I've just been listening to
"The Man Who Invented Love" again - a beautiful song, beautifully sung. Listen to it if you haven't already - and even if you have.
Derald Hendry wrote:
"Richard Adler, songwriter for the songs for this play and movie wrote in his autobiography: YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART that his experiences with Doris Day were divine: "I was actually trembling as I approached the Warner Brothers lot on the first full morning of work. But once I was there, time seemed to collapse. It was home; it was natural; it was almost easy. The film was already deeply into pre-production; Mr Abbott was working with Stanley Donen, who would be co-directing the film; Bob Fosse was recreating the dances; the film was adhering very closely to the original.
"My task was to train the ensemble and Doris Day, who was playing the Janis Paige role. A mass of freckles and beauty and good spirits, she was a genuinely sweet person, and a joy to work with. She had an agile mind, and a sure musical sense, and teaching the songs to her was a breeze.
"It was so natural that a couple of day into rehearsal, I thought why not give her a new song, one I'd write myself? It would help her, help me, and possibly help my future. So, I sat down with my tape recorder and then with a musical secretary, and wrote a ballad for her called 'The Man Who Invented Love.' She loved it. It lay in her range, it had nice lyrics and what was most important, it was right for both her and the character. I played it for Mr. Abbott and Stanley Donen, and they liked it, too. It was a sure bet for the film, a breakthrough for me. My career was slowly re-engaging its gears.
What I didn't know at the time, nor did anyone else, was the ultimate fate of the song. It would never be heard. It would end up on the proverbial cutting room floor." Now, what Mr. Adler didn't know is that when the DVD version of "The Pajama Game" was released, this "lost" number was included as an "extra" feature, and it is lovely indeed! It WAS finally rescued from the cutting room floor.
Derald Hendry
http://www.dorisday.net/the_pajama_game.html
Mrs Norman Maine's Review: The Pajama Game:
The story of The Pajama Game is adapted from a novel by writer Richard Bissell, Seven and a half cents, which details labor problems in a midwest pajama factory and the people who get caught up on both the management and the labor sides. Bissell and George Abbott, the grand old man of the Broadway musical, turned this unpromising subject into a kicky comic musical which uses the factory setting to set up a number of different love stories, both dramatic and comic. The film opens with Sid Sorokin (John Raitt, reprising his Broadway role), coming to work at the Sleep-Tite pajama factory as the new superintendent. He's an old union man who's bluffed his way into a management job. After a mild altercation, he meets Babe Williams (Doris Day), head of the union grievance committee, and is immediately smitten. While he pursues Babe, who recognizes the problems they'll have, being on the opposite sides of the labor dispute, the plant's efficiency expert, Hines (Eddie Foy Jr.), has a comic romance with the bookkeeper Gladys (Carol Haney), egged on by Sid's secretary Mabel (Reta Shaw). When management refuses to grant labor their seven and a half cent an hour wage increase, labor wants to go on strike, there's problems on the shop floor; complications ensue but, as this is a fifties musical, everything works out all right in the end.
The film is a faithful adaptation of the stage show. Several minor musical numbers have been trimmed and the lyrics and relationships cleaned up somewhat to meet the Hayes code. With the exception of Doris Day, who replaced Janis Paige, the leads are from the original stage cast. The film has been opened up slightly to take advantage of the film medium, but even still, most of the numbers are staged very similarly to the way they were on Broadway. Steam Heat, for instance, is danced by the same three dancers who played the show on stage for years and uses the stage Fosse choreography. With the angular postures, finger snaps, and derby hats, all of the elements of Fosse's unique style come together here, even at this early time in his career. Another famous number, Hernando's Hideaway, uses the same zippo lighter tricks that made it so effective on the stage. The music for this song will be familiar to all viewers as it's used regularly as the quintessential schmaltzy tango. The most famous song, Hey There, an unattributed lift from Mozart, remains lyrical and lovely and is well sung both by Raitt and by Day in their seperate choruses.
While the film is not as well known as some other contemporaneous musical films, it's good fun and an interesting record of stage musicals of the period. It's point of view on relationships between the sexes in the workplace is severely dated; the whole main love story could be construed as sexual harrassment by modern definitions. But, as played by Raitt and Day, the characters are strong enough to keep the more objectionable elements at bay. It's also one of the most colorful of musical films. The art department went wild with fabrics for the pajama factory. The costumes and sets also make use of a riotous Technicolor palette.
The DVD contains the film in widescreen with a reasonable sound and picture transfer. There are the usual cast and crew listings and trailer. As a bonus, there is an additional song, written especially for the film, The Man Who Invented Love, sung by Day which was not used in the final cut.
Pajama cutting. Pajama sewing. Pajama steaming. Neon signs. Poopsie hunting. Gratuitous hill rolling. Polka in the park. Knife throwing act. Drunk bookkeeper. Gratuitous beer guzzling. Parking lot rally. Passing trains. Gratuitous petrified bat.
http://www.dealtime.com/xPR-The_Pajama_ ... 2373210756
