Tea for Two (1950)

Directed by David Butler. Starring Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, S. Z. Sakall, Eve Arden, Gene Nelson, Billy De Wolfe, Bill Goodwin, Patrice Wymore, Virginia Gibson.

Nanette (Day) has show-biz dreams, a letch of a boyfriend (De Wolfe) who favors a different wannabe-starlet, and in order for her rich uncle (Sakall) to finance a new production called “No, No Nanette”, a stipulation where she can only say “no” to every question she’s asked—you may want to say the same if someone asks if you want to watch Tea for Two. So shiny and square it practically squeaks, there’s a stilted disconnect between the song numbers and the story action…and neither “half” is worth writing home about. For more discriminating fans of musicals (unless there exists a cross-section of them and Doris Day die-hards), it’s more likely to inspire yawns than smiles. A 1920s play actually called “No, No, Nanette” inspired this movie’s screenplay.

44/100