Archival Print!

Introduced by Anthony Slide

Neil Brand on Piano

Every few years, regular as clockwork, an academic or media critic will loudly and proudly discover that Marion Davies was a great screen comedienne, something that audiences and film buffs have known since the 1920s. As an eccentric American autograph hound in France, Davies moves with rapidity and insouciance from one comic caper to another in The Cardboard Lover. Nils Asther is the hero who must choose between the flirtatious Davies and the vampish Jetta Goudal, whose temperament both on and off screen was legendary. The stylish Goudal displays more acting skill than is usually required of her, and even positively tolerates an outrageous Davies impersonation.