Sid Sorokin has just been hired as superintendent of the Sleeptite Pajama Factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the union is pushing for a raise of 7½ cents per hour to bring them in line with the industry standard ("The Pajama Game"). The factory's owner, Mr. Hasler, thinks the raise is unnecessary.
Impatient to improve efficiency amid employee slackness ("Racing With the Clock"), Sid shoves a dawdling employee, who reports Sid to “the Grievance Committee,” claiming that Sid “beat him up.” When "Babe" Williams, a factory worker and chair of the Grievance Committee, comes to investigate the claims of abuse, Sid doesn’t take her seriously as an adversary: "You’re the cutest grievance committee I’ve ever had to deal with." A businesslike Babe instructs the employee to have the nurse examine him and write up a report. Babe later dismisses the matter as an exaggeration by the employee, who "doesn’t even have a bruise." The female employees mock Babe’s changed attitude, accusing her of being infatuated with the new supervisor, which Babe denies ("I’m not in Love At All").
Meanwhile, the factory's time study man, "Hinesy", is unable to get over his suspicions that his girlfriend Gladys, Hasler's secretary, is unfaithful to him. Mable, another office worker, presents various seemingly compromising but innocent scenarios to Hinesy to convince him that he must learn to trust his girlfriend ("I’ll Never Be Jealous Again").
Babe attempts to maintain a business attitude, but Sid complains that she keeps her distance and asks her for a date. Babe responds that they must remain in their roles as the grievance committee and management. Sid counsels himself to forget about his attraction to Babe ("Hey There").
At the company picnic ("Once-A-Year-Day") initially Babe again rejects Sid’s attentions. She relents after her defiance of Sid’s warning not to volunteer to have an apple knocked off her head during Hinesy’s knife-throwing act results in a near miss; Sid again warns Babe against stubborn defiance. Sid and Babe become a couple, with Sid declaring his love ("Small Talk"), but Babe worries that their roles in management and labor will drive them apart. She warns him that she will be fighting hard “for her side” during the upcoming negotiations for the 7½ cent raise. Nevertheless, Babe declares that she returns his love and they both are jubilant ("There Once Was a Man").
The workers stage a slow-down of work ("Racing With the Clock" reprise). When Babe sabotages the machinery, Sid fires her, ending their relationship.
Though fired, Babe continues to work on behalf of the union. Union workers hold a meeting on how to proceed ("Steam Heat"). They decide on more indirect sabotage, such as mismatching pajama pieces and improperly sewing on buttons. Sid visits Babe at home to convince her that their relationship can continue even if she no longer works at the factory; he is fighting for both their futures. Sid admits that he bluffed his way into the top management job, having just been a cutting room foreman previously. Babe remains determined to fight for the union and tries to talk herself out of her feelings for Sid ("Hey There" reprise).
Hoping to uncover Hasler's secrets, Sid takes Gladys on a date to the local hot spot ("Hernando's Hideaway"). In her drunken state, Gladys lends Sid the key to the locked account book. A jealous, drunken Hinesy chases Gladys with a knife, but Gladys forgives him, believing he would never truly hurt her, after Sid sets Hinesy straight.
Sid discovers that Hasler recorded the raise as having been instituted months earlier and has been pocketing the difference himself. Sid threatens to send the book to the board of directors if the raise is not paid immediately.
At the union meeting that evening, amid talk of a strike ("7½ Cents"), Sid arrives with Hasler, who announces he has agreed to the raise. When Babe realizes that Sid engineered the raise and that he has only been attempting to avert labor strife, she returns to him. Sometime later, the employees of Sleeptite put on a fashion show, with Babe and Sid, now married, sharing a single set of pajamas, Babe wearing the top and Sid the bottoms.
The principal cast of the Broadway musical repeated their roles for the movie, with the exception of Janis Paige, whose role is played by Doris Day; and Stanley Prager, whose role is played by Jack Straw.
As recounted in 2016 by Paige, the studio desired to use as many members of the Broadway cast as possible. But one of the leads had to be a movie star. She said that the male lead, played by Raitt, was originally offered to Frank Sinatra. Had he accepted the role, Paige said, she would have played the part that was given to Doris Day.[2]
In this film, the calendar behind Sid Sorokin's desk while he sings "Hey There" shows July 1954.
At the time of its release, it received a favorable review by Bosley Crowther of The New York Times. He compared the film favorably to the Broadway stage version, and said the film is "as good as it was on the stage, which was quite good enough for many thousand happy customers over a period of a couple of years. It is fresh, funny, lively and tuneful. Indeed, in certain respects—such as when they all go on the factory picnic—it is even more lively than it was on the stage."[4]
