Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

TheLittleSongbird John Raitt's really bland acting is the only drawback to a film that was just a pleasure to watch after an emotional roller-coaster of a week. The fashions and hair are very 50s but are beautiful-looking and the settings colourful and showing signs of life. The photography and editing shows signs of creativity(Racing Around the Clock was true to this), as does the energetic and quite unique choreography from Bob Fosse. You have to love its robustness and wit in Once a Year Day, but the gem is the classic and very catchy Steam Heat. The songs are similarly terrific, especially those two(Steam Heat being the highlight of the film) and There Was Once a Man. The dialogue is warm-hearted and sharp-witted, and while the story is unlikely it has a lot of charm and energy which wins you over at least. The Pajama Game is one of musical comedies that benefits from being a fine example of something being faithful to its original source done well-after seeing those being too faithful and lacking energy as a result, the remake of Bye Bye Birdie being a prime example. Faithfulness has never been essential with me, though the spirit of the original source makes do, anything deserves to stand on its own merits. Doris Day sings beautifully as always and has a winning and charming charisma about her, one of her better performances from a personal perspective. Carol Haney almost steals the show from under her, what great comic timing- so funny without trying too hard- and equally great dancing. In conclusion, a Doris Day treasure and any fans should have no problem enjoying it and how infectious in spirit it is. 9/10 Bethany Cox

simonrosenbaum I'm currently working my way through a Doris Day box set and having now watched 10 of them this is by far the least entertaining one I've seen.I agree with those that think there are too many songs for the amount of time the films lasts but that wouldn't really matter if the songs were more memorable than they are.The biggest problem though for me is the lack of a decent story and the very unappealing leading man. It also manages to be bland and at the same time rather sinister which makes you feel a bit unsettled. The whole knife throwing at the picnic scene being the main example of that. It's possible that the songs might grow on me if I heard them a few times but I don't think I would want to watch the film again. 3/10

silverscreen888 The Pajama Game began as a book by Richard Bissell called "7 1/2 cents". It was the turned into an innovative and hugely successful Broadway musical as "The Pajama Game" by George Abbot and author Bissell, with choreography by Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse, and words and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Most of the cast utilized in this film of the famous musical, for once, are talents from the Broadway play, with Doris Day as "Babe" Williams joining John Raitt as Sid Sorokin the ill-matched labor and management couple about whom the story centers. The storyline I find to be a very straightforward and appealing narrative. An Iowa pajama factory's chief is having a dispute with his workforce over a demand for a badly-needed 7 1/2 cents-an- hour pay increase that all his competitors have granted already. The new superintendent falls in love with one of the Grievance Committee's members, despite her hesitation because he is management and she labor. When, after the liberating annual company picnic, the demands are again refused, Day stops the machinery after a slowdown is stopped by Raitt, and he has to fire her. The aftermath is that sabotage by the workers is slowly wrecking sales. When the boss still stubbornly refuses to give in, Raitt invites his secretary (Carol Haney) our for a drink and she all-but-gives him the key she wears around her neck that unlocks the Boss's books; after her insanely jealous boyfriend (Eddie Foy Jr.) has been dealt with, Raitt appears at the workers' meeting after forcing the boss (Ralph Dunn) to "compromise"--he will grant the raise immediately if the retroactive pay the workers should have had all along is ignored--the pay he'd been pretending could not be paid. As the lead, John Raitt is energetic, sings in a fine Irish tenor and handles every aspect of his assignment very well. Doris Day is quite believable as Babe Williams but lacks a Broadway caliber voice. Carol Haney makes a fine comedy debut as the secretary. Eddie Foy plays Hinesie Heinz, her boy friend, a caricature of a role, with vaudevillian grace and intelligence. His number with Reta Shaw as Raitt's assistant "I Would Trust Her" is a highlight for many, charming and unusually stylish. Others in the cast include powerful Ralph Dunn as the tough boss, Thelma Pelish as Mae, accomplished Jack Straw as Prez and Ralph Chambers as Charlie. Memorable musical numbers include, "Hurry Up", "Hey There", "I'm Not at All in Love", "Steam Heat", "The Pajama Game", "Once A Year Day", "There Once Was a Man" and "Hernando's Hideaway". Among production artists, Harry Stradling's difficult cinematography achievement, seamless art direction by Malcom C. Bert, set decoration by William Kuehl and costume design by Jean Eckart and William Eckart and Frak Thomas all deserve mention. Pros such as Buddy Bregman, Nelson Riddle, Charles Henderson and Ray Heidorf contributed to the vocal and musical success the film achieves. The characters may be presented a bit surrealistically, but this is actually a ground-breaking Warner Brothers attempt, like "the Fountainhead", whose target is the totalitarian "bossism" that was even then destroying American values and requiring real leaders to stand up for individuals' rights against unrealistic gatekeeper 'tsars'. This is a very-well -realized musical about people fighting against a most corrupt system; and musically one of the best offerings ever to come out of Hollywood.

Ephraim Gadsby 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'.