Terry (the dashing Robert Taylor) has been following the beautiful Consuelo (Norma Shearer, HUGE star, and Mrs. Producer Thalberg) for some time, trying to speak with her. Her steady date was Tony (George Sanders), who is not ready to step aside for an interloper. Taylor was about ten years younger than Shearer. When terry can't pay off a gambling debt to her, Consuelo hires him to be her "secretary", although she tells him she is only trying to make her boyfriend jealous. Frank McHugh is in here as Chappie, for some light humor. Character actress Liz Patterson is Eva, Consuelo's maid, who does not like Tony at all. Directed by the amazing George Cukor, who had directed so many big hits. And won the oscar for My Fair Lady. Original story by french playwright Jacques Deval. The US had just been yanked into the war, so of course there's the usual war-time plea for bonds at the end. Taylor died young at 57 from cancer; Sanders would take his own life at 65. Apparently, this was such a flop, that Shearer retired. But one of her very own quotes was Never let them see you after age 35... or you're finished. And she was about forty when she made this. It's not terrible, but there just isn't the magic between Terry and Consuelo that they want us to believe was blooming. And they should have given Chappie more to say... McHugh was hilarious in his other films. And they do a dumb sound effects bit where Terry imitates Tony, and it really sounds like Sanders... and it probably was dubbed by Sanders. The play seems to have been more more successful. There's a funny bit where he comes out dressed in HER pyjamas and slippers, to Tony's shock. The fact that this implication was forbidden under the film code at the time probably added to its problems.
Review of Her Cardboard Lover
