The Pajama Game

I'm giving this movie 7 stars for Steam Heat with Carol Haney and the performances of almost everyone in the movie. The sexist angle that would now be called harassment in the workplace seriously dates the film but it is still entertaining. John Raitt comes on very strong but Doris Day more than holds her own. Carol Haney is the best thing in the film! Note Eddie Foy, Jr. in the role of Hinesy. Reta Shaw later gained fame as the housekeeper on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir television show. One of the most fun things about watching old movies is discovering the character actors we've become familiar with from television. Bob Fosse's choreography is splendid and Barbara Nichols is a riot.

Do you dislike musicals because you feel they are about nonsense and fantasy? Well, here is a musical about, okay, a man and a woman falling in love, but also capital and labour, exploitation of the workers, crooked financiers, and a heroine who is a strong woman whose work is important to her and who gets angry when her boyfriend doesn't take her seriously. Call that a fantasy? I don't dislike musicals, but I have always disliked Doris Day, who always seemed to me to be a phoney, a woman who was always pretending to be arch and super-feminine. Here, for once, she is the tough girl she really was, a blue-collar heroine who is robust and forthright, and she is terrific.

More important, of course, than the subject is the way it's handled, and the team of Adler and Ross (who also wrote Damn Yankees!) provide lots of charming, unpretentious, but also clever and peppy songs and two very slinky dance numbers, which last are a fine memorial to Carol Haney, the beautiful, talented, but sadly disturbed and short-lived dancer who originated the role on Broadway. Even the throwaway lines in the songs are enormously funny--for instance, when one song wants to make a point about a posh restaurant, the lyric is not "In a posh restaurant" but, referring to a generic fictitious posh restaurant, "At The Golden Finger Bowl..."

Those who love musicals, of course, will appreciate one that is so well crafted and directed. But nostalgia freaks in general are richly served here. Typewriters? Time clocks? And UNIONS? Organisations that protect the rights of the workers? Gee, daddy, what are those?

With all of the original cast members intact (John Raitt, Reta Shaw, Gwen Verdon, Eddie Foy, Jr.) except for the exceptionally talented Doris Day filling in for Janis Paige, 'The Pajama Game' is rollicking good fun and a smash hit once again with all of Bob Fosse's show-stopping choreography given top-rate exposure.

Who would think a story about a labor dispute in a pajama factory could be turned into such a joyous musical? Carol Haney is priceless doing 'Steam Heat' and 'Hernando's Hideaway' with great finesse. Day sings her heart out on 'Hey There' and other tunes, while Raitt reprises his Broadway role as the factory foreman who comes up against the stubborn and feisty Babe, head of the grievance committee. Day and Raitt can do no wrong, whether they're singing a ballad or a jump tune, whether singing or dancing, whether sparring or smooching. It's all great fun done up in gaudy technicolor and undoubtedly one of the great film musicals of the '50s, the kind that we sorely miss today. One great song-and-dance routine follows another with no shortage of imagination as to staging and concept. A treasure!

See it and enjoy!!

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.

Who'd have thought that a labor dispute could be such fun? Just add Doris Day's smile, Bob Fosse's choreography, amazing music and dancers and a bag of popcorn! This is a highly energetic film, super-charged with charisma. I can't count the number of times I hit "pause" and "rewind" just to get another look at a surprise dance move. Boy, do I dare say that this may have been what "Grease" was hoping it could aspire to? I want to see this one again real soon!