Saturday, November 27, 2010

PAJAMA PARTY - Les Baxter - "Pajama Tops, Bikini Bottoms" (1964)

So what else could I follow Pyjama Girls and Sleeping Corpses with except another movie set on the coast, a surf and beach party movie in disguise as a Scientific Fictional "Pajama Party!"

"Pajama Party" is a sci-fi musical comedy beach movie that wiggles and shakes it's way along, with the help of Annette, Tommy Kirk, and whoever else Arkoff and Nicholson could find walking around the studio, to throw into the mix!

Jody McCrea as Big Lunk has the best line early on, when he says, "Hey guys, let's head to the beach for volleyball," and one of the other guys says, "...and leave the girls?" and Big Lunk comes back with, "Heck no, we need Vicki for setter!" Jody was in at least 6 'Beach Party' movies, and a couple of them, "Beach Party," and "Muscle Beach Party" stream for free at IMDB.com! What are you waiting for, there is no reason to worry about stuff like Korea, when we have Beach Party movies streaming 24/7!

Tommy Kirk is Go Go, and he's from outer space, Mars, the planet! Tommy wouldn't play a Martian again until 1967, when he would return as Dop, in the Larry Buchanan stinker, "Mars Needs Women!" Believe it or don't, Tommy's joined here by ulta classic, Elsa"The Bride Of Frankenstein"Lanchester as good ole Aunt Wendy!

A man we've written about many times before, Les Baxter gets credit for the original music, but the songs sung by Annette and Donna Loren are written by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner, who between the two of them wrote music for all the Beach Party movies, and Guy Hemric also wrote the music for "The Mini-Skirt Mob," and "Wild In The Streets," and was one of the pajama boys in this movie!

Susan Hart is Jilda! Her job is to look hot, and she's very good at it! Director Don Weis likes to juxtaposition Susan's slow and senuous dance style with the manic twisting of the other girls as a sight gag! All the guys would like to do a little juxtaposing with her themselves! Susan was in "The Slime People," and was 'The Ghost' in "The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini!"

Center stage we now have Pajama Girl Toni "Hey Mickey, You're So Fine" Basil, who is still working as a choreographer today!!

One of the weirdest things I have ever witnessed in my life was back in about 1971, in Alaska, after a grueling 3 or 4 hour drive down a potholed gravel and dirt road, Dave and I arrived at the lodge in Mount McKinley Park, and when we went in, the place was like a ghost town, although there were plenty of vehicles in the parking lot, there was nobody around! We surveyed the scene, and eventually found all the people downstairs watching "Beach Party!" It was surreal!

It's time for Donna Loren to sing a song about how nice it is to be young, with the help of The Nooney Rickett 4!! Rough life!! That's the unstoppable Candy Johnson over on the right as Candy!

Susan's back distracting the boy's again!!! You can also see more of Susan Hart and a lot of these other characters in "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine," where she plays the notorious Robot #11!

Time for every boy's favorite sweetheart dreamgirl Annette Funicello, who was still making Disney movies, so she was asked by Walt Disney if she would not wear a two piece bathing suit, so she could keep her image super squeaky clean! It looks like they chose to shoot Annette against the blue screen, instead of actually going to the beach. The ocean air probably curled her hair!

Tommy Kirk is such a great actor, and what a wild career, just for example, in between Go Go and Dop, Tommy had a close relationship with a monkey, had to deal with crazed giant teenagers, Dr. Goldfoot, and a ghost in an invisible bikini, on top of being given LSD to cure a Mother Goose obsession!

Eric Von Zipper and The Rat Pack multitasking as the bad guys and the extra comedy relief! Harvey Lembeck was Eric Von Zipper and the pack was rounded out with Alan Fife, Andy"Hill Street Blues"Romano, Bob Harvey, Linda Rogers, Alberta Nelson, and Jerry"The Stunt Man"Brutsche!

Aaah! How cute!! You know you wish you were a big stupid looking stuffed animal right about now!!

This little song and dance routine, entitled "Where Did I Go Wrong" was sung by Dorthy Lamour, and was also penned by Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner. That's Toni Basil again doing the dancing! Among the other names of note who appear in "Pajama Party" are Don Rickles, Jesse White, Buster Keaton, and Terri Garr!!! Be there or be square, you don't wanna be a Pajama Party Pooper!

2 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

oh for a love scene 'tween Toni Basil & Annette!...

Retro Hound said...

Great review and great screen caps too!

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