The Cardboard Lover Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Cardboard Lover Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 2, 2026

Undercrank Productions continues to mine the filmography of Marion Davies, after having previously released Beverly of Graustark, Zander the Great and When Knighthood Was in Flower. A supplemental video essay on this disc makes the case that Davies' reputation has suffered due to the generally perceived thesis that she provided the inspiration for the character of Susan Alexander in Citizen Kane, and if her long affair with a publishing magnate certainly provided grist for that particular mill, all of the above referenced films prove indubitably that Davies was not a talentless hack. The Cardboard Lover was another significant comedic triumph for Davies, and it showcases both her inherent intelligence as well as her undeniable physical comedy chops.

The Cardboard Lover is a kind of quasi ménage à trois wherein a spunky flapper named Sally (Marion Davies) who, after a comedy of errors, ends up pretending to be the lover of Andre (Nils Asther), ostensibly to make his exotic girlfriend Simone (Jetta Goudal) jealous. This particular lynchpin actually takes a while to get to, with the opening documenting a series of misadventures in Monte Carlo with Sally, Andre, Simone and a fourth character, real life Spanish baritone Andrés de Segurola, more or less playing himself. Suffice it to say that by the time Sally is pretending to be Andre's paramour, she is in fact in love with him, though the way this pair ends up displaying their affection with each other may not be especially tender.

The Cardboard Lover Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Cardboard Lover is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Undercrank Productions with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. Some prefatory text before the main feature offers the following information:

The Cardboard Lover (1928) was preserved by the Library of Congress in the early 1970s from a 35mm nitrate print in the AFI / Marion Davies Collection that was beginning to decompose. Despite significant decomposition present in the source material, this 2026 digital restoration by Undercrank Productions has been able to minimize the worst affected areas.

Additional material for this restoration has been sourced from 35mm fragments surviving at the BFI National Archive and a French language 35mm nitrate print of the final reel in the Blackhawk Films Collection.

Marion Davies was perhaps prescient in attempting to preserve her cinematic legacy, though even her efforts evidently weren't enough to keep the main element utilized here from showing some pretty significant and recurrent damage. As the side by side comparison of the fifth reel (see below) shows, heroic efforts by digital restorers Thad Komorowski and Samantha Davis along with grader Fabio Bedoya have obviously been undertaken here to mitigate that damage, but it's frankly so prevalent that only a certain amount of amelioration could have been successful. There's undeniably better contrast now and a better accounting of grayscale, and even some of the worst emulsion damage has been at least somewhat removed, but just a cursory parsing through the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review will show undeniable signs of age related wear and tear. This is completely watchable within the context of badly curated silent films, but videophiles will need to set their expectations accordingly.

The Cardboard Lover Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Cardboard Lover features another playful (mostly, the Kickstarter credits feature piano) organ score by Undercranked Productions' Ben Model, though it's only offered in Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English subtitles for the video essay are available.

The Cardboard Lover Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Video Essay (HD; 9:16) is by Lara Gabrielle and covers Davies' legacy and this film.


• Credits (HD; 2:37)


• Reel 5: Side by Side (HD; 10:00) has the following prefatory text:

  Reel 5 of The Cardboard Lover (1928) is presented here in a side by side comparison of the 35mm preservation sourced for this project and its corresponding newly digitally restored state. The viewer will be able to observe the varying degrees of decomposition in the original nitrate when it was preserved, as well as the extent to which the decomp can be removed, lessened or repaired with the digital restoration software available at the time this project was undertaken.

The Cardboard Lover Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the kind of interesting things about Marion Davies is that she was one of relatively few certifiable silent superstars who was able to craft at least some kind of career into the talkie era, which would seem to make her a candidate to be better remembered than she frankly probably is. All of the Undercrank Productions Blu-rays of her silents have showcased her innate comedic abilities, and that's once again clearly the case with The Cardboard Lover. The elements utilized for this transfer were sadly very badly damaged, and only so much could be done with them. I also bet I'm not alone in wishing the really enjoyable scores by Ben Model were presented in lossless audio, which might have required stepping up to a BD-50, though I can't really imagine why. With those caveats noted, Recommended.