While I did not hate or greatly dislike The Pajama Game, watching the movie did feel to me like a tedious chore. Quite simply, I was not entertained (a simple and primary criteria of mine for any musical I watch... I don't have to be entertained by an art-house movie, but I better be by a musical), nor did I feel as though it was a particularly well-made film. I have heard several people (who are fans of musicals) praise The Pajama Game, which is why I was somewhat surprised by the mediocre nature of it. Maybe that is just the problem, as you might very well have to be an enthusiastic and die-hard fan of musicals to be able to overlook the unremarkable quality of The Pajama Game.
I am indifferent when it comes to the genera of musicals, I don't have a bias in their favor (like I do for say film-noir) or against their favor (like I do for say fantasy films). But if I am to enjoy a musical, I notice that more often than not I desire (among a dozen other things) that the film have a solid script. A solid script that contains an interesting story, is told in an entertaining way, includes well-written dialogue, and contains legitimate substance (as opposed to being just a depthless vehicle for song and dance)--and while this is not dogma, it sure helps me feel like I'm still watching a film, and just not people singing and dancing for the sake of singing and dancing.
The Pajama Game's dialogue is unmemorable, the story is uninteresting (that goes for the plight of the pajama factory workers for their potential raise, and the budding romance between the films main characters), and what shallow story there is is told in a way completely devoid of entertainment. But, to me, the biggest crime of all is that the script for The Pajama Game really is a shallow vehicle of a script of scenes strung together merely for song and dance (and in my opinion, mostly mediocre song and dance that can not begin to compare to some other classic musicals).
The cinematography certainly could have been better in The Pajama Game. Primary colors are the main choices in the color palette for the movie (after all, it is a movie that mainly takes place in a factory that makes brightly colored pajamas), but they are never used as richly as they are in other musicals such as Singin' In The Rain, Une Femme Est Une Femme, Parapluies De Cherbourg, or even The Wizard of Oz (which some people define as a musical, myself included as its songs progress the plot, but others merely consider Oz as a "classic family film"). In those movies the constantly present primary colors enthrall the viewer, and are photographed and lit in a manner that creates a bright and vibrant world that seems richer than the actual real world in some ways. In The Pajama Game the cinematographer failed to elicit any such enthrallment from the viewer. They are just colors-nothing more, nothing less. And while it may seem like I am being nit-picky, if you are making a lighthearted and silly musical with primary colors as the main choices in your color palette, you should make those colors "pop".
In The Pajama Game it would be very easy to accuse the actors of not acting as people, but of acting as "imitations of humans". Sure, it's not realistic for characters to break out into song and dance at the drop of a dime-but the characters in a musical should at least feel realistic to the viewer at least in some manner. The majority of the characters in the movie have as much realistic believability as the characters that might populate a vintage Hannah-Barbera cartoon. Even Babe feels like an imitation of a spunky factory worker, and Sid the imitation of a stern "by-the-books" factory superintendent.
As for the positive: the one thing I took interest in with The Pajama Game was the duet that Sid has with himself (by means of a tape recorder used for dictation in his office). To my memory I had not seen a musical where a character performs a duet with themselves until I saw this film.
While a lot of people I know who have seen this film enjoy it, I would exert that I feel there are better musicals (such as the ones I referred to while discussing the cinematography of the film several paragraphs above) that you could better spend your film-watching time with.
I am indifferent when it comes to the genera of musicals, I don't have a bias in their favor (like I do for say film-noir) or against their favor (like I do for say fantasy films). But if I am to enjoy a musical, I notice that more often than not I desire (among a dozen other things) that the film have a solid script. A solid script that contains an interesting story, is told in an entertaining way, includes well-written dialogue, and contains legitimate substance (as opposed to being just a depthless vehicle for song and dance)--and while this is not dogma, it sure helps me feel like I'm still watching a film, and just not people singing and dancing for the sake of singing and dancing.
The Pajama Game's dialogue is unmemorable, the story is uninteresting (that goes for the plight of the pajama factory workers for their potential raise, and the budding romance between the films main characters), and what shallow story there is is told in a way completely devoid of entertainment. But, to me, the biggest crime of all is that the script for The Pajama Game really is a shallow vehicle of a script of scenes strung together merely for song and dance (and in my opinion, mostly mediocre song and dance that can not begin to compare to some other classic musicals).
The cinematography certainly could have been better in The Pajama Game. Primary colors are the main choices in the color palette for the movie (after all, it is a movie that mainly takes place in a factory that makes brightly colored pajamas), but they are never used as richly as they are in other musicals such as Singin' In The Rain, Une Femme Est Une Femme, Parapluies De Cherbourg, or even The Wizard of Oz (which some people define as a musical, myself included as its songs progress the plot, but others merely consider Oz as a "classic family film"). In those movies the constantly present primary colors enthrall the viewer, and are photographed and lit in a manner that creates a bright and vibrant world that seems richer than the actual real world in some ways. In The Pajama Game the cinematographer failed to elicit any such enthrallment from the viewer. They are just colors-nothing more, nothing less. And while it may seem like I am being nit-picky, if you are making a lighthearted and silly musical with primary colors as the main choices in your color palette, you should make those colors "pop".
In The Pajama Game it would be very easy to accuse the actors of not acting as people, but of acting as "imitations of humans". Sure, it's not realistic for characters to break out into song and dance at the drop of a dime-but the characters in a musical should at least feel realistic to the viewer at least in some manner. The majority of the characters in the movie have as much realistic believability as the characters that might populate a vintage Hannah-Barbera cartoon. Even Babe feels like an imitation of a spunky factory worker, and Sid the imitation of a stern "by-the-books" factory superintendent.
As for the positive: the one thing I took interest in with The Pajama Game was the duet that Sid has with himself (by means of a tape recorder used for dictation in his office). To my memory I had not seen a musical where a character performs a duet with themselves until I saw this film.
While a lot of people I know who have seen this film enjoy it, I would exert that I feel there are better musicals (such as the ones I referred to while discussing the cinematography of the film several paragraphs above) that you could better spend your film-watching time with.