In the early 50s, Gordon MacRea and Doris Day made a couple cute period pictures together--"By the Light of the Silvery Moon" and "On Moonlight Bay". Both were essentially one long story about a nice family in the 1910s. There was singing but mostly the emphasis was on the comedy and character development. Just before they made these two wonderful films, they also made "Tea for Two" and, although pleasant, the film is clearly not in league with their later collaborations. Why? Because story and character development clearly are NOT that important--it's the music. Now for me, I like musicals but the story always must take precedence.
This story is told through a long flashback when Uncle Max (Cuddles Sakall) tells a group of kids (which includes a very young Elinor Donahue) the story of how Nanette (Day) lost her fortune and then miraculously got it back all because of a Broadway musical and a bet that Nanette cannot go 48 without saying 'no' to every question posed to her.
The plot, to put it lightly, is feather-light. It makes very little sense and seems to be there simply as a plot device to justify all the music by Day and MacRae. Some of that, by the way, is very nice. Oddly, however, the title song is, at least to me, one of the weakest tunes in the film. I did enjoy Sakall---as pretty much everyone enjoys him in films. Overall, enjoyable fluff but absolutely nothing more.
This story is told through a long flashback when Uncle Max (Cuddles Sakall) tells a group of kids (which includes a very young Elinor Donahue) the story of how Nanette (Day) lost her fortune and then miraculously got it back all because of a Broadway musical and a bet that Nanette cannot go 48 without saying 'no' to every question posed to her.
The plot, to put it lightly, is feather-light. It makes very little sense and seems to be there simply as a plot device to justify all the music by Day and MacRae. Some of that, by the way, is very nice. Oddly, however, the title song is, at least to me, one of the weakest tunes in the film. I did enjoy Sakall---as pretty much everyone enjoys him in films. Overall, enjoyable fluff but absolutely nothing more.