The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game (George Abbott & Stanley Donen, 1957)

The Pajama Game_720p(480P)

source: The Pajama Game

While the music and dancing are wonderful, the story is really off the wall. Who could believe that workers want just 7 1/2 cents more? Anyone ever hear about an hourly wage increase? Ludicrous. This is not one Doris Day's best performances. She needed to more than challenged here. That challenge does not come about from the performance of John Raitt. Yes, their voices are great but the writing does them in. Then there is Reta Shaw. She probably never made it big in Hollywood as there was a Marjorie Main to take the type of parts that Shaw could have done well in. She does an unbelievably good song and dance routine with Eddie Foy Jr. Must Barbara Nichols play the typical factory worker in her usual stupid voice? Ms. Nichols was far better gifted than what is able to do here. Yes, Carol Haney shines but alas, she is given not that much to do here. Naturally, we're all happy to see that the threatened strike was averted by film's end, but the writing is so amateurish, we might have needed a walkout to make things more interesting.

But the moral of the film (couldn't speak for the stage play) is 'steal from your employees by cooking the books to pocket their pay rise for six months! you won't be arrested! you won't be fired! you can keep six months of your ill-gotten gains! and then you can sing an up-beat number about great job you're doing! As long as your second in command gets the girl with your connivance, he's not going to make a fuss! I can see why people were ready for the sixties. 'Steal from the poor to line your own pockets', 'steal from people who implicitly trust you', 'make deals behind closed doors to stiff the female workforce' - well, they're not really tag-lines I can get behind, myself. Bring on North Country.

Raise negotiations at a pajama factory (cute...) get balled-up when the hunky new superintendent falls for the pretty head of the Grievance Committee. Anachronistic 1957 musical plays like 1937, with balky introductions into awkward musical numbers (the exception is "Steam Heat", which is really the only number to show off choreographer Bob Fosse's marked style); the rest of the dancing is surprisingly mediocre (lots of stomping around and gesturing wildly), and the singing is brash. It took TWO directors to stage this, but it still looks like a filmed play (aside from the picnic sequence). Freckly Doris Day is bright and fun in her ducktail bob, John Raitt less so, however the film's biggest problem is the plot, which unravels faster than an old pair of PJs. ** from ****

I believe "The Pajama Game" is the quintessential 1950s musical comedy. Although the film cut a few of the songs from the Broadway version, there were none added, so what is seen is a very faithful version of the source material. Another bonus with the film is that much of the Broadway cast is featured in the movie version. Doris Day, is as usual, wonderful, as is a young Bob Fosse's choreography. The "Steam Heat" and "Once A Year Day" numbers are highlights. The DVD features a cut number written for the movie. It is quite good, but it is also understandable why they didn't use it, in that it would have slowed the momentum of the film had it been used. All in all a very entertaining film.

One of the truly unsung musicals of the 1950s, with a remarkably convincing performance from Doris Day, an impressive movie debut by John Raitt and wonderful choreography by Bob Fosse. Pajama Game is probably one of the two most successful musical movies that Warner Bros produced, the other, of course, also starring Doris Day: "Calamity Jane", which reversed the order of Adler and Ross's wonderful creation by moving to the theatrical stage after the movie was made. Stanley Donen and George Abbot have produced and directed a total joy of a movie, creating a believable factory environment and giving the union demands for a pay rise the full strength. Carol Haney (from the record breaking Broadway production) makes a wonderful front office employee and with her number "Steam Heat" gives Fosse's choreographic skills full rein! Truly a joy of a movie, wonderfully photographed in magical colours and in excellently framed CinemaScope. How hard to think this film has been overlooked for so long. Definitely a must for any fan of musical movies and it warrants repeated viewing on a regular basis. A gem just waiting to be rediscovered.

With all of the original cast members intact (John Raitt, Reta Shaw, Gwen Verdon, Eddie Foy, Jr.) except for the exceptionally talented Doris Day filling in for Janis Paige, 'The Pajama Game' is rollicking good fun and a smash hit once again with all of Bob Fosse's show-stopping choreography given top-rate exposure. Who would think a story about a labor dispute in a pajama factory could be turned into such a joyous musical? Carol Haney is priceless doing 'Steam Heat' and 'Hernando's Hideaway' with great finesse. Day sings her heart out on 'Hey There' and other tunes, while Raitt reprises his Broadway role as the factory foreman who comes up against the stubborn and feisty Babe, head of the grievance committee. Day and Raitt can do no wrong, whether they're singing a ballad or a jump tune, whether singing or dancing, whether sparring or smooching. It's all great fun done up in gaudy technicolor and undoubtedly one of the great film musicals of the '50s, the kind that we sorely miss today. One great song-and-dance routine follows another with no shortage of imagination as to staging and concept. A treasure! See it and enjoy!!

When it was released in 1957, The Pajama Game joined a long procession of song and dance Movies that grabbed us all who watched them with their energy, vitality and infectious romance. Doris Day bounces and radiates her way across the screen as only she can and has done many times previously in musicals, singing, dancing and looking great, teaming up this time with some of the cast from the Broadway Production, Eddie Foy Jnr., Carol Haney, Rita Shaw and John Raitt. As you would expect from this array of talent something special would arrive, and it didn't take long for us to taste it. In the opening minutes we are treated to one of Choreographer Bob Fosse's routines with Eddie Foy Jnr. and Rita Shaw singing and stepping to 'I'll never get jealous again ' and as the show moves on more memorable sequences appear like Carol Haney dancing to ' Steam Heat,' Doris Day singing ' Seven and a Half cents ' and everyone it seems giving a rousing rendition of ' Hernando's Hideaway.' The Pajama Game is alive with Fiftie's colour, vigour and good old fashioned song and dance, put together by ideas and talent that perhaps in those days we had the chance to take it all for granted. Sadly.....these days, with the absence of musicals we don't have that opportunity.