No, No, Nanette

One of the greatest of stars of the British cinema was Anna Neagle and her marriage with her producer Herbert Wilcox has a just claim of one of the greatest star/impresario partnerships in history. Right up there with David Belaco/Mrs. Leslie Carter and Phineas T. Barnum/Jenny Lind.

Wilcox made a three picture deal with RKO Pictures and brought Anna over to this side of the pond to star in three film versions of famous musical comedies, Irene, Sunny, and this film No No Nanette. Though her charm and singing and dancing talent come through, the two that I've seen so far seem to suffer from a lack of decent production values.

The Vincent Youmans score is almost completely eliminated as the only numbers retained are the title song and the standards I Want To Be Happy and Tea For Two. Still Anna does them charmingly with both her co-star Richard Carlson and her uncle Roland Young.

The plot is on two tracks, there's débutante Nanette who is courted by artist Richard Carlson and Broadway director Victor Mature. And her uncle Roland Young is an incurable romantic, forever pursuing young ladies to the displeasure of her aunt Helen Broderick. Trundling through it all is the family maid Zasu Pitts who has the difficult task of keeping everybody's secrets.

The version I saw was only 87 minutes and it says here that the USA version was 96 and the UK version of No No Nanette was 116. It was thought for a long time the film was lost altogether so I'm guessing it was pieced together as best it could be. Because of the unavoidable bad editing I can't give it more than I have.

Still for fans of Anna Neagle, something to see.

This almost-musicless but highly enjoyable musical, though released in 1940, contains all the conventions of the thirties comedies: A perky heroine who meddles in everyone's lives with sociopathic "pranks", and exotic gold-diggers whom she's combatting; a ludicrously lecherous uncle, and a knowing, wisecracking wife; anti-cultural attitudes, yet hilariously pseudo-cultural touches in numbers; sublimely silly plot complications and coincidences with surrealistically unlikely outcomes; and an environment where airplanes have sleeping-bunks, all women own enormous wardrobes of real fabric and real fur, and homes and hotels are all done in snowy white. Plus it's great fun to see some of Hollywood's then-abundant great "character" players working together, and to catch later stars before their images were forever fixed. Just imagine the innocence and aspirations of a world where an airline stewardess is clothed in an expensive military-style uniform, all of white!

This is one of the strangest 'musicals' I've ever seen. I saw that one commenter had played Jimmy Smith in a production in 1974. I myself was one of the twin pianists in the Broadway show for the last 6 months of the run, in which I worked with Ruby Keeler, Helen Gallagher, Bobby Van, and Patsy Kelly, and after Keeler left, for Martha Raye, who was taking Patsy Kelly's maid role over but was given Ruby's big 'I want to Be Happy' number. It didn't work, but this had been a great experience for me.

I had watched 'Tea for Two' a few years ago, thought it was just fair, nothing special, I was watching just a bunch of old Doris Day things from that period. This was not one of the best, unlike 'Love me or Love Me' or 'Calamity Jane'. I don't remember how much of the score it kept, not nearly all, but here you don't even get a single whole song, except maybe one full verse of 'Tea for Two', sung by Tom and Nanette in different places. That's fairly nice, but 'I want to Be Happy' is never but a snippet, there's a little of the title song that Neagle sings at the very beginning, still only a line or two; and I think later in the movie there is a snippet of 'Take a Little One Step', which was Ruby's other big number in the B'way show, but it is not even sung as a fragment. I really don't understand this, because the sets and costumes didn't look shoddy or cheap at all. Ms. Neagle is extremely pretty and quite charming, I thought. Victor Mature is stunningly handsome at that age, he really is very much the hunk already, and very sexy. Richard Carlson is also very handsome in a different, lighter kind of way. Beautiful young people and wonderful costumes and luxury are what are on display to enjoy. I looked at the cast of the 1930 version and that at least had Bill and Lucille Early from the original production, but this plot had almost no resemblance to the show I did. Nanette did not ballet (Ms. Neagle's dancing is not terribly distinguished) and both Tom and Nanette are much more naive and 'pure ingenue'. I was surprised I enjoyed as much as I did. I just gave up on it early on as having anything much at all to do with the show I enjoyed doing live. I think it had less music than any musical I ever saw: at least 'Louisiana Purchase', although it leaves out a lot of Berlin's songs, has a couple of big numbers, even if most of the songs are left out (and that's quite a good film.)

Perhaps some nostalgia shielded me from the grainy picture and outrageous sound in this picture which came out a year into the European World War II, probably intended as escapist fare for the Allied side of the combattants. It is a funny story, but probably the plot is as old as history. Anna Neagle, a very versatile (still) young actress,who could do Queen Victoria, Nell Gwynn and many other roles,shows herself mistress of fluid dialogue and continuity,vivacious,charming and witty, and knocks our more modern imports like the "propah, Oh so British Sounding" Julie Andrews and Elizabeth Taylor (the poor man's Vivian Leigh) into a cocked hat. There is a nice dance sequence while she dreams while being painted,and her voice is quite pleasant. There are sufficient conflicts and the film is not devoid of a moral issue: to paint for art's sake,or put out meretricious subjects in order to advertise smoking. Helen Broderick,Zasu Pitts,Eve Arden, who rather hams her part,are in nice supporting roles,with Richard Carlson (who has a passable voice) and Victor Mature as the male juvenile leads.

This version is likely available at your local dollar store on DVD. The print is not great, nor is the sound, but if you have $1.00 and 90 or so minutes to spare, you'll get your money's worth (which is not saying an awful lot). Anna Neagle is extremely vapid as Nanette. Whatever her charms may have been back in the day, they are not evident in this film. A great number of fine character actors appear in this film (Helen Broderick, Zasu Pitts, Even Arden), but the material falls remarkably short of their talents. Still, it is interesting to see how such accomplished performers make the most of the weak writing. The musical numbers (there are really only two) are quite horrible. Clearly the studio did not feel compelled to cash in on the rich musicality of the original "No, No, Nanette". For what it's worth, the DVD can be had for $1.00. It's worth that much just to say you've seen it.