The Cardboard Lover

The Cardboard Lover
Directed byRobert Z. Leonard
Written byF. Hugh Herbert
Carey Wilson
Lucille Newmark
Based onDans sa candeur naive
by Jacques Deval
Produced byWilliam Randolph Hearst
Harry Rapf
Marion Davies
StarringMarion Davies
Nils Asther
Jetta Goudal
CinematographyJohn Arnold
Edited byBasil Wrangell
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • September 2, 1928 (1928-09-02)
Running time
50 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent
Budget$379,000

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. In London, Tallulah Bankhead played the female lead. On Broadway, Jeanne Eagels played the female lead.

The film survives at the Library of Congress and in the Turner library. It was remade as The Passionate Plumber in 1932 and Her Cardboard Lover in 1942.