Film director Stanley Donen and stage director George Abbott teamed up to film this Broadway show with most of the original cast (the exception being Doris Day, you gotta have a star you know) recreating their original roles. They also chose not to open up the play too much in order to preserve it's spontaneity.
Doris Day is pretty good in this film, she actually seems like she could be a union rep in a blue collar factory. John Raitt (Bonnie's dad) has a fine voice and is a good co-star for Doris Day. The rest of the cast looks like factory workers so when they dance and sing it's a lot of fun to see them perform.
I think the problem with The Pajama Game is the musical genre itself, it just seems very stupid these days. Musicals and particularity film musicals run a very fine line between suspension of reality and just plain dumbness. The whole idea of people breaking out into song in the middle of a story is just well rather ridiculous. Also, time has not been very kind to some of these shows, 1950's and early 1960's musicals have a very definite structure, a major singing story line and a secondary singing comic relief story line. Both stories finally merge together into a grand finale where everyone gets together at the end and sings and sings and sings. About as predictable as the sunrise.
Still, the songs are pretty good. The dancing is good and with a director like Stanley Donen you can be sure the film will be put together with a lot of taste and style.
101 minutes.
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