Themes: Opposites Attract, Battle of the Sexes, Workplace Romance
Main Cast: Doris Day, John Raitt, Carol Haney, Eddie Foy, Jr., Reta Shaw
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 101 minutes
Plot
The Broadway musical Pajama Game was based on Seven and a Half Cents. a comic novel about labor relations written by Richard Bissell. Doris Day stars as an employee at a pajama factory who becomes the spokesperson for her fellow workers when management refuses to give them a 7 1/2 cent raise. Complicating matters is the fact that Management is represented by handsome John Raitt, who happens to be in love with Day. A subplot involves Day's freewheeling co-worker Carol Haney and her insanely jealous boyfriend, factory-manager Eddie Foy Jr. Many of the cast members from the original Broadway production (Raitt, Haney, Foy, Reta Shaw, Peter Gennaro etc.) are retained for the film version, as are most of the Richard Adler/Jerry Ross songs: highlights include "Hey There", "Steam Heat", "Hernando's Hideaway", "There Once Was a Man". and the title song. The choreography is in the capable hands (and feet) of Bob Fosse. Pajama Game performed so well at the box-office that Warners immediately went to work on the filmization of the second (and last) Adler/Ross Broadway collaboration, Damn Yankees. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the superior screen adaptations of a Broadway musical, George Abbott's and Stanley Donen's The Pajama Game (1957) turns a pajama factory union dispute into Technicolor cinematic exuberance. Starring Doris Day and most of the original Broadway cast members, including John Raitt and Carol Haney (whose stage understudy was Shirley MacLaine), the movie version does great justice to the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross score, including "Hey There," "Hernando's Hideaway," "There Once Was a Man," and the title tune. Bob Fosse reprised his Broadway role as the choreographer, importing the jazzy Haney showstopper "Steam Heat" intact from stage to screen, and superbly adapting the joyous picnic frolic "Once a Year Day" to the more flexible dance space afforded by camera movement and an outdoor location. Warner Bros. regrouped Donen, Abbott, and Fosse the next year for another Broadway transplant, Damn Yankees (1958). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Barbara Nichols - Poopsie; Thelma Pelish - Mae; Jack Straw - Prez; Ralph Dunn - Hasler; Owen Martin - Max; Jackie Kelk - First Helper; Ralph Chambers - Charlie; Mary Stanton - Brenda; Buzz Miller - Dancer; Kenneth Le Roy - Dancer; Barry Bernard - Anderson; William A. Forester - Joe; Franklyn Fox - Pop Williams; Ellie Kent - Carol; Kathryn Marlowe - Holly; Mara McAfee - Sabrina; Bek Nelson - Lola; Betty Utey - Patsy; Ralph Volkie - Second Helper; Jack Waldron - Salesman; Lynn Bernay
The Pajama Game is a 1957 musical film based on the stage musical of the same name. The principal cast of the Broadway musical repeated their roles for the movie, with the exception of Janis Paige.
Sid (John Raitt) has just been hired as superintendent of the Sleeptite Pajama Factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He soon falls for Babe (Doris Day), a worker in the factory and member of the employee union's leadership. At the company picnic they become a couple, but Babe worries that their roles in management and labor will drive them apart. She is correct. The union is pushing for a raise of seven-and-one-half cents per hour to bring them in line with the industry standard, but the factory's manager is giving them a runaround. In retaliation, the workers pull a slow-down and deliberately foul up the pajamas, but when Babe actually sabotages some machinery, Sid fires her.
Meanwhile, Sid has been wondering what secrets the manager is hiding in his locked account book. To that end, he takes Gladys (Carol Haney), the boss' assistant, on a date to the local hot spot, "Hernando's Hideaway," despite her insanely jealous boyfriend 'Hinesie' (Eddie Foy, Jr.). He gets Gladys drunk, and in this state, she lends him the key to the locked book. Returning to the factory, Sid discovers that the manager reported the raise has having been instituted months ago. He has been pocketing the difference, himself. Sid threatens to send the book to the board of directors if the raise isn't paid immediately.
At the union meeting that evening, the manager agrees to the raise. When Babe realizes that it was Sid who engineered the raise, and that he has only been attempting to avoid labor strife, she returns to him.
