s)
Cosmopolitan Productions/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Undercrank Productions)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: B-
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: C+
Review
Marion Davies was in the midst of successful run when 1928’s The Cardboard Lover premiered, having proven herself to be more than a just a pretty face in costume dramas and epics, but also a very funny comedienne. The silent era was coming to an end and she feared that her stutter would prove to be her downfall, but she continued on despite it. One of her more difficult films to see in terms of its availability in revival screenings and especially on TV and home video, The Cardboard Lover is a total hidden gem to today’s cinephiles and deserves far more attention.
A bus load of young women have reached the French Riviera, among them the clumsy but ever-resilient Sally (Davies). While checking into their hotel, she seeks autographs from various celebrities that she spots, including upper-class tennis champion Andre Briault (Nils Asther), who is completely lovesick over his girlfriend Simone (Jetta Goudal), despite her repeated unfaithfulness. Sally soon convinces Andre that she can be help rid him of Simone, and he agrees, instructing her to pretend to be his fiancée and help to keep him away from her. However, both Andre and Sally struggle with the task, especially when they begin having feelings for each other. The rest of the cast includes Tenen Holtz, Pepi Lederer, Andrés de Segurola, and Carrie Daumery.
A clear forerunner to romantic comedies like Some Kind of Wonderful, The Cardboard Lover is a charming and funny film from the silent era that holds up more than many of its more well-known counterparts. Part and parcel to that is Marion Davies herself who’s beautiful, enchanting, and hilarious, but also manages to bring pathos to her character when it’s called for. Thankfully, it’s called for very little. With a premise like this, you’d expect a more maudlin turn between Sally’s and Andre’s characters, yet even though a serious moment does occur in the final moments, it’s not underlined with overt melodrama. The film never forgets that it’s a comedy, but it also takes care to fully realize its characters instead of just giving them one-dimensional qualities. Sally will do anything to keep her promise to Andre, even at the cost of her own heartbreak, while Andre is internally struggling with his addiction to Simone. It comes across well, without saying a word.
At a brief 76 minutes, the running time for The Cardboard Lover flies by, but you’ll find yourself captivated by performances. Special mention should also be made of Andre’s butler, Argine, who’s more than just a reactionary character. He seems genuinely concerned seeing all of these events play out before him, and he also has the honor of being a part of the last image that we see in the picture, in a very sweet and satisfying way.
Cinematographer John Arnold shot The Cardboard Lover on 35mm black-and-white film with spherical lenses, with the results finished photochemically and framed theatrically at the aspect ratio of 1:33:1. Undercrank Productions presents a new 2K restoration of the film taken from various surviving 35mm nitrate prints (including one that belonged to Marion Davies herself) held by The Library of Congress, the BFI National Archive, and the Blackhawk Films Collection. The final image has been encoded to a single-layer BD-25 disc. One of the reasons that The Cardboard Lover has been unavailable on home video legally for many years is due to the quality of the surviving elements, which are severely decomposed and required extensive digital restoration in order to make them more presentable. Even with the gargantuan amount of work undertaken by Undercrank Productions, Cineaste Restoration’s Thad Komorowski and Samantha Davis, and color grading by Fabio Bedoya, it’s still a rougher-looking image than you might expect in comparison to other modern day restorations. That said, it still looks miles beyond any time-coded bootlegged video sources that have been floating around over the years, with a healthy bitrate, good contrast, and fairly solid grayscale. It’s also a far more stable image, and though the signs of the restoration itself are clearly present, not to mention the other damage that couldn’t be repaired, it’s still a strong picture that deserves to be celebrated.
Audio for the accompanying new theatre organ score by Ben Model is included in 2.0 Dolby Digital. Outside of being presented in a lossy container, there’s literally nothing here to complain about. It’s a lovely score that’s given plenty of support.
The Undercrank Productions Region-Free Blu-ray release of The Cardboard Lover sits in a standard blue Amaray case containing an insert with artwork by Marlene Weisman. The following extras are included in HD:
- Marion Davies: Steward of Her Legacy (9:16)
- Credits (2:37)
- Reel 5: Side-by-Side (10:00)
Marion Davies: Stewart of Her Legacy is a brief but lovely video essay by Marion Davies biographer Lara Gabrielle (with optional English subtitles) who discusses the star’s life and legacy, her public perception and relationship with William Randolph Hearst, her various films and other endeavors, her forethought into preserving her legacy by vaulting copies of her films and willing them to preservation upon her death, and her importance as a preservationist and comedic figure. The Credits feature the Undercrank Productions staff and the Kickstarter contributors shown at the end of the film. Reel 5: Side-by-Side showcases a comparison of the extensive damage present on the original elements versus the final repaired and color-corrected image.
The Cardboard Lover was later adapted in 1932 as The Passionate Plumber and in 1942 as Her Cardboard Lover, but the purity of the original silent film remains untarnished because of Marion Davies’ performance. Though her other films The Patsy and Show People have been available in the past, The Cardboard Lover takes its place alongside them finally for the public to appreciate. Highly recommended.
- Tim Salmons
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