The original stage version of NO, NO, NANETTE was a flop in its Chicago try-outs until its producer (who did not sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees to finance the show; he had sold the contract five years earlier) called in Irving Cesar and Vincent Youmans to write "I Want to Be Happy" and "Tea for Two". The meringue tunes fit the nonsense plot and it became a hit. So when Herbert Wilcoxon got his hands on the property to film it as a vehicle for Anna Neagle for RKO, he felt free to dump its Code-problematic plot about scandal in Atlantic City for a bit of nonsense.
Roland Young is married to Helen Broderick, who owns all the bonds, but he keeps offering to help out predatory young women; Miss Neagle keeps getting him out of jams, which gets her pursued by show producer Victor Mature and artist Richard Carlson in a comedy that is way more forced than funny. There are plenty of comics in the supporting cast, including Billy Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Eve Arden and Torben Meyer, but none of them get much of a chance to distinguish themselves. Wilcoxon's directorial eye is all on Miss Neagle, and while she is, as always, lovely, charming and very Irish in her singing -- which always surprises me, given that she was as English as they came -- the movie suited neither her, the contemporary audience, nor me.
Roland Young is married to Helen Broderick, who owns all the bonds, but he keeps offering to help out predatory young women; Miss Neagle keeps getting him out of jams, which gets her pursued by show producer Victor Mature and artist Richard Carlson in a comedy that is way more forced than funny. There are plenty of comics in the supporting cast, including Billy Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Eve Arden and Torben Meyer, but none of them get much of a chance to distinguish themselves. Wilcoxon's directorial eye is all on Miss Neagle, and while she is, as always, lovely, charming and very Irish in her singing -- which always surprises me, given that she was as English as they came -- the movie suited neither her, the contemporary audience, nor me.