El club del pijama

While none of them would qualify as brilliant film-making, this is easily the best of the drive-in "beach" movies produced by American International Pictures between 1963-67. This is the only beach movie I've ever sat all the way through without looking at my watch, and the IMDb rating of 3.0 it has as of today's date is unduly harsh.

One of the reasons Pajama Party is more enjoyable than the rest is the absence of Frankie Avalon. We only see the back of his head throughout the film, his character only being revealed in the closing segment. For once, Annette (I believe her character is called Connie is this particular outing) is not subjected to Frankie's rather sexist treatment; in the other films he expects her to be chaste and faithful to him alone while he looks at other women and studiously avoids any kind of committed relationship until the finale'. In Pajama Party, the Frankie character has never existed, and Connie instead falls in love with Go-Go, with the biggest obstacle in their relationship presented by the fact that Go-Go is a Martian sent on a scouting mission to precede the invasion of earth by Don Rickles and some other Martians up to no good. Tommy Kirk does pretty well with the awfully shallow part of Go-Go, his only weak point being the unfortunate ballad he has to sing in the convertible with Connie (driving down the highway with the top down, yet there is no wind or noise…!).

The entertainment value in these films today is their ability to provide us with escape into an easier, more innocent time. Those of you familiar with my Mrs. Astor reviews here on IMDb know this is usually my primary objective with any old movie. This film is one non-stop romp through an endless carefree teenage summer. The kids must fight for their right to party against invading Martians, con-artists, and of course quasi-Nazi Erick von Zipper and his Rat Pack, who in this film are outraged that the teens have left footprints on "their" beach (our writers must be running out of reasons to justify Von Zipper's existence by this point).

Guest stars Dorothy Lamour and Buster Keaton add much to the movie. Ms. Lamour is wonderful as the manager of the local dress shop. Mr. Keaton frequently appears in these films as an Indian, he has a brilliant scene here with the perfume counter girl, which can be attributed more to his fifty years of comedic work than any fit of genius that might have been borne by the writers of 1960's beach movies. The real spark of life in Pajama Party is brought by guest star Elsa Lanchester, always an absurd delight, here she is the aunt of the Jody McCrea character…he's always named Chunk or Hunk or Junk, in this one he's named Lunk. Our third set of bad guys, headed by the Maytag Repairman, are out to steal Aunt Wendy's millions, and she is a delightful airhead who manages to continually foil their plots without ever really being aware of their presence.

The film is further populated by the usual band of teens, all of the American International beach films have more or less the same cast, including Donna Loren, a singer far more talented than the material she is given, and Candy Johnson, who must surely be the most violent go-go dancer in the history of the world.

TRIVIA NOTE: It's interesting how a bit of trivia can get out into the movie fan community and be repeated by dozens of folk who apparently don't verify it first. While numerous sources credit Teri Garr's first movie appearance as being in the 1968 film "Head" starring The Monkees, she does in fact appear in 1964's Pajama Party. I recently heard TCM Host Ben Mankowitz state that Ms. Garr "appears just to the right of Annette Funicello in every major scene", a comment that I have also seen repeated verbatim on other IMDb reviews. Interesting, but untrue. Ms. Garr plays the second model in the fashion show sequence (which begins approximately 37 minutes into the film), but the character of Connie does not even arrive at the dress shop until the fashion show is over. Teri Garr can be seen dancing to Annette's right in the final musical number, Pajama Party, but this is hardly "appearing to Annette's right in every scene of the movie".

You may also spot Toni Basil. She is the girl in the red bikini in the first dance sequence, and the girl in the silver bikini at the fashion show. Slow it down, you can tell it's her pretty easy by the shape of her face.

In summation, if you're interested in beach movies or just want some fun post-Camelot escapist entertainment, Pajama Party is the best of the lot. It will keep you smiling and tapping your foot and rooting for those clean wholesome kids. I wished I could just hop into my giant yellow convertible and tool down to the beach for the summer without a care in the world.

"Beach Blanket Bingo" reigns as the best of AIP's "Beach Party" series, but "Pajama Party" takes the runner-up spot. True, there's no Frankie, but Tommy Kirk does fine as a teenaged alien trying to understand the ways of Earthlings (the plot was obviously inspired by "Visit to a Small Planet"). Annette has one of her best songs with the hilarious "Stuffed Animals" number. The often under-used Susan Hart looks terrific, especially when her dancing causes a toy volcano to erupt. In short, "Pajama Party" is a very entertaining piece of nostalgia. It's a shame that Tommy Kirk and Susan Hart were both wasted in the later lame series entry "Ghost in the Invisible Bikini".

I just watched this beach flick and I'm certain that the music in Rocky Horror was influenced by this awesome surf and skin flick. There's even a scene where Tommy Kirk has a "Transducer". The story is less than ridiculous and that makes it enjoyable camp from the summer in America before the Beatles. West Side Story it's not, but the dancing and music are so expertly snychronized you'll think the actors are computerized. Look for Buster Keaton as "Cowabunga", he steals the show!

This was what passed for entertainment when I was a teen. Speaking of which, I saw very few, if any, actual teens in this production. Did see the Maytag man though: this guy always leaves me in stitches for some reason. How well I remember his portrayal of Honest John in a segment of "Beverly Hillbillies". As to exactly why I remember this so well is well beyond me, I just do. Another highlight of this film was Don Rickles, one of my all time fave comics. But the ultimate high point of this or any of the sand and surf epics is none other than Eric Von and his cycle Ratz. They are without peer and I'll fight to the death over this belief. Ok, not to the death, but I do love Von Zipper. I have seen several of the beach pictures and this may be the zaniest one yet....you stupids!

GoGo (Tommy Kirk), a somewhat incompetent Martian agent, is sent to infiltrate Earth's teenagers in anticipation of an invasion from the Red Planet. Needless to say he promptly falls for Terran tart Connie (Annette Funicello, whose Disney-mandated bathing-suit is the most demure on the beach). This sci-fi-comedy, the fourth in AIPS popular 'beach' series, is full of scantly-dressed, energetically dancing youngsters (including a youthful Terri Garr), spontaneous singing, slapstick yucks, a touch of meta-humour (usually referring to the 'absent' Frankie Avalon), and an interesting secondary cast including silent-movie icon Buster Keaton (as Indian chief Rotten Eagle, a role that these days would be considered near blasphemous cultural appropriation, "Ugh!"), Dorothy Lamour (the sexy sarong-clad sidekick from the "Road to..." series) who has the best musical number (asking the classic generation-gap question 'Where Did I go Wrong?') and the lonely Maytag repairman himself, Jesse White, as the ridiculously named 'J. Sinister Hulk'. The barely existent plot makes little sense and serves primarily to set up comedic or terpsichorean set-pieces. The film also features the great Elsa Lanchester as a wealthy but ditsy dress-shop owner and a number of the usual beach-movie crowd (including Mr. Warmth himself, Don Rickles as 'Big Bang' a disgruntled Martian and Harvey Lembeck's brainless-biker Eric Von Zipper). The first part of the film is amusing in a goofy way but the story soon degenerates into a lengthy, time-killing, chase-sequence before climaxing at the titular party, a silly and not particularly funny series of predictable sight-gags and faux-teenage shenanigans. The 60's go-go style dancing is fun to watch but other than Lamour's song, the music (especially Annette and Tommy's duet) is unmemorable. Needful watching for all fans of beach movies and for obsessive sci-fi completists, otherwise, OK fluff for anyone in the mood to get nostalgic for a kinetic 1960s than never really existed. Kirk returned to Earth as a Martian in Larry Buchannan's penurious but evocatively entitled time-waster 'Mars Need Women' (1968).