Damn Yankees

The superb Gwen Verdon sings and dances and mugs through this very good adaptation of the smash Broadway musical. Verdon is a cross between Shirley MacLaine and Carol Burnett with a dash of Carol Haney (another Bob Fosse protégé) tossed in. She's a total delight and one of the best dancers EVER! Here she plays Lola, the temptress used by the devil (Ray Walston) to lure Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter) from going back to his wife and breaking his satanic deal in which middle-aged Joe becomes a 22-year-old baseball star and catapults the Washington Senators to 1st place.

Tab Hunter replaces Stephen Douglass from the Broadway show. The rest of the cast recreates their parts for the movie. Verdon, Walston, and Russ Brown (the manager) all won Tony awards. Hunter seems rather stiff and uncomfortable through much of the film (though he looks great) but that's the part of Joe.... Hunter is, however, just terrific in the "Two Lost Souls" number with Verdon. He sings, dances (not too bad) and seems to be having a ball. Verdon is just astounding in this number and laughs all the way thru it. Great song.

Verdon is also a showstopper in "Whatever Lola Wants" and "A Little Brains, a Little Talent." It seems these songs were written for her and no one else can do them the way she does. Verdon, like Ethel Merman or Carold Channing, was a total original. The voice is slightly nasal; the inflection is odd. But it works. And her dancing is totally awesome.

Ray Walston seems to have been typecast in weirdo roles after Damn Yankees and My Favorite Martian. He was a better actor than these roles allowed him to show. Russ Brown is solid as the manager, Jean Stapleton plays the friend (and sings), Rae Allen is Gloria (the reporter), Shannon Bolin is the wife, Jimmie Komack is the goofy ballplayer, Nathaniel Frey is Smokey, Bob Fosse has a cameo in "Who's Got the Pain," and Robert Shafer plays old Joe.

Good songs by the same team that did The Pajama Game. Many of the songs were hits of the later 50s. My only beef is that most of the songs are truncated (I had the Broadway soundtrack) and at least one "I Thought About the Game" is used only as background music. Verdon's "A Little Brains, a Little Talent" is cut in half as is Bolin's "Six Months Out of Every Year." Certainly worth a look to see Broadway superstar Gwen Verdon in her prime and Tab Hunter at his hunkiest.

The smash hit Broadway musical Damn Yankees was transferred to the screen with all but one of its original Broadway cast, its original director, and its original choreographer intact. This has both good and bad consequences. The good is that the great performances of the cast and the dynamic, sexy choreography of a young Bob Fosse are preserved for posterity. Although top billing is given to the one non-Broadway holdover, Tab Hunter, the real star of the film is the incredible Gwen Verdon recreating her spellbinding, Tony-winning turn as Lola. With comic timing, energy, sex appeal and incredible dancing ability to spare, it's impossible to succumb to her charms when she takes the stage... er, screen in her numbers "A Little Brains, A Little Talent," "Who's Got the Pain" (In a delightful pairing with Fosse himself), "Two Lost Souls," and especially the classic "Whatever Lola Wants," and, as another reviewer noted, it's amazing that this didn't lead to a longer and more rewarding movie career. She had a brilliant career for years after on Broadway but it still is a shame that more of her work wasn't preserved. Ray Walston is hammy but devishly (Sorry about the pun) delightful as Applegate, and the supporting cast, including Jean Stapleton, is all fine. Nobody can really sing, but they inject the performances of their songs with such zest, energy and sweet sincerity that it doesn't really matter. The only problem is that, even though George Abbot, the original Broadway director, is paired witht he more cinematically knowledgeable Stanley Donen, everything is very stagey and there isn't much effort to open the action out. But when Verdon is working her magic, it's pretty hard to care, so that seems like a stupid quibble. So kick back, relax and enjoy Damn Yankees. It may not be the most inventive movie musical ever, but it's got a little brians, a little talent, plenty of heart, and Gwen Verdon. Who could ask for anything more?

If nothing else, this film version of the hit Broadway play allows viewers to see some of what made Verdon famous. Unfortunately, there isn't a great deal else that's memorable. When retiree Shafer has had his fill of the poorly-playing Washington Senators baseball team, he sells his soul to the Devil (who comes to earth in the human form of Walston) and transforms into a young, super-hitter (Hunter) who can help them win the pennant. He's bright enough to insert an "out clause" in his agreement, so Walston brings up temptress Verdon to make sure he doesn't take that opportunity when the time comes. Meanwhile, Shafer's wife frets over where he's gone, kept company by a pair of flighty sisters who keep their noses firmly planted in everything. In translating this to film (utilizing a larger number than usual of the original cast), the directors somehow managed to dull things down and give the film an aura of stagnation when it ought to be bursting with energy and vitality. Shafer's (purposefully?) drab house, with the planet's ugliest wallpaper, always looks just like a set. Ditto Walston's sparsely furnished lair. The locker room is nearly always filmed from the same angle, as it would have been seen from a theatre audience. Hunter is drop-dead gorgeous with a deep tan, cropped blonde hair and a charming. boyish grin. He is given very little to do, though. He hardly sings, tries to hold his own briefly in a group dance number, and (most dastardly of all) remains fully clothed while other, uglier baseball players take their shirts off or parade in a towel! Even Walston shows more skin than Hunter! Walston puts a lot of details and thought into his, by now, familiar role, but never really comes alive as much as one would like. It's difficult to believe that the Devil would choose this face and body to inhabit on earth. He also has remarkable trouble getting around (taxis?) Verdon (who doesn't even get to show her face until 45 minutes in) is remarkably vivid and captivating with several strong dance numbers. However, she looks far older than her 33 years (sometimes resembling an aged Greer Garson!) and has a surprising lack of chemistry with both Hunter and Walston. Only an idiot would say she's wrong for the part, but she may have been wrong for the film version. Attractive as she is, she just isn't the type of looker that would lure men to their doom. Other cast members include an authentically leathery Linville as the crusty baseball coach, Bolin as Shafer's drab wife, Allen as a loudmouthed reporter and Stapleton doing a head start on her Edith characterization from "All in the Family" and sporting what may be the ugliest hairdo in cinema history. There are a couple of numbers that stand out. One on a baseball field has inventive choreography with lots of dust getting kicked up. Verdon and choreographer (and future husband) Bob Fosse go for it in a variety show mambo. There's also a nightclub sequence with lots of the signature Fosse tableaux and moves. It's interesting to see his style developing and note the roots of his later, even more challenging, work. No one in the film can carry a tune particularly well. Vibrato is unheard of as various singers attempt to hold their shaky notes. Allen sings her entire song under the notes. So many times, viewers complain about films not being faithful to the source musical, but in this case, some more Hollywood tweaking may have helped! Sadly, a lot of gimmicky bits that may have been funny or new in 1958 are rather tiresome now, though it is amusing to see Walston put in coin after coin after coin into a pay phone in order to call Hell.

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."

Gwen Verdon was a Broadway legend with long gorgeous legs and an undeniable stage and screen charisma. Her legendary stage career earned her four Tony Awards, thanks in no small part to her long time Svengali and ex-husband Bob Fosse. Sadly, the only time Verdon was allowed to bring a role she created on Broadway to the big screen was in DAMN YANKEES, a sparkling film adaptation of the Richard Ross-Jerry Adler musical about a middle-aged baseball fan named Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer)who sells his soul to the devil for his favorite team, the Washington Senators, to win the pennant. The devil, apparently in desperate need of converts, appears in Joe's living room in the form of a Mr. Applegate (Ray Walston)and changes Joe Boyd into Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter), a young and unbeatable baseball player who helps lead the Senators to the pennant until he starts to get homesick and Applegate sends in his # 1 agent/witch named Lola (Verdon) to distract Joe. The film is well-mounted by Broadway legend George Abbott and Verdon and Ralston effectively reprise their Tony-Award winning stage roles and Fosse is even showcased, dancing in a rare duet with wife Verdon on "Who's Got the Pain?" and trust and believe, seeing Fosse and Verdon dance together is worth the price of admission alone. Other great songs in the score include "Whatever Lola Wants", "Heart","Those Were the Good Old Days", and "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal Mo". Not the greatest musical ever made, but Verdon, Ralston, and Fosse's brilliant choreography make it worth watching and re-watching.