Doris Day was involved in many musicals at Warners from 1948 onwards, and 'Tea for Two' is a typical example. Set in the stock market crash of 1929, this variation on 'putting on a show' has Day as both an heiress and a stage-struck singer and dancer, supported by her friends Jimmy the composer (Gordon MacRae, later to appear to good effect in 'Oklahoma' and 'Carousel'), and Tommy the hoofer (Gene Nelson, the cut-price Fred Astaire who ended up directing Elvis' minor musicals).
The score is nice but not that memorable - 'Tea for Two', 'No, No, Nanette', 'I Want To Be Happy', 'Do, Do, Do' - while the story, loosely based on the play No, No, Nanette concerns rivalries, lost investments, and a comic uncle (SZ Sakall, who played the same part in countless films throughout the 1940s and 1950s). Billy de Wolfe and Patrice Wymore round out the cast as a heel of a producer and his sniping leading lady.
As a film, 'Tea for Two' passes the time and boasts some great costumes and colour, even if most of the film doesn't have a 1929 feel. And the bookending sequences, with Sakall telling a tale to a roomful of children, doesn't quite sit with the rest of the material. But it isn't bad.