Review #3: Monsters Crash the Pajama Party (1965) - Short film

While still a short, this film  is substantially longer than the previous shorts I've reviewed, clocking  in at about 31 minutes. Goofy to the extreme, this fun short was, for the most part, awarding the view. Without further ado, I introduce Monsters Crash the Pajama Party (1965).

Source: YouTube

Length: 31 minutes

Number of Ratings from IMDb: 159

Country of Origin: USA

Director: David L. Hewitt [The Wizard of Mars, Monsters Crash the Pajama Party, Gallery of Horror]

The DVD Cover, from Something Weird

Original theatrical advertisement

Above are some old advertisements for this short when it was playing in theaters. I feel they've quite a classy look about them. I wasn't alive in the 1960's by a long shot, but I can still feel the nostalgia they provide.

The short begins with showing the house in which the film takes place:

A bit dark, but you get the idea. I quite like the obviously fake trees to the left side, personally. Already, this sets the stage for what we're about to witness. But we can't get started until we hear from our host, and so we do.

The Mad Doctor (as clearly stated) talks to us, the audience, for a good two minutes. He references the same thing the advertisements do above: real monsters will come out of the screen and go after the audience (which many theaters participated in back when this came out). A gimmick worthy of the great William Castle, if I do say so myself.

After he's finished speaking comes the most trying portion of the film. While a voice-over is introducing the cast and crew (no names come up on screen, oddly enough), gorillas represent some of those different members, as such:

Even so, the camerawork will be better than The Blair With Project.

No wonder the lighting in this films seems to be lacking.

At first, this is mildly amusing, but problematically, it goes on for over four minutes, so it gets old quick. If this portion had been shorted a bit, it would have been far more acceptable.

But at seven minutes in, the film kicks off, and we meet two men scoping out the house before the events of tonight begin.

On the left, Professor Williams, of a local university, and the right, Lieutenant Hudson. They know that trouble will take place here tonight, because it's pledge week over at the college, and this house is a popular destination for sleepover initiations. Everything is quiet now, but they make plans to come back later. They leave, but not before a "No Trespassing" sign is placed on the door. It won't work, of course, but you've got to give them credit for trying something.

Not before long, another group of people come it, this time being ten students (five females, five males) from the school.

The girls have to stay the night - the guys are just helping the girls with their luggage, though they intending to get in on the action too, at a later time (take that how you may). They attempting to find the most suitable room to set up their temporary place of slumber, and come up with this sunny location.

On the upside, they have a carpet.

The girls set up, and the guys attempt to light the fireplace to ensure warmth. Alas, the fireplace is blocked off, and they can't do anything about it. Without a job to fulfill, they say their goodbyes for the night (or so the girls think).

The girls - names unknown

The guys have no intention, however, to wait 11 hours to see them again. They plan on going into town, picking up some monster masks, and coming back, preferably at midnight, to scare the living heebie jeebies out of the girls.

The guys - names also unknown

To the girls' credit, however, they realize the boys' plan about 20 minutes after they leave. It wasn't difficult: all night the guys had been acting strangely and kept mention that the Witching Hour, in which the haunting would be at it's worst, was at Midnight. Perhaps they thought they were being sly, but the girls now know that they'll be coming back to scare them, and as much as they don't want to admit it to themselves, they sort of want to see the guys again, as they're feeling lonely.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the party currently chatting amongst themselves upstairs, below is the Mad Doctor himself, his gorilla assistant, and Draculina, a pale, female vampire, who admittedly adds absolutely nothing to the story. They know they have visitors, and our Mad Doctor sends his (seemingly) drunk gorilla upstairs to snatch one of the girls for an experiment of his. The gorilla succeeds.

We then go back to the Doctor, who is seen working with some liquid in a beaker, and that is followed by one of my favorite scenes in this short, mostly due to it's utter randomness.

We're with you, girl in blue - we don't understand the
outburst either.

One of the girls stands up suddenly, and proclaims, "Well, I'm going to sleep in the chair!" in a relatively pouty voice.The girls laugh, and we go back to the Mad Doctor, and see his mad organizational skills.

The definition of classy labeling.

The girl kidnapped by the gorilla is brought downstairs and strapped to a table. Before we see her fate, however, we get a quick update on the guys: They're currently switching a tire, and one of them notices the time is midnight. 

"We won't get there until 1:00 or 1:30," one of them muses aloud, saddened that he won't have a chance to scare the girls sooner.

While the Mad Doctor is pulling a lever, causing the lights in the house to fluctuate, the four remaining girls take notice.

They first comment on the lights, and the Queen of the Chair believes that the guys are finally back, and are trying to scare them. Another one wonders why Sue isn't back yet. (At last - we learn one of the girl's names). The girls then decide to split up to find the boys, and in the process, we learn three more names: Shelley, Ann, and Nora. 

All the while, our Doctor is still conducting his experiments on Sue. And we now know his ultimate plan with her.

To turn her into... a gorilla. Why? We never learn, though perhaps he wanted a partner for his assistance, whom he lovingly calls "Big G." He accidentally miscalculated his settings, however, and the new gorilla girl is stronger than he had anticipated. She breaks loose of the ropes, and turns on the Doctor.

Big G, who is watching this processions, deems it best to not get involved and save his creator, but to state his opinion on the scene going on before his eyes.

For the next few minutes, the girls look around for both Sue and the guys, who are still miles from the house, with tire trouble still. More of the girls almost get abducted, but they are all near misses. He eventually catches them all, and the girls are chained up by the wrists in the basement.

From here on out, the movie gets rather convoluted, as two more characters are introduced (a hunchback and a werewolf-type guy), as though they'd been shown previously with the Mad Doctor. Luckily, there's a mere eight minutes left, so it's nothing to get terribly confused over.

The boys finally arrive back at the house, and saw the monsters drag the girls away. Deciding to help out the girls, and to scare the guys who abducted them, they all put their masks on and go downstairs to confront the Mad Doctor.

The last important character appears, and she saves the night.

Meet Miss Petrie, who lives half a mile down from the house in which all of this mayhem is taking place. She calls Professor Williams, letting him know about all the kids there, and wanting him to prevent the ruckus currently going on. And then this genius line is said:

Miss Petrie: Of course I know they're from the college. I read ahead in the script.

Williams calls up his pal, Lieutenant Hudson, and they make their way to the house. Will they get there in time?

I'll leave that up to you to find out. But as this is more campy in nature, you'd do well to believe that all comes out fine.

This 31-minute short is chock-fill of campy moments. I do wish the beginning had been shortened by some extent, but I cannot deny the large amounts of fun audiences must have had with this back when it was in theaters, especially when, toward the end, the monsters "come out of the screen" and beginning attacking audience members. Plus, it had some great quotes.

Context: All the kids are screaming wildly and running away from the basement. Our lieutenant sees and hears them, and yells:

Lieutenant: Hey, you kids, stop! Halt, in the name of the law! 

Classy. If one person's ever listened to a demand like that, I'll tattoo it on my arm.

So overall, it's a relatively decent and fun short. I'd recommend watching it if you're into the more campy material of the 1960's - otherwise, it may be a tad too goofy for you to enjoy. Kudos on the set, by the way - I thought it looked pretty dang good.

My rating: 6.5/10


Here is the DVD of this short and other extras, from Something Weird Videos.

Lastly, here is the IMDb page, should you wish to learn more.

I hope this finds everyone well,
Michael


Next time, on Beyond the Darkened Door:

The first horror film (short) ever produced, and I'm not talking about 1896's Le manoir du diable. To find out more, please tune in next time.