Can Stanley Donan end a movie? Two classic movies he directed, "Charade' and "The Pajama Game" end so abruptly it's almost like he has them on a stopwatch and simply decides to cut them off with a cleaver.
Otherwise, "The Pajama Game" is a dandy diversion. The Broadway hit hosts a handful of great songs ("Hey There", "I'm Not at all in Love", "There was a Man", "Steam Heat" and "Hernando's Hideaway" have all become standards). The movie might be a little too stagy. About half way through it opens up about at a picnic with the less famous, but energetic number "Once a Year Day" where choreographer Bob Fosse has his dancers in a park performing all sorts of tricks on what appears to be uneven ground. Otherwise, the movie is a little too aware of the proscenium. The pajama factory is far larger than it could have been on stage, but it looks like a set.
The "Hernando's Hideaway" number has STAGE is stamped all over it, but it's the most effective number in the movie.
Many actors are recreating their Broadway characters. The big replacement is Doris Day, a proved movie performer who does well in a new role. The male lead, John Raitt, reprises his Broadway role. Male lead Raitt has a good voice and sings well in a duet with himself in "Hey There"; but he's so stiff he might have played the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni before he came to life. He desperately needs Day's inestimable charm to pull him through as well.
The second leads, Eddie Foy Jr. as Vernon Hines and Carol Haney as Gladys Hotchkiss, are both pros able to translate their practiced Broadway performances to the screen with new energy. Their parts are truncated from Broadway, and this is a good thing: with their energy they'd have swamped Day and Raitt and it would have become the Gladys and Hinesy show. Although, from what I understand, the excisions mean that Hines comes off as unreasonably (maniacally, even) jealous of Gladys, if these two were allowed any more to do in this picture Day and Raitt might as well have stayed home and phoned in their lines.
The plot based on Richard Bissel's slight novel 7 ½ cents, about a labor dispute at a pajama factory, is of no interest. The workers themselves don't even seem to care about the story until it raises its head again as a convenience. The story is simply a clothesline to string up a collection of great songs.
There's nothing here for anyone with a low threshold for musicals. This is no treatise on arbitration. It's a fun romp through romances in a pajama factory with lots of singin' and dancin' and knife throwin'.
Otherwise, "The Pajama Game" is a dandy diversion. The Broadway hit hosts a handful of great songs ("Hey There", "I'm Not at all in Love", "There was a Man", "Steam Heat" and "Hernando's Hideaway" have all become standards). The movie might be a little too stagy. About half way through it opens up about at a picnic with the less famous, but energetic number "Once a Year Day" where choreographer Bob Fosse has his dancers in a park performing all sorts of tricks on what appears to be uneven ground. Otherwise, the movie is a little too aware of the proscenium. The pajama factory is far larger than it could have been on stage, but it looks like a set.
The "Hernando's Hideaway" number has STAGE is stamped all over it, but it's the most effective number in the movie.
Many actors are recreating their Broadway characters. The big replacement is Doris Day, a proved movie performer who does well in a new role. The male lead, John Raitt, reprises his Broadway role. Male lead Raitt has a good voice and sings well in a duet with himself in "Hey There"; but he's so stiff he might have played the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni before he came to life. He desperately needs Day's inestimable charm to pull him through as well.
The second leads, Eddie Foy Jr. as Vernon Hines and Carol Haney as Gladys Hotchkiss, are both pros able to translate their practiced Broadway performances to the screen with new energy. Their parts are truncated from Broadway, and this is a good thing: with their energy they'd have swamped Day and Raitt and it would have become the Gladys and Hinesy show. Although, from what I understand, the excisions mean that Hines comes off as unreasonably (maniacally, even) jealous of Gladys, if these two were allowed any more to do in this picture Day and Raitt might as well have stayed home and phoned in their lines.
The plot based on Richard Bissel's slight novel 7 ½ cents, about a labor dispute at a pajama factory, is of no interest. The workers themselves don't even seem to care about the story until it raises its head again as a convenience. The story is simply a clothesline to string up a collection of great songs.
There's nothing here for anyone with a low threshold for musicals. This is no treatise on arbitration. It's a fun romp through romances in a pajama factory with lots of singin' and dancin' and knife throwin'.