THE PAJAMA GAME (1957)

Pivoting easily from Parisian haute couture & existential literary circles in FUNNY FACE/’57 to petit bourgeois concerns of labor vs. management at a MidWest pajama factory adapting this stage hit, Stanley Donen (here working with B’way legend George Abbott) pulled off the near impossible act of following one of Hollywood’s most sophisticated musicals with its most proletarian.  Both great, yet GAME never quite gets its due from most critics.  (Though not Jean-Luc Godard who raved & raved.)  Bringing in all but one of the original B’way cast pays off, as does the one swap out that put perfectly cast Hollywood ringer Doris Day (truer of voice/warmer of personality) in for Janis Paige.*  Perennial B’way leading man John Riatt (yes, Bonnie’s dad) gets his only film role as the new superintendent who falls for Day, head of the grievance committee, showing off his all but perfect legit B’way vocal technique (baritone with a crazy upper extension), while the supporting cast all hit their larger-than-life, but accurate targets.  Eddie Foy Jr. and Reta Shaw do a heavenly soft-shoe duet while eccentric Carol Haney, particularly in ‘Steam Heat,’ helps choreographer Bob Fosse mature from pupa to butterfly.   A couple of songs from the stage show are missed, but they’ve trimmed the second act to good effect.  Special kudos to lenser Harry Stradling Sr., giving almost unheard of depth & texture to picnic grounds and factory interiors for the period.  WarnerColor was rarely this expressive.

CONTEST:  In 1957, the Hollywood Production Code still had enough clout to bowdlerize even mildly suggestive lyrics that might cause offense . . . to whom?  Spot any of these rewritten couplets in 'I’m Not At All In Love,’ ’I’ll Never Be Jealous Again,’ ‘Small Talk’ and ‘Hernando’s Hideaway’ to win a MAKSQUIBS Write-Up of your choosing.  Extra fun for those who know the tune to ‘Hernando’s Hideaway.’   Substitute the song's lyrics with the words of Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping By the Woods On a Snowy Evening.’  

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

(Add ‘Ole!’ at the end and it scans perfectly.)

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  *Paige licked her wounds (and ‘an anchovy’ per Cole Porter’s lyrics) the same year with the second lead in SILK STOCKINGS/’57.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/silk-stockings-1957.html