Annette Funicello

Pajama Party

by user
June 11, 2016February 7, 2023

Pajama Party (1964) starring Annette Funicello, Don Rickles, Buster Keaton

In short, Pajama Party is an Annette Funicello beach party movie. But in addition to the gyrating young girls in bikinis,Pajama Party adds large amounts of clown-level zaniness as well. The basic story has 3 intertwining plots – a Martian invasion (led by a clean cut, inept Martian teenager and managed by Don Rickles), a beach party complete with teenage angst, and some inept crooks (including Buster Keaton as an American Indian, still wearing his traditional pork pie hat — with a feather in it). There’s a lot of humor in the movie, with slapstick that borders on the Looney Tunes. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it and hope you do as well.

by user
February 14, 2016June 12, 2022

Babes in Toyland (1961) starring Ray Bolger, Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands, Ed Wynn

I am a large fan of Laurel and Hardy’s March of the Wooden Soldier. It’s a wonderful children’s story for adults. Which, among other things, had a live-action version of Mickey Mouse appear. This was done with Walt Disney’s permission, since he and producer Hal Roach were close friends. In the same way, Walt Disney’s version of the story, Babes in Toyland had a comedy team impersonating Laurel and Hardy. And although I saw it many years ago as a child, I was eager to see it again as an adult.