No, No, Nanette (1940 film)

No, No, Nanette is a 1940 American film directed by Herbert Wilcox and based on both the 1919 stage play No, No, Nanette and the 1930 film No, No, Nanette. It was one of several films the British producer/director made with Anna Neagle (whom he married in 1943) for RKO studios in the U.S.^[2]

No, No, Nanette
Directed by	Herbert Wilcox
Written by	Ken Englund (screenplay)
Produced by	Merrill G. White (associate producer) Herbert Wilcox (producer)
Starring	See below
Cinematography	Russell Metty
Edited by	Elmo Williams
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	December 13, 1940 (1940-12-13)
Running time	96 minutes 126 minutes (Ontario, Canada)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$570,000[1]
Box office	$940,000[1]

Plot

Personable Nanette helps her philandering millionaire uncle Jimmy out of several embarrassing situations with beautiful women he's promised careers to; and in the process, Nanette becomes romantically involved with both a musical comedy producer, and a young artist.

Cast

• Anna Neagle as Nanette
• Richard Carlson as Tom Gillespie
• Victor Mature as William Trainor
• Roland Young as Mr. "Happy" Jimmy Smith
• Helen Broderick as Mrs. Susan Smith
• ZaSu Pitts as Pauline Hastings
• Eve Arden as Kitty
• Billy Gilbert as Styles
• Tamara as Sonya
• Stuart Robertson as Stillwater Jr. / Stillwater Sr.
• Dorothea Kent as Betty
• Aubrey Mather as Remington, the butler
• Mary Gordon as Gertrude, the cook
• Russell Hicks as "Hutch" Hutchinson

Production

Victor Mature was borrowed from Hal Roach.^[3]

Soundtrack

• Anna Neagle – "No, No, Nanette" — Vincent Youmans (music) and Otto Harbach (lyrics)
• Anna Neagle and Roland Young – "I Want to Be Happy" — Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar
• Tamara – "I Want To Be Happy"
• Eve Arden – "I Want To Be Happy"
• Sung by Anna Neagle and Richard Carlson – "I Want To Be Happy"
• Anna Neagle and Richard Carlson – "Tea For Two" — Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar
• "Ochi Chornya" — Russian cabaret song, music derived from Florian Hermann's Valse Hommage, op. 21 (1879);^[4] lyrics by Yevhen Hrebinka, first published in Literaturnaya Gazeta (17 January 1843)

Reception

Box office

Although the film was popular, its cost meant it made a small loss of $2,000.^[1]

Critical

Variety wrote:

Musical comedies rarely have much story. That's all right. No one expects them to. Plot is compensated for in a hit tune show by good music. That's an elementary show business lesson taught in a class that producer Herbert Wilcox must have skipped. In making a film version of the 1925 Broadway hit ... Wilcox saves all the book but very little of the music. 'Tea for Two' and 'I Want to Be Happy', as well as the title tune, 'No, No, Nanette' have been reduced to virtually incidental music. Even at that, Wilcox has been fortunate. Nanette has a pretty good plot as musical comedy plots go. He has erred, however, in complicating it instead of simplifying it, as was needed. Wilcox has been lavish, however, in instilling production values in Nanette and there's no denying, despite their age, the lilt of the Vincent Youmans tunes.^[5]