Her Cardboard Lover

Director: George Cukor George Cukor

Overview

No one will ever know what possessed MGM's reigning screen queen Norma Shearer to select the tired old stage farce Her Cardboard Lover as her final film. Set in Florida, the creaky plotline finds Consuelo Croyden (Shearer) attempting to make her disinterested sweetheart Tony Barling (George Sanders) jealous. To this end, Consuelo orders her personal secretary, Terry Trindale (Robert Taylor) to pretend to be her lover. This suits Terry fine, since he's always been crazy about Consuelo. And on and on it goes, with the three stars trying to make this wearisome old yarn worth watching. Of the three film versions of Her Cardboard Lover, this one isn't anywhere near as entertaining as the 1932 Buster Keaton vehicle The Passionate Plumber (which was no great shakes itself!)

Product Details

Release Date:	01/04/2014
UPC:	0888574009502
Original Release:	1942
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Brothers
Presentation:	[Full Frame]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:33:00
Sales rank:	45,750

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Taylor	Terry Trindale
Norma Shearer	Consuelo Croyden
Elizabeth Patterson	Eva
George Sanders	Tony Barling
Frank McHugh	Chappie Champagne
Chill Wills	Judge
Alec Craig	Actor
Franz Waxman	Composer

Technical Credits

Jacques Deval

William Wright

John Collier

Anthony Veiller

George Cukor	Director
J. Walter Ruben	Producer
Jacques Deval	Screenwriter
William Wright	Screenwriter
John Collier	Screenwriter
Anthony Veiller	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Norma Shearer ended her film career on a less than stellar note with the forgettable Her Cardboard Lover. Although filmed twice before, the property has never worked especially well onscreen, perhaps least of all in this incarnation. The story is tired and filled with mechanisms we've all seen used to better effect elsewhere, and there's little in the dialogue that is fresh, enlivening or enlightening. Although director George Cukor is one of the most skilled practitioners of the light, continental touch that this kind of material requires, he is decidedly off his form here, offering direction that is generally dull and often leaden. The stars struggle mightily, but with little success. Norma Shearer has some effective moments, but the part calls for a younger woman, whose youthful exuberance and inexperience would help to make the plot turns more believable; with a mature woman in the role, it comes across as forced and artificial. George Sanders gets across a few zingers, but he does not seem very involved on the whole, and Robert Taylor is often at sea. There's some professional camerawork and a decent Franz Waxman score, but not much else to recommend Cardboard.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler