Watch Her Cardboard Lover For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Producer J. Walter Ruben. Copyright 26 May 1942 by Loew's Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at the Capitol: 16 July 1942. U.S. release: Not recorded. Australian release: 27 January 1944 (sic). 9 reels. 8,360 feet. 93 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Terry Trindale, a young songwriter, loses $3,200 to Consuelo Croyden at baccarat at a fashionable gambling casino at Palm Beach while under the spell of her beauty. He is unable to pay his losses and Consuelo offers to employ him as her bodyguard to keep her from seeing Tony Barling, a suitor with philandering inclinations with whom she is in love. Tony calls at Consuelo's home, but she tells him she is in love with another man, for the sake of making him jealous. Despite all, Consuelo continues to pursue Tony, but Terry, living up to his obligations, forbids it. NOTES: A re-make of The Passionate Plumber (1932), starring Buster Keaton. That movie itself was a re-make of a 1928 Marion Davies vehicle, The Cardboard Lover, based on Jacques Deval's 1927 stage play, Dans Sa Candeur Naive ("In Her Naive Candor").Final film appearance of Norma Shearer, who then retired. According to director George Cukor, Norma Shearer herself selected the old Deval play for her farewell screen appearance, having previously turned down the title role of Mrs Miniver (which was then assigned to Greer Garson).COMMENT: Norma Shearer was not greatly liked in either Great Britain or Australia - except of course by the carriage trade. Only four of her movies were re-issued in Australia during the great M-G-M classics revival of the late 1950s in which the studio ransacked the vaults: Her Cardboard Lover did little business anywhere on first release, even in situations were Shearer was reasonably popular. Wartime audiences had little time for this sort of dated posturing. I've said it before and I'll say it again, nothing dates so finally and inexorably as a sex comedy. Unfortunately this one was already well and truly rancid even before it was freshened up for 1942. The players try hard, all the M-G-M gloss and production values are there. The trouble simply is that so far as the characters in the play and their predicaments are concerned, we the audience simply don't care. They have long since passed from any semblance of real life into artificial death.

I don't know what all the fuss is about. Most of the criticism directed at this film is fairly unjust. After reading some reviews, I was hesitant at watching the film, but because it starred Robert Taylor, Norma Shearer and George Sanders, I thought I would give it a shot. I'm glad I did. It didn't make me turn off the TV set or change channels. The acting was excellent and the story was played out quite amusingly by the main cast. I believe the cast held up the film well. I have no problems with Shearer's age. After all, it's just a comedy. Jean Arthur was in her 50s when she was in Shane and 10 years older than Van Heflin too and no one criticized her. See and judge for yourself and never listen to critics. They don't know what they are saying half the time. We all have different tastes.

"Her Cardboard Lover" is Norma Shearer's last movie. She quit the movies and, I think, joined the Board of Directors at MGM. That was a good move on her part. "Her Cardboard Lover" was talky and boring in parts. It was obvious there were only a handful of actors with speaking parts so they had a lot of dialogue to speak to keep this turkey afloat. The story was a good idea about a wealthy woman (Norma Shearer) hiring a man (Robert Taylor) to make her playboy fiancee (George Sanders)jealous. I am surprised that the director, George Cukor, did not cut many of the talky scenes between Ms. Shearer and Mr. Taylor. Mr. Cukor served Ms. Shearer well in "The Women" but not in this movie. The best performance in the movie was given by Robert Taylor. During Mr. Taylor's career, he was given his best comedy roles in this movie and "When Ladies Meet" in 1941. In 1942, he gave his best comedy performance in "Her Cardboard Lover" and, up to then, his best dramatic performance in "Johnny Eager." He had a busy year. I think of all the actors at MGM, Mr. Taylor worked with all the major and minor actresses on the lot. Also, MGM gave Mr. Taylor all types of movies to make - most of them were successful. That is why MGM kept him for 25 years. Mr. George Sanders was very good as a socialite heel. He played a similar role eight years later in "All About Eve" for which he won an Oscar for a supporting role. As for Ms. Shearer, this was one of her worst performances, she was not funny and too dramatic for this comedy. It is strange that she made a great comedy in 1939, "The Women", and gave her best performance. It was obvious that she was too old looking for her younger leading men in "Her Cardboard Lover." Also, it didn't help that some of her clothes were awful.Too bad she and Mr. Taylor did not make another dramatic movie like their last movie together, the superb "Escape". The same comments about this movie can be said of another movie, "Personal Property" that Mr. Taylor made in 1937 with Jean Harlow. It was too talky, boring, and the actress looked old. Ms. Harlow looked ill throughout the movie and nobody in Hollywood noticed to tell her to see a doctor, so in 1937, she died at age 26. What a waste! She was becoming a good actress and getting better roles.

Despite direction by George Cukor and a cast that included Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor and George Sanders, this film flopped at the box office. Norma Shearer, having previously turned down the roles of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind," and Kay Miniver in "Mrs. Miniver," called it quits after the release of "Her Cardboard Lover" and never again appeared in another film.