The Cardboard Lover | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Z. Leonard |
Written by | F. Hugh Herbert Carey Wilson Lucille Newmark |
Based on | Dans sa candeur naive by Jacques Deval |
Produced by | William Randolph Hearst Harry Rapf Marion Davies |
Starring | Marion Davies Nils Asther Jetta Goudal |
Cinematography | John Arnold |
Edited by | Basil Wrangell |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 50 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent |
Budget | $379,000 [1] |
The Cardboard Lover is a 1928 American silent romantic comedy film directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Marion Davies, Nils Asther and Jetta Goudal. It was produced by Cosmopolitan Productions and distributed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
The film is based on the 1926 play Dans sa candeur naive by Jacques Deval and its 1927 Broadway adaptation, Her Cardboard Lover by Valerie Wyngate and P.G. Wodehouse, with the genders of the main characters switched for the film. [2] In London, Tallulah Bankhead played the female lead. On Broadway, Jeanne Eagels played the female lead. [3]
The film survives at the Library of Congress and in the Turner library. [2] [4] It was remade as The Passionate Plumber in 1932 and Her Cardboard Lover in 1942.
A group of young American women/flappers arrives at the Hotel Venitien on the French Riviera. In the hotel lobby, Sally Baxter encounters Monsieur de Segurola, "the famous baritone", and asks him to write something in her autograph album. However, when she reads what he has written, she tears it out. Next, she spots handsome Andre Briault, "the famous tennis champion", and his girlfriend Simone. After Andre drives away, Sally notices Simone and de Sugorola making eye contact. (Albine, Andre's valet, does not approve of Simone either.)
When Andre later telephones Simone, he hears someone singing; Simone claims it is only a phonograph record playing, but then de Sugorola coughs. Andre heads over to the hotel to check up on her. She tries to distract him, but Andre spots de Sugorola trying to sneak out of her suite, tosses him out into the hall and breaks up with Simone.
The last part is witnessed by Sally. She chases after Andre to get his autograph, but her pen seems to be out of ink. After he leaves, she finds that there is ink after all; unable to get a taxi, she steals a car and follows him to the casino. There, she inadvertently loses 50,000 francs playing baccarat against him, and is asked to pay. She writes on a check that she has no money to speak of, and Andre good-naturedly tears it up.
Then Andre spots Simone. He is still in love with her, so Sally suggests he pretend to be in love with someone else. He thinks that is an excellent plan; he chooses Sally, telling her that this is how she can pay her gambling debt. He instructs Sally to never let him be alone with Simone and to not let him weaken. When Simone tries to win him back, he introduces her to his "fiancée", Sally.
However, he keeps falling for Simone's enticements. But Sally is extremely persistent, going to outlandish lengths to keep him out of her rival's clutches. Finally, she socks him in the jaw to stop him from chasing after Simone. He reacts by pushing her clear into the next room, knocking her unconscious. This finally makes him realize whom he truly loves.
Based on a Broadway play, the story was totally revamped by inserting the character of Sally Baxter into the play's love story between Andre and Simone. Purportedly, Davies' impersonation had audiences refusing to believe it was really Davies. The production also featured Davies' niece Pepi Lederer in a small role as a tourist. Davies recalled that Goudal was a real pill and would only speak French on the set. This was another solid box-office hit for Davies. [5]
Marion Davies was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl. As a teenager, she appeared in several Broadway musicals and one film, Runaway Romany (1917). She soon became a featured performer in the Ziegfeld Follies.
Francis Lederer was an Austro-Hungarian Empire-born American film and stage actor with a successful career, first in Europe, then in the United States. His original name was František (Franz) Lederer.
Jetta Goudal was a Dutch-American actress, successful in Hollywood films of the silent film era.
Salome of the Tenements is a 1925 American silent drama film adapted to the screen by Sonya Levien from the Anzia Yezierska novel of the same name. Made by Jesse L. Lasky and Adolph Zukor's Famous Players–Lasky Corporation, a division of Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Sidney Olcott and starred Jetta Goudal and Godfrey Tearle.
Reine Davies was an American singer and actress.
Charles Davies Lederer was an American screenwriter and film director. He was born into a theatrical family in New York, and after his parents divorced, was raised in California by his aunt, Marion Davies, actress and mistress to newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. A child prodigy, he entered the University of California, Berkeley at age 13, but dropped out after a few years to work as a journalist with Hearst's newspapers.
Nils Anton Alfhild Asther was a Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid-1950s, known as "the male Greta Garbo". Between 1916 and 1963 he appeared in over seventy feature films, sixteen of which were produced in the silent era. He is mainly remembered today for two silent films – The Single Standard and Wild Orchids – he made with fellow Swede Greta Garbo, and his portrayal of the title character in the controversial pre-Code Frank Capra film The Bitter Tea of General Yen.
Pepi Lederer was an American actress and writer. She was the niece of actress and philanthropist Marion Davies. A high-spirited young woman, Lederer was a lesbian who had relationships with actress Nina Mae McKinney. She became a well-known figure in the gay and bisexual community of Jazz Age Hollywood.
Laugh, Clown, Laugh is a 1928 American silent drama film starring Lon Chaney and Loretta Young. The movie was directed by Herbert Brenon and produced by Irving G. Thalberg for MGM Pictures. A sound version of this film was released in the second half of 1928 and featured a synchronized musical score with sound effects. The film was written by Elizabeth Meehan, based on the 1923 Broadway stage production Laugh, Clown, Laugh by David Belasco and Tom Cushing, which in turn was based on the 1919 play Ridi, Pagliaccio by Fausto Maria Martini.
The Red Mill is a 1927 American silent comedy film directed by Roscoe Arbuckle that starred Marion Davies and was produced by King Vidor. Although Arbuckle was acquitted in the third trial for the death of Virginia Rappe, he could not obtain work in Hollywood under his own name, so he adopted the pseudonym William Goodrich for directing the comedy shorts he made under his contract with Educational Film Exchanges.
The Road to Yesterday is a 1925 American silent romantic drama film directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The film was based on a 1908 play of the same name by Beulah Marie Dix and Evelyn Greenleaf Sutherland and was adapted by Dix and Jeanie MacPherson. Art direction for the film was done by Paul Iribe, Anton Grot, Mitchell Leisen, and Max Parker.
The Passionate Plumber is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film directed by Edward Sedgwick, and starring Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, and Irene Purcell. The screenplay by Laurence E. Johnson and Ralph Spence is based on the 1926 play Dans sa candeur naïve by Jacques Deval. It is the second screen adaptation of the play, following the 1928 silent film The Cardboard Lover. It later was remade in 1942 as Her Cardboard Lover.
George Washington Lederer was an American producer and director on Broadway from 1894 to 1931. He was the husband of actresses Reine Davies and Jessie Lewis and the father of Charles Lederer, Pepi Lederer, Glory Lederer and Geraldine Lederer.
Her Cardboard Lover is a 1942 American comedy film directed by George Cukor, starring Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, and George Sanders. The screenplay by Jacques Deval, John Collier, Anthony Veiller, and William H. Wright is based on the English translation of Deval's 1926 play Dans sa candeur naïve by Valerie Wyngate and P.G. Wodehouse.
The Kiss is a 1929 American synchronized sound drama film directed by Jacques Feyder, starring Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, and Lew Ayres in his first feature film. The film has no audible dialogue but featured a synchronized musical score and sound effects. The soundtrack was recorded using the Western Electric Sound System sound-on-film process. The soundtrack was also transferred to discs for those theatres that were wired with sound-on-disc sound systems.
Andrés Perelló de Segurola was a Spanish operatic bass.
Three Faces East is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Rupert Julian and starring Jetta Goudal and Clive Brook. It is based on a popular 1918 Broadway play by Anthony Paul Kelly about spies during World War I. It was remade under same title as a sound film in 1930, and in 1940 under the title British Intelligence starring Boris Karloff. The story's action takes place in France and Great Britain.
Paris at Midnight is a 1926 American silent drama film starring Jetta Goudal and Lionel Barrymore and was directed by E. Mason Hopper. It was distributed by Producers Distributing Corporation. It was based on the novel Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac.
The Spaniard is a 1925 American silent drama film directed by Raoul Walsh, written by Juanita Savage and James T. O'Donohoe, and starring Ricardo Cortez, Jetta Goudal, Noah Beery, Sr., Mathilde Brundage, Renzo De Gardi, and Emily Fitzroy. It was released on May 4, 1925, by Paramount Pictures.
Fighting Love is a 1927 American silent drama film directed by Nils Olaf Chrisander and starring Jetta Goudal, Victor Varconi and Henry B. Walthall. The film survives complete. It is based on the 1925 novel If the Gods Laugh by the British writer and explorer Rosita Forbes. The film's sets were designed by the art director Anton Grot.