Customer Reviews

Pajama Party

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PAJAMA PARTY is probably the second best-loved sequel of the original BEACH PARTY (the first has to be the quintessential BEACH BLANKET BINGO). The party moves indoors for the wonderful romp with Annette Funicello and the gang.

Connie (Annette Funicello) finds herself being chased by a handsome martian from Mars, Go-Go (Tommy Kirk), while trying to save her relationship with the self-obsessed Big Lunk (Jody McCrea). Thankfully, kindly dress-shop owner Aunt Wendy (Elsa Lanchester) is on hand to offer advice to the younger generation about matters of love and the heart.

Annette and the gang trade their beach threads for pajamas and baby-dolls in this very cute musical. Annette sings the classic standard "Stuffed Animal", while Donna Loren will have you jumping with "That's The Way It's Done".

Then there are fantastic cameos from film veterans Buster Keaton and Don Rickles; while Dorothy Lamour shows she could still 'cut a rug' with the best of them with her infectious number.

Interestingly, the "pajama party" of the title doesn't happen until the last 20 minutes of the picture! Followed by BEACH BLANKET BINGO.

The DVD has both full-frame and widescreen versions of the film as well as the trailer. (Double-sided, single-layer disc).

No doubt this is the best of the Beach Movies...the only movie from this category that's as good (better, actually) is Ski Party...but good luck getting Ski Party on video, laserdisc or DVD. Enough about Ski Party. Pajama Party (not Rated R, as one reviewer got confused...he mistakenly looked at Playboy's documentary) doesn't play as ditsy unwatchably dumb as some of the others. It doesn't have overly cornball songs that only a 5 year old would enjoy. In Pajama Party, the songs are actually catchy (notably, the intro song, the title song, the Tommy/Annette duet, and of course, Dorothy Lamour's number) and the plot doesn't bore you to tears with thoughtless wandering. This movie is actually entertaining from start to finish. Buster Keaton is great as the cowardly indian chief. Susan Hart is hotter than HOT. Donna Loren is cute and an enjoyable singer, and Toni Basil makes some dancing appearances that are backed by better music.

If you're going to get a Beach movie and aren't sure what to choose from, here's something to consider: Buying Pajama Party will make future beach movie purchases disappointing, since no other beach movie compares to Pajama Party (again, except for Ski Party). Then again, if you do buy this movie, you'll definitely have the best one of the bunch. For my taste, Pajama Party is the only beach movie I'll buy. Having it on DVD is a real treat...especially since the music in the movie is so enjoyable (Donna Loren's "Among the Young" is the best song in the movie).

As Annette finishes singing "Stuffed Animal" to a hulking, multi-colored toy cat, it actually winks at her. This is the kind of movie AIP did best: low-budget, low-brow fun. There are some talky scenes(between Martian Tommy Kirk and Frankie Avalon--shunted off in a cameo), but who cares when you've got Annette, more beautiful here than ever. She's also got some juicy-fruit lines like: "Both you birds belong in a clock!" A gem.

This film really could not be improved even if the *entire* thing had featured Bobbi Shaw doing sit-ups by the pool and Susan Hart gyrating to boil punch in its bowl.

While Frankie went off to make SKI PARTY, Annette made PAJAMA PARTY. Buster Keaton, Don Rickles and Elsa Lancester added to the usual beach gang adds up to infectious fun in Panavision and Pathecolor. Grab your PJs and let's go.

"Pajama Party" is my absolute favorite of the beach party movies. To me, it has the best production values, music and choreography. I can watch the musical numbers over and over again. The whole movie down to the choreography (they used David Winters who did Hullabaloo) is just so much better and more professional. Here are my favorite sequences:

1. "Beach Ball" (called "Rythm N Beach" on the DVD track listing). This features a group of what looks like professional dancers doing acrobatic dance moves in their bathing suits on the beach to the surf guitar music performed by the Nooney Rickett 4. This is wonderful. I wish I could join the people dancing!

2. "Among the Young" sung by Donna Loren. Great, catchy tune again accompanied by the Nooney Rickett Four. Donna and the musicians are surrounded by the Pajama Party gang while they perform. Donna really belts it out for this number.

3. "In My Day" sung by Dorothy Lamour. This number is in the context of a fashion show where each of the models who comes out wearing a different outfit suddenly starts doing a crazy teen dance, much to the horror of Lamour who sings "in my day, we didn't do it this way, in my day we used to swing and sway" etc. One of the dancers is Terri Garr, another Toni Basil!

4. "Pajama Party" sung by Annette by the poolside, accompanied by the gang, doing synchronized dancing! This is just great!

5. The end credits, which feature the Nooney Rickett 4's "Among the Young" instrumental music with the lovely Susan Hart dancing by the credits.

Again, my favorite of the beach party movies.

_Pajama Party_ is the 4th entry in the "beach movie" series. _Pajama Party_ has it all: Throwaway songs, forgettable dialogue, poor dubbing, lousy twist music, ridiculous plot and plenty of semi-nude gyrating bodies. All of these attributes combine to make this movie totally enjoyable. Although _Pajama Party_ was an American International quickie, it has all the charm of a Disney movie during certain scenes. Maybe it's the old, familiar Disney characters, such as Elsa Lanchester and Tommy Kirk, in combination with Annette Funicello that help create this illusion.

In the "beach" flicks, Annette always played a chick named Dee Dee or Jennifer or Connie or Dolores. Whatever. Her names changed, but the characters she played were always the same. However, in _Pajama Party_, Annette finally exchanges her bulletproof beehive for a more flexible Greek goddess hairdo. Later on, she switches to a Jackie Kennedy bouffant. As usual, Annette wears an extremely modest Mother Hubbard-style Jensen one-piece swimsuit, but fortunately, her well-endowed girlfriends aren't nearly as inhibited.

The anamorphic widescreen transfer is superb. A narrow-screen version is also included.

You may be baffled by the lineup on this "Beach" movie - while Annette is back in her "DeeDee" role, she's now "Deadhead's" (Jody McCrea) girlfriend rather than Frankie's. Frankie, meanwhile, takes the role of a Martian military commander (you can tell it's Mars because they used a red filter over the camera lens!) - maybe after playing "Potato Bug" in "Bikini Beach" he thought he was stretching his chops. Tommy Kirk is, not surprisingly, uneasy in his role as the Martian sent to Earth by Frankie to hang out with Annette and various other nubile females. Things are marginally improved by the antics of Buster Keaton, Dorothy Lamour appears long enough to sing a tune, and Elsa Lanchester does her patented airheaded-old-lady act to perfection. Harmless nostalgic fun, but whoever made this page, and thinks this movie is rated "R", is insane. Strictly G-rated stuff - it IS 1964, after all!

Oooohh, Annette Funicello in a science fiction flick . . . or maybe not. Annette plays your usual beach party girl, only this time instead of attracting young beach studs, she's attracting aliens from outer space. At least that's what happens when GoGo (Tommy Kirk), a Martian teenager, is sent to Earth. What a name, right?! And we all know there's only one reason Martians would come to earth: they must be planning an invasion. Zoinks! Will the Martians diabolical plan to invade Earth be foiled when GoGo falls for the cutest girl on the shore? You would think that would be enough of a plot right? No way! While Annette is making googoo eyes at GoGo, a group of teenagers are concocting a scheme to steal money from wealthy Aunt Wendy (Elsa Lanchester) who runs the local dress shop. That is absolutely horrid! Stealing money from the lady who provides you with your slick threads. But wait . . . there's more: the local motorcycle gang (because a teenage beach comedy wouldn't be the same without one) is out to get the volleyball team for leaving their sporty footprints on their beach. How can one movie be filled with such excitement? And what could all this have to do with the title "Pajama Party"? Just wait and watch the story go down for yourself. If your in a silly mood, this one will leave you even sillier!

This movie is an interesting twist on the "sand and surf" movies, but this time Tommy Kirk joins in on the fun as an alien visiting from another planet. His hope is to help his planet take over ours - that is, until he meets Annette Funicello's character. This movie includes most of the same supporting cast (including Harvey Lembeck) reprising their roles from the other "Beach Party" movies. One thing though, since Frankie Avalon only has a small cameo in the movie, the charismatic charm he brings to the "Beach Party" set feels like it's missing in this story. However, Annette sings some of her cutest songs, including "Stuffed Animals" as well as the theme, "Pajama Party". With those catchy, upbeat songs this movie is definitely a must-have.

While most "Beach Party" movies are included in the Frankie and Annette collection that MGM released, this film was not included in the set, however the DVD quality of "Pajama Party" is great, and matches the quality of the other "Beach Party" movies MGM released.

I would definitely recommend this for fans of the mid-1960s, Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk, Disney films (like "Mis-Adventures of Merlin Jones", or "The Shaggy Dog"), sand and surf movies, or anyone looking for an upbeat, fun movie.