Pajama Party (1964) Actors, filmmakers and technical crew members must have loved working for American International.....
Because AIP would usually roll a full list of credits at the beginning of each of their cheaply made quickies......and then roll 'em all over again at the movie's end.
We sincerely doubt this policy came from AIP's great love for all the people who toiled on their movies. More likely, it was an easy-peasy way to further pad out the running times of their films, which even with all those credits, rarely went over 85 minutes.
While surf 'n sand antics are minimal here, you can consider this movie another official entry in AIP's popular (and now both beloved and mocked) 'Beach Party' series.......in which perpetually fun lovin', singin' and dancin' teens crossed paths with ancient comedians left over from vaudeville as well as a low-comedy spoof of a 'Wild One' motorcycle gang.
Unlike Roger Corman's AIP films, which provided a host of young future filmmaking superstars to gain entry into studio productions, the 'Beach Party' movies were written and directed by aging, C-level warhorse writers and directors.
Which is why these films look like they were created by people who never had any actual contact with teenagers in their lives.......and whose sense of humor never progressed past 1930's slapstick.
Though usually fronted by Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon as romantic sweeties, Avalon here is relegated to a minor cameo role as a Martian overlord seeking to invade earth with the help of his aide, played by insult comic Don Rickles.
Yes, you correctly heard the word 'Martian' right. The Red Planet invaders dispatch Gogo' one of their minions (Tommy Kirk, another Disney refugee). Gogo's tasked with paving the way for a Martian army to enter the earth beamed down into a clothes closet ( a la "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe") We've no idea why Gogo first appears dressed up like a doorman at a swanky apartment building......
What follows next is the usual Beach Party pageant of bikini girls and their guys twistin' the night away, much diving into pools, the usual dumb hijinks from ancient villains (Jesse White, Buster Keaton, the songs that sound composed by coma patients, and the required appearance of the relentlessly unfunny Harvey Lembeck as chopper hood Eric Von Zipper.
The amount of fun you can extract from this movie depends on how much nostalgic affection you hold in your heart for this particular genre and its participants, Since the humor quotient here never rises above third grade level (or that of Jody McCrae's resident village idiot character), small children might find some amusement in this stuff, like a live action version of a Nickelodeaon cartoon show.
For BQ, we did get a major kick out of the some of the dance numbers, which feature a young Terri Garr and a young Toni Basil furiously twitching themselves into a frenzy......and some all too brief appearances by that sultry brunette Susan Hart, who'd soon marry AIP boss James H. Nicholson. You've gotta love a gal whose hip thrusts set off a prop volcano to erupt.....
That memorable trio is the only reason we'll boogie up 2 stars (**) for this minor entry in the Beach Party canon......then again, they were all minor entries.
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