Pajama Party (film)

Plot

Teen aged Martian intelligence officer 006, named Gogo (Tommy Kirk), is sent to Earth wearing an usher's uniform to prepare the way for a Martian invasion. The first earthling he meets, Aunt Wendy (Elsa Lanchester), is an eccentric widow who runs a dress shop. She has Gogo, now calling himself George, get dressed in a swimsuit and sends him to the beach. There he meets her nephew, Big Lunk (Jody McCrea), who enjoys volleyball but has little interest in romance, which is frustrating for his girlfriend Connie (Annette Funicello).

Meanwhile, Aunt Wendy's shady neighbor, J. Sinister Hulk (Jesse White), and his gang (with Buster Keaton as Chief Rotten Eagle and Bobbi Shaw as the Swedish Helga) concoct a scheme to separate Aunt Wendy from her cash. Meanwhile, Eric von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his motorcycle gang, the Rat Pack want to get revenge against the beach teenagers. George and Connie fall for each other, while Big Lunk is attracted to Helga, and for the fourth time as in many films, a giant fight breaks out at the end.

Music

Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner wrote all the songs heard in the film, and several melodies were picked up and used for the film's score by composer Les Baxter. The music supervisor was Al Simms.

Annette Funicello performs "It's That Kind of Day", with the cast and also sings "Stuffed Animal" as well as the title track.

Funicello and Tommy Kirk sing "There Has to Be a Reason"; Dorothy Lamour sings "Where Did I Go Wrong"; Donna Loren sings "Among the Young."

The Los Angeles-based band The Nooney Rickett 4 (who appeared in Columbia's beach party film, Winter A Go-Go the following year) play backup for "Among the Young", and are shown playing backup for "Pajama Party." The band also performs an instrumental version of "Among the Young" in the film - entitled "Beach Ball" - and are shown performing an instrumental of "It's That Kind of Day."

Reception

The Los Angeles Times said "AIP's stock company puts on a frantic, funny show. Individual performances are standard for this type of picture."

The popularity of the film saw Buster Keaton appear in a number of AIP movies before his death.

Don Weis, Heyward and Kirk collaborated on another AIP beach party film which was actually a pajama party movie, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.

Legacy

A sequence in the 1996 film That Thing You Do! makes an overt reference to the Nooney Rickett 4's saxophone-heavy Beach Ball scene in Pajama Party, as well as to the beach party genre in general. The band in the film, The Wonders, mime a live performance of an instrumental song during the filming of a beach party film titled Weekend at Party Pier. The film is referred to as a "Rick & Anita film" (the AIP films are often called "Frankie & Annette films"), and includes a Deadhead/Bonehead character called "Goofball." The four-man Wonders band - including the guitarist now playing a saxophone - are seen playing a song on an elevated wooden stage surrounded by a wildly dancing crowd in various bathing suit attire, as in Pajama Party. Although in That Thing You Do! the Wonders are being forced by the studio to pretend they are a band called "Cap'n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters," in reality all acts performing in the AIP beach party films appeared as themselves.