Tea for Two (400th post)

Look who made it to 400!

It's hard to believe another 100 has passed... just last year I celebrated the big 300 mark.  To celebrate, let's keep with the tradition of reviewing a musical made before I was born... (100 & 200 & 300).

In the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, the future looks bleak for many, but Nanette Carter (Day) isn't worried.  Her sizable wealth is handled by her Uncle Max (Sakall), and is tied up in government bonds.  In reality, her uncle placed the money in the stock market, and things are not looking good.  Their lawyer, Mr. William Early (Goodwin), tells Max they could save a significant sum by saying "no."

Meanwhile, Nanette's friends, composer Jimmy Smith (MacRae) and choreographer Tommy Trainor (Nelson), are having trouble finding financiers for their new show.  Their slimy director, Larry Blair (De Wolfe), puts all of his hope into Nanette: if she agrees to fund the show, others will come forward as well.  But Larry and Nanette have a checkered past, and she has no desire to invest any time or money into him.  Her reaction changes when she hears some of Jimmy's songs.  Jimmy and Tommy believe that Nanette should play the lead in the show, which currently belongs to Larry's girlfriend Bea Darcy (Wymore).  Nanette dreams of a career on Broadway and accepts.  With no other choice, Larry agrees to give her the part in exchange for funding the show.

When Nanette asks her uncle for the money for the show, he refuses.  So they make a bet, Nanette has to say to everything for 48 hours:  if she wins, she gets the $25,000 for the show ... if she loses, she can't spend any money for a year.  They enlist her sarcastic assistant Pauline (Arden) to serve as the judge, while Max does everything in his power to make her lose.  Can Nanette win the bet, even if it means losing her budding romance with Jimmy?


Inspired by the Broadway musical "No, No, Nanette," this film bears little resemblance to the show.  They kept some character names and a few names, and scrapped the rest.  The story is brand new, and several songs were added to the score.

Apparently Doris Day planned to be a professional ballerina, but an automobile accident ended her dream.  This film marked the first time she danced on screen, and went on to make several more musicals.  Her dancing looks great.  She is joined by Gordon MacRae, who has an incredible voice, and Gene Nelson, who dances circles around the rest of the cast.  MacRae and Nelson went on to star in Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma (also Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel for MacRae).  Eve Arden is the only cast member to appear in both the Broadway show No, No, Nanette and this film.  As usual she just about steals the show.

The songs are o.k., but are not as well known as other songs from musicals.  Not the greatest musical ever, but worth seeing early Doris Day.

Tea for Two (1950) 98 minutes
Director: David Butler
Starring: Doris Day as Nanette Carter
Gordon MacRae as Jimmy Smith
Gene Nelson as Tommy Trainor
Eve Arden as Pauline Hastings
Billy De Wolfe as Larry Blair
Bill Goodwin as William Early
S.Z. Sakall as J. Maxwell Bloomhaus
Patrice Wymore as Bea Darcy