The Pajama Game (1957)

Just what I expected

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

The Pajama Game (1957) is a musical comedy set in a pajama factory. It follows the romance of the factory worker and member of the employee union's leadership Babe and the new superintendent Sid. This movie from 60 years back has two directors. George Abbott, who lived up to the high age of 107 (!) is the other. Then the other is Stanley Donen, who is 93 now. He is the man and the master of many classics including Singin' in the Rain. His collaboration with the main star Doris Day, who turned 95 last month, works great. This great actress, singer and animal welfare activist is just radiant in the lead. And the male lead, John Raitt in the role of Sid Sorokin is terrific. They both have a great singing voice. Carol Haney is wonderful as Gladys. Eddie Foy Jr is superb as the knife throwing Hines. Other great talents include Reta Shaw (Mabel), Thelma Pelish (Mae) and Jack Straw (Prez). The Pajama Game was a positive surprise to me. I didn't even recall hearing of the movie before finding out one library had it as a DVD. It was originally a Broadway play. There are some amazing musical numbers, that are also greatly choreographed. Racing with the Clock is one great example. Or Once-A- Year-Day. Or There Once Was a Man. And the song that I was familiar with, Hernando's Hideaway. It is performed by Carol Haney and boy does it sound good! Richard Adler and Jerry Ross are behind the music. There is also a social message in the movie, with these pajama factory workers demanding for a raise, which they'd totally deserve. But most important message of the movie is you can always break into song and dance in whatever situation.

I like John Raitt, Eddie Foy, Jr., and especially Doris Day in this movie, and I liked the songs, but the plot was somewhat controversial in this George Abbott/Stanley Donan production from Warner Brothers from 1957. The plot centers around the workers in a pajama factory putting forth endless efforts for their seven-and-a-half-cents-an-hour raise. Thus, to some extent this is a "serious" musical,though, granted, it is humorous in places, but again is a story about a sensitive issue. Too often anymore too many places go on strike for a raise, and it ends up affecting the whole economy in this country.Does this movie seem to say that fighting for raises is "cute"? I wonder. But again, the songs and occasional comedy are very entertaining, john Raitt and Doris Day click, and it does end up on a positive note. Yet, if this is supposed to be a comedy, then deal with something less controversial.

This was the reactionary 50's, so showing a conflict between management and labor, however comically presented, was quite daring. While not exactly a Marxist textbook case, it does show exploitation of workers and their attempts at fighting back. One can also view it as trivializing the harsh and terrible struggles of workers and unions against capitalist exploitation, but that seems a bit mean-spirited. While no "Cradle Will Rock" it does make the point that even a small issue (a pay raise of seven and a half cents) can be important in the context of a worker's life. I liked most of the songs and dances. There may be two or three too many as they do tend to slow down the plot a bit. I loved Doris Day, but I didn't feel that John Raitt was a good leading man for her. I didn't feel any chemistry between them. Someone suggested that Dean Martin was up for the lead. I would have preferred him. Carol Haney was good, but I was kind of sorry that the part didn't go to her Broadway understudy Shirley Maclaine. It now seems to me that Maclaine imitated Haney for the first eight years of her movie career. Still, Haney was 32 when she did the part and not in good health. She appears to be an older version of early Shirley. A 22 year old Maclaine would have been terrific. The song "There Once Was a Man" reminded me of the great duet between Betty Hutton and Howard Keel in "Annie Get Your Gun" - "Anything You Can Do." I would put this in the second tier of great movie musicals. It isn't "Cabaret" or "Singing in the Rain," or "Dames," as it does drag in a few spots, but for 75 out of its 95 minutes, its delightful.

I remember seeing The Pajama Game when it first came out back in 1957 at the old Nostrand theater in Brooklyn. It played on a double bill with The Joker Is Wild. It was the first Doris Day film I ever saw and it became and remains my favorite. By the way that was some double bill because The Joker Is Wild became my first and favorite Frank Sinatra film.The Pajama Game was the successful product of a lot of creative talent, starting with director/writer George Abbott and also including composers Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. All the principal parts of the show that ran from 1954 to 1956 for 1063 performances on Broadway made it to the screen with the exception of Janis Paige who was Babe Williams.In fact Jack Warner in keeping with his policy of making sure at least one movie name for box office was included, something we all commented about when he brought My Fair Lady to the screen seven years later with Audrey Hepburn instead of Julie Andrews, was going to do the film with either Janis Paige or John Raitt from the Broadway cast. How the decision was made who knows it could have been a coin flip. But what happened was that Doris Day got her best musical film role in my humble opinion. It's so incredibly right for her.Now if it had gone the other way, rumor has it that Dean Martin would have co-starred with Janis Paige. Dino would have been great as Sid Sarokin, but at least we got an opportunity to see John Raitt do at least one of his Broadway roles for the screen.Raitt had the big hit out of The Pajama Game, Hey There. The Pajama Game Broadway Original Cast and Film record both sold well with Hey There being featured. However Rosemary Clooney and Sammy Davis, Jr. had the big hit records on the charts for this song. In Sam's case it was the first big recording hit of his career. As for Rosemary's version, it's done the way John Raitt does it on screen, into a Dictaphone with him commenting on the playback.George Abbott and Stanley Donen co-directed The Pajama Game and their collaborative effort did a wonderful job in translating the musical from stage to screen. The Pajama Game has as much dancing as singing in it and I find it hard to believe the entire thing was done on the Warner Brothers sound-stage, looking at that Once A Year Day number that Bob Fosse choreographed. I refuse to believe that wasn't done outdoors. In fact The Pajama Game showed influences of the film version of Picnic released the year before in that particular number.Doris Day's big number is I'm Not At All In Love which is perfectly suited to her sunny optimistic style of singing. Done with a touch of irony because union organizer Doris is definitely falling for plant superintendent Raitt.We can also thank the Deity that Carol Haney got to repeat her part as kookie Gladys the secretary and get to Hernando's Hideaway. Would you believe that Shirley MacLaine was understudy to Haney on Broadway? It's a fact and again she would have made a great Gladys. But I'm happy Haney got to do her part. She was also a great choreographer in her own right and you can bet she had her input with Bob Fosse in doing her numbers.It's sad, but The Pajama Game is quite dated now. The labor situation in Eisenhower America is a whole lot different than in Bush II America. The whole plot of The Pajama Game revolves around a small town in middle America where the main employer is the SleepTite Pajama company and a labor dispute involving a 7 1/2 cent per hour raise for the workers. More than likely today, SleepTite Pajamas are being made by some third world workers for subsistence wages and there's another depressed former company town in America.Dated though it is, this is one great musical, one of the best ever done on Broadway and transferred for posterity to the cinema.