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IMDbPro

Damn Yankees

  • 19581958
  • ApprovedApproved
  • 1h 51m
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
Home Video Trailer from Warner Home Video
Play trailer2:26
1 Video
16 Photos
ComedyMusicalRomance
A frustrated fan of the hopeless Washington Senators makes a pact with the Devil to help the baseball team win the league pennant.A frustrated fan of the hopeless Washington Senators makes a pact with the Devil to help the baseball team win the league pennant.A frustrated fan of the hopeless Washington Senators makes a pact with the Devil to help the baseball team win the league pennant.
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
3.2K
YOUR RATING
  • Directors
    • George Abbott
    • Stanley Donen
  • Writers
    • George Abbott(screenplay by)
    • Douglass Wallop(based upon the play "Damn Yankees" book by)
  • Stars
    • Tab Hunter
    • Gwen Verdon
    • Ray Walston
  • Directors
    • George Abbott
    • Stanley Donen
  • Writers
    • George Abbott(screenplay by)
    • Douglass Wallop(based upon the play "Damn Yankees" book by)
  • Stars
    • Tab Hunter
    • Gwen Verdon
    • Ray Walston
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 62User reviews
    • 23Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 8 nominations total

    Videos1

    Damn Yankees!
    Trailer 2:26
    Watch Damn Yankees!

    Photos16

    Jean Stapleton in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Russ Brown, Nathaniel Frey, James Komack, and Albert Linville in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Tab Hunter, Elizabeth Howell, and Jean Stapleton in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Ray Walston, Tab Hunter, and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Ray Walston, Tab Hunter, and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Tab Hunter in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)
    Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees (1958)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Tab Hunter
    Tab Hunter
    • Joe Hardy
    Gwen Verdon
    Gwen Verdon
    • Lola
    Ray Walston
    Ray Walston
    • Mr. Applegate
    Russ Brown
    • Benny Van Buren
    Shannon Bolin
    Shannon Bolin
    • Mrs. Meg Boyd
    Nathaniel Frey
    Nathaniel Frey
    • Smokey
    James Komack
    James Komack
    • Rocky
    Rae Allen
    Rae Allen
    • Gloria Thorpe
    Robert Shafer
    • Joe Boyd
    Jean Stapleton
    Jean Stapleton
    • Sister Miller
    Albert Linville
    Albert Linville
    • Vernon
    Roy Sievers
    • Joe Hardy - #2 - Washington Senators
    • (archive footage)
    William Adams
    William Adams
    • Yankees Team Owner
    • (uncredited)
    Phil Arnold
    Phil Arnold
    • Newsstand Proprietor
    • (uncredited)
    Robert Banas
    Robert Banas
    • Baseball Player
    • (uncredited)
    Benjie Bancroft
    • Trial Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    John Barton
    • Baseball Game Spectator
    • (uncredited)
    Yogi Berra
    Yogi Berra
    • Self - New York Yankee
    • (archive footage)
    • (uncredited)
    • Directors
      • George Abbott
      • Stanley Donen
    • Writers
      • George Abbott(screenplay by) (based upon the play "Damn Yankees" book by)
      • Douglass Wallop(based upon the play "Damn Yankees" book by) (from novel "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant")
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Damn Yankees

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Gwen Verdon's dance partner in "Who's Got the Pain?" is none other than Bob Fosse, who was restaging his stage choreography for the film, and took the opportunity to step into the number, which became a rare and treasured opportunity for Broadway fans to see the artist and his muse perform together. Verdon and Fosse married in 1960.
    • Goofs
      After the dance scene (The Mambo) with Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon , as they walk offstage, Joe says "Good job, Fosse") almost inaudibly.
    • Quotes

      Smokey: Hey Linvy, what's a three letter word for "a sticky substance"?

      [Linville thinks for a moment and then points to a wad of gum in his mouth]

      Smokey: Spit? No, that's four.

    • Connections
      Edited into Merely Marvelous: The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon (2019)
    • Soundtracks
      Six Months Out of Every Year
      Music by Richard Adler

      Lyrics by Jerry Ross

      Performed by Shannon Bolin, Robert Shafer, and chorus

    User reviews62

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    You Gotta Have Heart!
    This musical, when revived about a decade ago with Jerry Lewis as Applegate, was referred to as a fable for the Eisenhower Years. It is set in a faintly comfortable period (once the McCarthyite Persecutions were finished), because the concept of this musical was the preoccupation of the American public with the national pastime of baseball, and it's singular domination (between 1947 and 1962) by the New York Yankees. Although the Yankees had had other periods of greatness, with Ruth, Gehrig, "Murderers Row" in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they had to share the domination of the World Series with other teams in that period (the Philadelphia Athletics, the Detroit Tigers, and the St. Louis Cardinals, to name three). But the Yankees in this period started with Joe DiMaggio, entered into the period dominated by Mickey Mantel, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Don Larsen, Roger Maris, and presided over by Casey Stengel. They did not always win (one memorable defeat was by their perennial enemy the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955), but they won so often that to non-baseball fans it was monotonous to follow the sports news: you knew what should finally happen.

    So the background of this baseball era is important to understand the musical (one of the few times the actual historical background of the time the musical was created becomes that important). Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) is a fanatical baseball lover and fan of the woebegone Washington Senators (the saying for many years about the Senators was, "First in war, first in peace, and last in their league."). The team had only one great moment: in 1924 they won the World Series when the team had one of baseball's greatest players on it - Walter Johnson. But it never really was in competition again after that. But Boyd is a fan, and he makes the mistake of being willing to sell his soul to allow the Senators a chance to win the series again. Enter Mr. Applegate (a.k.a. the Devil) played fiendishly well by Ray Walston. He offers Joe a contract that will make Joe the greatest baseball player of all time - and lead to the world series - in return for his soul. Hesitant at first, Joe agrees. He is transformed into Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter), and proceeds to try to join the Senators (with Applegate as his agent).

    The Devil can never be trusted in any agreement. Applegate hopes to cause a wave of hope and hysteria by the anti-Yankee baseball public, letting Joe lead his team to the World Series. He plans to pull the rug from underneath the team at the final moment. Unfortunately Joe is a good salesman on his own, and has insisted on an escape clause for himself. Applegate has to accept it for the sake of his own plans. The escape clause is there because Joe loves his wife Meg (Sharon Bolin) and does not want her to be hurt. So Applegate decides to recruit his best female agent, Lola (Gwen Vernon) to vamp Joe and make him forget Meg. But Joe is too faithful, and succeeds in overcoming Lola's "irrisistable" personality (as she sings, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets" - except here). Lola, shaken by the experience, becomes a type of groupie for Joe - and eventually starts a mini-revolt on her own against Applegate.

    The score of the show is memorable. Besides the key song "Heart" (sung by the Washington team players), and Lola's "Whatever" number, there is also "Two Lost Souls", "Goodbye Old Girl" and Walston's wonderful "Those were the good old days!" (when he fondly recalls all the tragedies he created in the history of mankind - including the day Jack the Ripper was born). Walston was not nominated for any awards for the movie performance*, but his Applegate is one of his best film performances, with his Gillis in SOUTH PACIFIC. He had played both on Broadway first, so we are lucky to have his film performances here.

    *(But won the Tony Award for the role on stage.)

    Stanley Donan co-directed this film with George Abbott. Abbott was usually a stage director (he had done the musical on Broadway). There is a moment when it is apparent that he is directing. There is a small dance done by one of the three ball players in the "Heart" number, and the close-up of the player as he smiles shyly and steps forward is out of place in the film - but would have worked on stage.
    helpful•10
    0
    • theowinthrop
    • Feb 5, 2006

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 4, 1959 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • What Lola Wants
    • Filming locations
      • Wrigley Field - 42nd Place & Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Warner Bros.
      • A George Abbott and Stanley Donen Production
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 51 minutes
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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