Damn Yankees! (1958)

Directors:

George Abbott
Stanley Donen

Writers:

Douglass Wallop (book)
George Abbott (play) ...

Release Date:

6 March 1959 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Sport

Tagline:

It's a picture in a million! Starring that girl in a million, the red-headed darling of the Broadway show, Gwen Verdon!

Plot:

Film adaptation of the George Abbott Broadway musical about a Washington Senators fan who makes a pact...

Plot Keywords:

Heart | Lola | Love Affair | Husband Wife Relationship | Missing Person

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Tab Hunter	...	Joe Hardy
Gwen Verdon	...	Lola
Ray Walston	...	Mr. Applegate
Russ Brown	...	Benny Van Buren
Shannon Bolin	...	Mrs. Meg Boyd
Nathaniel Frey	...	Smokey
James Komack	...	Rocky
Rae Allen	...	Gloria Thorpe
Robert Shafer	...	Joe Boyd
Jean Stapleton	...	Sister Miller
Albert Linville	...	Vernon
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Adams	...	Yankees team owner

Also Known As:

What Lola Wants (UK)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Right after the mambo number, as the male dancer (choreographer Bob Fosse) leaves the stage, the Joe Hardy character shakes the dancer's hand and says what sounds like, "Great work, Fosse!"

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the time depicted, major-league baseball players almost never had jersey numbers higher than the 50s... yet several players have numbers in the 60s and 60s, a practice rare until the 1980s. High numbers on a major league uniform ordinarily indicated someone invited to spring training who had little chance of making the club... and if such a player did make the club (possible with the usually-dreadful Washington Senators), the player got a lower number.

Quotes:

Ballplayers: So what the heck's the use of cryin'? / Why should we curse? / We gotta get better / 'cause we can't get worse!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The O'Reilly Factor: (2007-12-13)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

A Little Brains, A Little Talent

Good, soul-searching musical.

This is another film which would probably be better rated if it wasn't so slavishly compared to its stage original. It does its job just fine, thank you, but you must remember that stage and film are two different media in terms of what is allowed to be shown to the masses in the first place. In the conservative, postwar 50's there was very little controversy shown (or allowed to be shown) in the film and TV media; a Faustian book made into a film musical probably scared the Hays moral office to death! That said, the Abbott-Donen collaboration does a more than competent job of telling the story, and scores an extra base hit in my opinion by retaining most of the Broadway cast of the show in the first place. The casting rumors are legendary: I've read that the studio tried to get Cyd Charisse and possibly even Marilyn Monroe for Lola (assuring box-office returns), but the producers were smart enough to know that the role needed a real dancer-singer-actress combination. In short, it needed Gwen Verdon exclusively. And it got her. If you're still not convinced, take a second look at the exquisite midnight cafe' number, "Two Lost Souls."