Surprisingly incoherent and boring

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The Pajama Game has some really cute songs, but most people who aren't musical aficionados haven't even heard of it. The major problem with it is the actual story; it's not at all interesting. A new foreman in a factory doesn't want to give his workers a raise so they go on strike. If there weren't any songs, it would be a terrible movie.Thankfully, there are songs, and there are Doris Day and John Raitt to sing them! Almost all of the songs are engrossing, so you'll probably find yourself forgetting there's a non-singing story in-between the numbers. Doris is adorable when she sings "I'm Not At All In Love", John's voice shines out as he sings "Hey There", and the two of them are dynamite during the romantic duet "There Once Was a Man". I don't own the movie, but I do have the soundtrack, which is very fun to listen to! Even the supporting characters have their own delightful songs, like Carol Haney's "Hernando's Hideaway" and Eddie Foy Jr.'s "I'll Never Be Jealous Again". The Pajama Game is a very cute movie with some funny jokes thrown into the lyrics and great chemistry between the two leads. If you like musicals but haven't seen this one yet, definitely check it out. It's best kept for the spring or summer, since there's a fun scene at the annual fair and everyone frolics in the sunshine.

Pajama factory workers debate striking for a wage increase while the head of their grievance committee romances the new superintendent in this bright and colourful musical starring Doris Day. The imaginative dance sequences are choreographed by Bob Fosse and with memorable tunes throughout (there is a song number at least once every five minutes), there is hardly a boring moment to be had. The plot, however, leaves more than a little to be desired. Some have described the movie as musical version of 'Norma Rae' - a description that is pretty much on the mark - however, the need for the workers to strike here never seems anywhere near as strong. Their working conditions are actually very decent, their desired wage increase is quite minimal, and the frequency of bright song/dance numbers detracts from any sense of urgency in terms of their demands being met. Appealing a couple as Day and lead actor John Raitt are, the two of them also fall in love far too quickly for credibility with barely a mention of the unethical nature of their relationship. There is, however, a lot to like in the way the tension at work conflicts with their romance, culminating in Raitt having to make a very hard quick decision at one point. Raitt is also surprisingly decent for a first time lead actor, though the film's best moments go to trained dancer Carol Haney in (apparently) the only talking role of her movie career. Her creatively choreographed "Steamed Heat" number is a particular highlight, though "Hernando's Hideaway" deserves top marks for her best song.

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.

I'm not a big fan of vintage Hollywood musicals any more and can only return, even if with trepidation, to just a handful of classic titles. For that reason, I haven't watched one in ages…but this film had always been a highly-touted example of the genre – being also more adult than usual, with a social theme involving an impending factory strike – so, I decided to give it a go. That said, my adjustment to the schmaltzy style which so characterizes musicals of this era wasn't immediate...However, there's no denying that the songs by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross are splendid – even if I preferred the more intimate numbers; likewise, Bob Fosse's choreography felt impersonal for the most part (though I was, admittedly, conditioned by the fact that I'd seen the musicals he later directed – which exhibited a definite, and unique, stylization to the dance steps – prior to this one!). Anyway, the best musical sequences are: Doris Day's "I'm Not At All In Love", John Raitt's melancholy "Hey There" (later reprised by Day), "Steam Heat" (a recognizably Fosse number highlighting Carol Haney) and the stylish "Hernando's Hideaway" (though, in retrospect, it seemed silly to me that the latter is ostensibly a "secluded place" and yet all the factory-workers seem to hang out there!).The cast, of course, is headed by Day (ideally cast here as the head of the factory's "Grievance Committee", with the film itself generally considered as her best); many of her fellow performers had originated their characters during the show's Broadway run – including leading man John Raitt (rather stolid in his only major film role), Eddie Foy Jr. (as the burly manager at the factory whose fits of jealousy and penchant for throwing knives could turn dangerous when he's had one drink too many!) and Carol Haney (as the latter's fiancé and the factory-boss' secretary in what proved to be her last film, as she died quite young).Ultimately, the film isn't up to Donen's best (and better-known) musicals – such as ON THE TOWN (1949), SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952) and SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) – nor do I see myself watching it as frequently as his two delightful imitation-Hitchcock comedy-thrillers, namely CHARADE (1963) and ARABAESQUE (1966). Still, even if I wasn't quite as enthused with the film as I'd hoped, I'd still like to catch the same team's follow-up musical – DAMN YANKEES (1958), if anything for its Faustian overtones.