Starring Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, and Russ Brown
Directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen
Music by Richard Adler; Lyrics by Jerry Ross
Our second baseball musical this week throws the focus not only back on the game, but those who love it and cheer it on from home. Damn Yankees started as a 1954 novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. It became an even more successful Broadway musical in 1955. Warners brought in the entire original cast, replacing the leading man with up-and-coming star Hunter, along with director George Abbott. Since Abbott knew more about stage directing than film directing, they hired Donen to help make it look more cinematic. How does this Faustian baseball fantasy look today? Let's begin at the home of middle-aged couple Joe (Robert Schafer) and Meg (Shannon Bolin) Boyd, just in time to see Joe screaming as his beloved Washington Senators lose yet again, and find out...
The Story: Joe is such a die-hard Senators fan, he claims he'd sell his soul for them to win the pennant. No sooner did he make this rash claim than a man named Mr. Applegate (Walston) appears. He tells Joe he can give him the power to win the pennant for the Senators, if he sells him his soul and leaves his wife for the season. Joe agrees to it, letting Applegate turn him into the much younger Joe Hardy (Hunter), but adds an escape clause that will allow him to return to his wife after the season's over.
Joe is an instant success with the ailing Senators and their fans, but he misses his wife badly and even takes a room in his home so he can be near her. Applegate sends his seductress Lola (Verdon) to tempt Joe into straying. When that doesn't work, Applegate plants a phony news story that Joe is corrupt. It'll take help from all of Joe's fans and the team that relies on him to keep him out of jail and show him that, no matter how much he loves baseball, he'd really rather be hitting a home run with his wife.
The Song and Dance: Other than cutting a few songs and revising some lyrics, this is one of the few Broadway shows of the 50's and 60's to make it to the screen almost as it was in the theater. Verdon's vamp routine may be a bit much, but she has more fun reminiscing about old times and naughty doings with Walston and in quieter moments with Hunter. Bolin is touching as Joe's neglected wife, who first wishes he'd pay attention to her and not the ball game, then wonders where he went to. Jean Stapleton had one of her earliest roles as a neighbor of the Boyds who becomes one of Joe Hardy's biggest supporters. Extra points for the outdoor shooting that included footage from several real vintage stadiums, including the Los Angeles version of Wrigley Field and Washington's Griffith Stadium.
Also, I do appreciate that they made the tenacious sportswriter a woman at a time when female journalists were frequently still consigned to the society or lifestyle pages.
Favorite Number: We kick off with Meg and other wives in a unique diamond split screen lamenting how they lose their husbands to baseball "Six Months Out of Every Year." Manager Benny Van Buren (Russ Brown) gives his discouraged team a pep talk by insisting they gotta have "Heart" to play better. Sportswriter Gloria Thorpe (Rae Allen) declares Joe Hardy to be "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo" and baseball's newest sensation.
Applegate brings Lola in, and she assures him she'll have no trouble seducing this rube. All it takes is "A Little Brains, A Little Talent," and a lot of hip-wiggling. She tries everything she can, including a stripping routine and ending up in his lap, to get Joe to stray. She may think that "Whatever Lola Wants," she gets...but Joe remains faithful to his wife. Verdon does better performing a terrific mambo with choreographer Bob Fosse (whom she later married) to "Who Got the Pain?" at the tribute show for Joe. Disgusted with all the love going around, Applegate reminisces about how "Those Were the Good Old Days" when people were wicked and souls were far easier to gather. Lola and Joe get drunk in a nightclub together after the trial, claiming they're "Two Lost Souls," then getting other lost souls at the bar to join them in a raucous routine.
Trivia: Damn Yankees was one of the biggest Broadway musicals of the mid-50's, lasting three years in its original run. It proved nearly as successful as a TV musical in 1967 with Lee Remick as Lola and Phil Silvers as Applegate and in a 1996 revival with Bebe Neuwirth as Lola and first Victor Garber, then Jerry Lewis as Applegate. Neither the original nor the revival did well in London, barely making it a few months.
Fans of vintage Washington DC baseball know this is based after real-life. There was a team called the Washington Senators, and they really were terrible for most of their existence, including in 1958. Indeed, they finally gave up in Washington two years later and moved to Minnesota, where they're now known as the Minnesota Twins.
There's currently talks for a remake with Jim Carrey as Applegate and Jake Gyllenhaal as Joe Hardy.
What I Don't Like: First of all, let's discuss Hunter. While I disagree with Abbott about him not looking like an athlete, I do think he was stiff and a little dull for most of the movie. He was also only a fair singer and not a dancer, prompting the elimination of Joe's two major ballads ("Near You" and "A Man Doesn't Know") and keeping him on the fringes of most of the numbers.
It's easy to tell which director was in charge of which numbers. Most of the film is shot like a play and can be pretty static, especially in scenes where people are just talking. There are some numbers, though, notably "Two Lost Souls" and "Shoeless Joe," that try to do more with the camera. Those were likely Donen's doing. Donen was said to have worked better with the actors, too, which may be why people seem to perk up during those scenes.
The Big Finale: If not a home run, this is still a solid hit to the outfield for fans of the stage show, Verdon, Fosse, or baseball.
Home Media: Easily found on disc from the Warner Archives and streaming It's currently free at Tubi and Amazon Prime.
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