Sat 5 Dec 2009
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE CARDBOARD LOVER (1928).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews , Silent films[3] Comments
THE CARDBOARD LOVER. Cosmopolitan/MGM, 1928. Marion Davies, Nils Asther, Jetta Goudal, Andres De Segurola. Screenplay: F. Hugh Herbert, based on the play Dans sa candeur naive by Jacques Deval. Director: Robert Z. Leonard. Shown at Cinecon 40, Hollywood CA, September 2004.
A comedy to be classed with Davies’ performances in The Patsy and Show People. For much of her silent film career, Davies starred in costume dramas that her long-time lover William Randolph Hearst fancied.
Her native gift, however, was for comedy and she established herself as a first-rate comic actress in the comedies that showcase her undeniable talent.
In The Cardboard Lover she’s a vacationing American tourist who collects autographs and in the process of trying to snare the autograph of tennis star Asther (in photo) she becomes infatuated with him and sets out to separate him from the stylish vamp (Goudal) who’s been toying with his affections.
Davies gets a chance to display her skill at impersonation when she does a dead-on imitation of Goudal’s slinky vamp and Asther, not noted as a comic actor, is a charming foil, caught between the two women, while Goudal, for much of the film, ably counters Davies’ moves with her not inconsiderable wiles.
One of the delights of this year’s screenings and a major addition to Davies’ filmography, apparently copied from the sole surviving print.
December 5th, 2009 at 12:35 am
It’s a shame Davies is better known as Hearst mistress or the character based on her in Citizen Kane than for the talented comedic actress she really was. She is very good in Operator 13 with Gary Cooper (though the fact she spends much of the film in blackface needs some forgiving) and has a star turn in Raoul Walsh’s Going Hollywood with Bing Crosby. Too bad WRH doesn’t seem to have had a sense of humor.
December 5th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Marion Davies’ work on film is hard to come by on commercial DVD. I found five on the Warner Archive site: THE RED MILL, THE HOLLYWOOD REVUE OF 1929, OPERATOR 13, THE PATSY and CAIN AND MABEL, but that’s all.
http://www.wbshop.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-WB-Site/default/Search-Show?q=marion+davies
There are probably some elsewhere that I’ve missed, but it’s still an awfully low percentage of the movies she made.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:03 am
Operator 13 has a little interest for this blog as it is based on a novel by ‘the shop-girl’s Shehrezade’ Robert W. Chambers, who among other things wrote The King in Yellow, Slayer of Souls, Maker of Moons, and Mr.Keen Tracer of Lost Persons.
In the story Davies character is a Union agent in the south who falls for the Confederate Officer, Gary Cooper, who has been assigned to find the Yankee spy. Been a while since I’ve seen it, but I seem to remember Davies plays it mostly for comedy when she can — especially in those blackface segments I mentioned having to forgive.
Going Hollywood is a fairly entertaining little film from early in Bing Crosby’s career and gives Davies a chance to exercise her comedic skills in a minor musical outing of the era.