20th Century Fox had already made it big adapting big Hollywood musicals to the silver screen. In the 1950's they offered up Oklahoma, South Pacific and The King and I, each of them bringing in big box office. On the other side of Hollywood MGM was still the dream factory turning out musicals with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. It was only a matter of time before Warner Brothers started turning out musicals of their own.
The Warner Brothers musicals are unique in two ways. First of all the studio tried to retain the original cast that made them a hit on Broadway, and secondly they all have a look about them that gives them the appearance of being "staged". The films retained theatrical type lighting effects and the sets definitely look like studio back lots rather than realistic on location shooting. With this effective style Warner Brothers had five big musical hits; The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, The Music Man, Gypsy and the biggest of all My Fair Lady.
The Pajama game opened on Broadway in 1954 and the rights were purchased by Warner Brothers and the film version was released in 1957. Doris day, at the peak of her career, replaced Broadway star Janis Paige, but the rest of the principal cast reprised their roles for the film.
The film also retained the exciting choreography by newcomer Bob Fosse. The directing was shared by Broadway director George Abbott and film director Stanley Donen. By combining all this Broadway talent with Hollywood know how Warner Bros. had one of the most successful stage to movie transitions in Broadway history. So successful that the creative team immediately went to work repeating the success with Damn Yankees.
At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars
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