Harmony Vocal Line So Damn Yankees Song Here I Come Again
Very enjoyable.
Maybe I liked this film a scrap more than a lot of folks because I grew upward auspicious for the hapless Washington Senators--a team that hadn't been in the Globe Series since 1933 (and they lost!). All I know is that I enjoyed the moving-picture show.
The movie begins with middle-aged Joe Boyd doing what he loves most--watching his beloved Senators on tv. Like whatever Senators fan, he's miserable because, as usual, the team's losing and they oasis't a prayer. Out of frustration, Joe blurts out that he'd sell his soul if the team could win the American League pennant. And, but like that, the Devil (Ray Walston) appears and offers him but that. He'll make Joe the greatest player in history for only a minor cost...his soul! Simply Joe is too smart to just agree to this and negotiates an escape clause--a clause his new friend has no intention of honoring. Although Joe (now called Joe Hardy and is played past Tab Hunter) IS a sensation and the team does seem destined to win it all, this is when the dingy tricks brainstorm--and the first dirty trick is Lola (Gwen Verdon)--a vamp who will destroy him. Can Joe survive with his soul intact and/or the team win it all?
The plot of this musical is a reworking of the sometime Faust story (by the likes of Marlow and Goethe). And, if y'all're familiar with these tales, you might anticipate how information technology all ends. Regardless, the film is a lot of fun with a silly and enjoyable performance by Walston (who not one time is referred to as Satan--only Mr. Applegate). The musical numbers are mostly very good, though several of the singers really could not sing--and is a chip reminiscent of "Paint Your Carriage" in that section. While well-nigh of the songs are nifty, "Who's Got the Pain" is irrelevant to the plot--completely irrelevant. "Two Lost Sheep" is not as irrelevant but a bit weak. Amend songs are "Whatsoever Lola Wants" and "A Little Brains, A Trivial Talent" (both by Gwen Verdon). Overall, a very enjoyable film that kept me entertained from first to cease. Non great merely very good.
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"Miles and Miles and Miles of Centre"
Damn Yankees was i of two Broadway shows written by the team of Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, the other being The Pajama Game which got made into films almost immediately upon the cessation of the Broadway run. Damn Yankees ran in the 1955-1957 season for 1019 performances and both Gwen Verdon and Ray Walston continued their roles from Broadway.
However the protagonist Joe Boyd/Joe Hardy role, the middle aged existent estate salesman who is a fanatic baseball fan of the lowly Washington Senators, was played by Tab Hunter in the Joe Hardy persona. Every bit in that other Broadway film My Fair Lady it was felt that one of the leads should go to a bona fide picture show name in that instance Audrey Hepburn in this one Tab Hunter.
In his memoirs Hunter said that he was apprehensive about taking over a musical lead considering he admitted he was no vocalist. But the arrangements were certainly done to accommodate his limited range and he acquits himself well. He certainly does await well in the baseball scenes and fifty-fifty keeps up with Gwen Verdon.
Gwen Verdon like Mitzi Gaynor came along in the Fifties just when Hollywood was slowing downward with the making of musicals due to the decline of the studio system. Gwen did such other leads on Broadway as Sweet Charity, New Daughter in Town, and Redhead, only merely with Damn Yankees was she allowed to get to Hollywood and repeat her stage performance. Gwen like Mitzi was a fabulous dancer and in the Thirties and Forties she would have go acclaimed film proper name.
Ray Walston got his career break in the part of Mr. Applegate the devil's identity for this film. Back when I was a lad and start saw Damn Yankees in the theater, I was enthralled past Walston'southward performance and became a fan until the day he died. Walston plays the devil like a spoiled child and there might simply be some theological justification for that.
The big hit songs from Damn Yankees was Gwen Verdon's seduction number and dance, Whatever Lola Wants. Few people ever on stage and screen could move like her.
The 2nd and even bigger hit was Centre, sung her by Russ Brown and some of the other actors playing hapless Washington Senator players under their eternally optimistic manager Dark-brown. The song was a big million seller for Eddie Fisher who was at the elevation of his vocal career then.
Damn Yankees the movie was released in 1958. In 1960 the original Washington Senators played their last year in Washington, DC. For the poor fans of the Senators it was a double blow. The team was just beginning to jell equally a contender and in 1965 they did in fact in their new home in Minneapolis/St.Paul as the Minnesota Twins did win the American League pennant as the Yankee dynasty crumbled at last.
In their identify came another new Washington Senator franchise which continued in the second division ways that Washington knew so well and that fans like Joe Boyd were used to. They played their last season in the capital in 1971 and the uppercase was without Major League baseball game until 2005 when the Montreal Expos moved and became the Washington Nationals. I'm afraid we may never see the name Senators fastened to a Washington team once more. The Texas Rangers have the name copyrighted.
Still the Nationals in the other league are doing their best to hold upwardly the Washington tradition of commencement in war, first in peace and last in now the National League East. Washington saw three pennants in 1924, 1925, and 1933 and one World Serial winner in 1924.
They might but demand some other Joe Hardy to motion the team. Let's hope someone doesn't have to make an system with Mr. Applegate to make it possible to trounce those Damn Yankees.
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A Feel Good Musical
Joe Hardy and the hapless Washington Senators. First in war, first in peace, and concluding in the American League. A homo is transformed into a baseball phenom and goes to aid these very Senators. Notwithstanding, forces beyond his control, come out to end him. Gwen Verdon, the sultriest redhead of her time, is there to seduce Joe; to upset the apple cart, so to speak. This is a story of reclamation and hope. Information technology has slap-up songs, including i of my favorites: "You Gotta Have Hope." And "Any Lola Wants." It also has i of the most satisfying conclusions of whatsoever musical I take seen. Good should oust evil in the end. Tab Hunter is a little weak as an histrion, but he probably had the prettiest face of his time. All in all, it's a existent romp.
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Satan vs. Baseball...with an accent on the latter.
Warning: Spoilers
There's plenty of middle in this motion picture version of the hitting 1955 Broadway musical which confirmed Gwen Verdon's distinction as a musical star and got her the opportunity to repeat her stage role on picture show. Unfortunately, this would be the only time this would happen as Juliet Prowse got her supporting function in the film version of "Can-Can" and Shirley MacLaine took over the role of Charity Promise Valentine, for which Verdon generously coached her. Two of her Tony Winning vehicles ("New Girl in Town", "Redhead") were not filmed, and her last Broadway musical ("Chicago") wouldn't get adapted for the screen until decades later.
While Gwen won a leading actress Tony for this function, she really doesn't brand her entrance until the evidence (and movie) has been well underway, and when she does, she takes over similar a wolf in a herd of sheep. But so again, the show is filled with scene-stealers, although some laugh at the thought of Tab Hunter in the movie playing a manlike baseball player. Along with Verdon, nigh of the original Broadway cast repeated their phase roles, making this one of the few times in moving-picture show musical history that most of the theater cast was there, others of interest being "Blossom Pulsate Vocal" and "1776".
Robert Shafer is Joe Boyd, a middle anile human being whose life dream to exist a professional baseball game role player was never fulfilled. He's too concerned with the game to detect his lonely wife (a touching Shannon Bolin), and "Six Months out of Every Year", she's neglected. She'south going to have to face up abandonment subsequently Mr. Applegate (Ray Walston) pays Joe a visit and convinces him to sell him his soul in order to fulfill his baseball player dreams. So from paunchy Shafter, Joe becomes sexy Tab Hunter, and is off to join the Washington Redskins. But the distinction he achieves makes him determined not to fulfill his obligations, and Applegate (Satan's earthy name) sends in the large guns: a voluptuous sexpot named Lola (Verdon) who is to seduce him into honoring his bargain.
There are and so many high-free energy production numbers and prove-stopping songs that it is difficult to unmarried out just one. Of course, the most popular is Verdon'due south seduction effort, "Whatever Lola Wants", followed by the encouraging "Heart", sung past baseball game team coach Russ Brown and his somewhat clumsy players. Verdon also scores with "A Little Brains, A Picayune Talent" ("Accent on the latter") while Walston gets his own comical scene-stealing number of Satan'due south triumphs, giving tributes to Jolson and Cantor with "Those Were the Skilful Old Days". In her 1 big scene, Rae Allen (as a sports reporter) rocks the stadium with "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal MO" where the previously awkward baseball players all suddenly become skilled dancers, Bob Fosse mode.
The great Fosse, who choreographed the Broadway and motion picture versions, appears in one number here with his real life wife Gwen, singing and dancing to "Who'south Got the Pain?". Hunter'southward duet with Verdon ("Two Lost Souls") isn't bad, only he merely isn't believable as a romantic idol, literally looking away from her as Verdon tries to seduce him. The future "Edith Bunker" (Jean Stapleton) appears as Meg Boyd'southward best friend and gets a cursory reprise of "Heart". She had also played this part on Broadway which she had also washed with "Bells Are Ringing". Hounddog faced Nathaniel Frey, another Broadway holdover, is one of theater'south funniest graphic symbol actors, his sad face making him announced equally a human version of the cartoon dog "Droopy".
The score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross is one of Broadway's liveliest, and this has had two major New York revivals, one with Bebe Neuwirth every bit Lola, the other a summertime City Centre run with Jane Krakowski. During the Tony Awards of the Neuwirth/Victor Garber revival, original producer/managing director George Abbott made an appearance with Verdon and Stapleton. Abbott was then well over 100 years old. He shares co-directing credit here with musical veteran Stanley Donen. Rumors have been rampant of a film remake, but it would accept someone pretty amazing to arrive anywhere nearly every bit proficient and faithful to the original every bit this version.
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Hammy instead of hearty...
An aging baseball fan sells his soul to the Devil for a career with his favorite squad, the Washington Senators, currently languishing in seventh place. Ray Walston's Mr. Applegate--a chic, suave Beelzebub, who smiles like a Cheshire cat--is really the only lively aspect of this heavy-spirited Broadway musical adaptation, which in turn was taken from Douglass Wallop's book "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant". Co-directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen, with choreography by Bob Fosse, the picture show has a better plot (its roots in Faust) than this team's "The Pajama Game" from the year before, but nevertheless seems awfully stagy and brackish, with the song numbers belted towards the rafters. As the protagonist'south youthful incarnation, Tab Hunter tries hard but is still too colorless to make a stiff impression. ** from ****
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Make that 7.5!
Warning: Spoilers
What nosotros have hither is the original Broadway cast with the exceptions of Tab Hunter and Bob Fosse.
Hunter is nowhere near equally good as Stephen Douglass whom he displaced, but that's Hollywood!
It'due south a phenomenon that Gwen Verdon was retained. She'south terrific!
Other than Miss Verdon'south casting, however, this motion-picture show version seems to autumn brusk of the phase musical in many respects.
Admittedly, we notwithstanding take a couple of tuneful songs, plus a few very witty lines, and the sometimes inventive direction of George Abbott and Stanley Donen.
Harold Lipstein'due south Technicolor photography is also a pleasing asset.
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Damn Yankees- Cinderella, Time Car & Just Great ***/2
A Washington Senator fan makes a pact with the devil to make him young so that he tin play against those Damn Yankees.
A truly great opportunity for Tab Hunter to perform in the leading role and he comes through with a genuine functioning. The devil is the wonderful Ray Walston; he was always devilish by nature and so that is why he is then good in the role.
The true accolades go to Gwen Verdon, as the temptress Lola. Who tin can forget her infamous "Whatsoever Lola Wants, Lola Gets."
Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets......
I'grand no exception to the dominion. I'm irresistible you fool.
Give in.
Verdon repeats her Broadway role and is a primary at it. No wonder she won the Tony Honour so many times.
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Whatever Verdon wants...she almost gets...
As musicals go, DAMN YANKEES was a highly popular Broadway hit because it gave the audience GWEN VERDON'due south style with a song and dance and Bob Fosse's choreography. It may not accept been equally filled with hit tunes equally some, but "You Gotta Have Heart", "Whatever Lola Wants," and "Ii Lost Souls" were good enough to make theater patrons happy.
When Verdon (and Ray Walston) won their Tony'southward, it was a practiced thing Warner Bros. decided to lure both of them to Hollywood for the screen version. For box-office insurance they had hunky TAB HUNTER to ensure that picture fans would show up--and, surprisingly, information technology all works very well. Hunter is no corking shakes as a vocaliser, only he's pleasantly unassuming and gets past on his duet with Verdon.
GWEN VERDON lights upward the screen whenever she goes into ane of her routines, and her "Whatever Lola Wants" is worth the toll of admission alone. RAY WALSTON has a devilish time in his rib-tickling role and it's all easy to take as a merry mixture of music and comedy.
The only drawback is that its stage origins are immediately apparent and at that place's a certain static quality well-nigh some of the scenes. Just overall, George Abbott and Stanley Donen keep information technology fresh and lively whenever the music takes center stage.
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Come across It for the Fosse/Verdon Showstopper
I saw "Damn Yankees" before long afterward seeing some other George Abbott/Stanley Donen collaboration, "The Pajama Game," which set the bar so low that just about whatsoever musical would seem better.
"Damn Yankees" on its own terms is a little flat and never explodes into the free energy it probably has on stage, just it comes close, and much closer than "The Pajama Game" ever does. Gwen Verdon is almost exclusively the film's entreatment -- not particularly pretty, there'south nevertheless something about her (call it good old-fashioned evidence-biz chutzpah) that makes it incommunicable to have your optics off of her when she's on the screen. And this movie benefits from a slew of dance numbers choreographed by Bob Fosse, the most memorable being the "Who's Got the Hurting?" number that Fosse himself dances with wife Verdon (though I'm not sure whether or non they were married when they made this moving picture). If for no other reason, run into this film for that number, which captures 2 theatre legends at their best.
Grade: B
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You lot Gotta' Have Heart
This moving-picture show begins with a Washington Senators fan by the proper noun of "Joe Boyd" (Robert Shafer) who has had to endure one losing season subsequently another for a very long time. To make matters even worse, the team that consistently beats his Senators is the New York Yankees who seem to win the American League pennant year after year in the procedure. And so one afternoon, after watching his Senators lose yet another game due to the absence of a expert power hitter, he cries out in frustration that he would sell his soul for a "long brawl hitter". Suddenly a man by the name of "Mr. Applegate" (Ray Walston) appears and offers to grant him his wish past giving him a boyfriend'south body with incredible physical talent--and the only price is his soul. Naturally, being a little scared Joe showtime demands an "escape clause" which he can use to get out of the bargain at a certain time. Being somewhat overworked Mr. Applegate promises that if he wishes to return to his normal self and retain his soul all he has to practice is ask by the 24th of September. Needless to say, the deal is agreed upon and together Mr. Applegate and the young man named "Joe Hardy" (Tab Hunter) head to Griffith Stadium to showcase his talent and go a spot on the Senator's roster. But what Joe doesn't know is that Mr. Applegate has several tricks upwards his sleeve to go far equally difficult as possible for Joe to use his escape clause when he wants. At present rather than reveal any more than I will just say that this was a decent musical which took a familiar plot and adapted it to America'due south favorite sport with good effect. Admittedly, the sets weren't all that great merely the songs made up for it to a certain extent with "Heart" being the best of the bunch in my opinion. In brusk, while this isn't a swell musical past any means, it's yet a fun pic for the nigh part and I have rated it accordingly.
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This picture show version of the Broadway hit is mostly flat
"Damn Yankees" was a hit musical one-act on Broadway in 1955. But this movie is non that play, although it has a stagy feel to it. The film has its moments of fun and amusement. Merely this is neither a great musical nor comedy. And information technology's just borderline sports with fiction and fantasy. About of the kudos for the film must become to Gwen Verdon. She previously had merely bit parts in 15 films, most of them uncredited. But, she has lead billing hither, reprising the office that was her breakout role on Broadway. Verdon was a superb dancer.
In that location are no peak singers to sing any of the songs in this movie. Verdon'southward "Any Lola Wants" is the best, and with her dancing. Tab Hunter is the male person atomic number 82, but he's not a singer and he's not exactly star quality every bit an thespian. Ray Walston's office every bit the devil'south agent, Mr. Applegate is the all-time of a by and large mediocre showing.
The movie plot is built effectually the notion of diehard fans of the Washington Senators baseball team. I lived in the D.C, area for 10 years and went to a couple of Senators' games of the expansion team (1961-1971). Just I never saw whatever signs of feverish fan support for whatever guild in D.C. Surely, aught like the fan followings that were nearly legend in many other major league cities. Probably the nearly fan support the D.C. team had then was on Capitol Colina. Some members of Congress followed the Senators. Especially those from states that didn't have professional ball clubs who couldn't otherwise become to run into much pro baseball.
Except for Gwen Verdon'south dancing, in that location's very fiddling talent on brandish in this rather slow musical. And, that's not enough to save the weak plot.
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Fun musical, even if a scrap likewise stagey
Damn Yankees is a fun have on the Faust legend, equally a baseball fanatic sells his soul to atomic number 82 his team to victory. Ray Walston is terrific as the devil, and Gwen Verdon is an amazing dancer, even if watching her fun merely two-dimensional acting makes me sympathize with the producers who bandage other people in the roles she originated on Broadway.
This was choreographed by Bob Fosse, although there are simply a few memorable numbers, such as Whatever Lola Wants, in which Verdon shows off her skills as she does a comical striptease, and the wonderful, elaborate Two Lost Souls number, which is the Fosse-est affair in the prove.
The weird matter well-nigh the songs is how unambitiously most of them are filmed. Frequently it's pure stage filming, with the camera plonked in place while the singers sing. It's hard to believe this is from the same guy who co-directed Singin' in the Rain!
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You Gotta Have Heart!
This musical, when revived about a decade agone with Jerry Lewis equally Applegate, was referred to every bit a legend for the Eisenhower Years. It is ready in a faintly comfy menstruum (once the McCarthyite Persecutions were finished), considering the concept of this musical was the preoccupation of the American public with the national pastime of baseball, and information technology'south atypical 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 belatedly 1920s and early 1930s, they had to share the domination of the Globe Serial with other teams in that menstruation (the Philadelphia Athletics, the Detroit Tigers, and the St. Louis Cardinals, to proper noun iii). Merely 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 ever win (one memorable defeat was by their perennial enemy the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955), but they won then often that to non-baseball fans it was monotonous to follow the sports news: y'all knew what should finally happen.
And so the background of this baseball era is of import to understand the musical (one of the few times the bodily historical background of the fourth dimension the musical was created becomes that important). Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) is a fanatical baseball game lover and fan of the woebegone Washington Senators (the saying for many years almost the Senators was, "First in war, start in peace, and last in their league."). The team had merely one swell moment: in 1924 they won the Earth Series when the squad had one of baseball game's greatest players on information technology - Walter Johnson. But information technology never really was in competition again after that. But Boyd is a fan, and he makes the error 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 fourth dimension - and lead to the world serial - in return for his soul. Hesitant at get-go, Joe agrees. He is transformed into Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter), and gain to try to join the Senators (with Applegate as his agent).
The Devil tin can never be trusted in any agreement. Applegate hopes to cause a moving ridge of hope and hysteria past the anti-Yankee baseball public, letting Joe lead his team to the World Series. He plans to pull the carpet from underneath the team at the terminal moment. Unfortunately Joe is a good salesman on his own, and has insisted on an escape clause for himself. Applegate has to have information technology for the sake of his own plans. The escape clause is in that location because Joe loves his wife Meg (Sharon Bolin) and does not want her to exist injure. And so Applegate decides to recruit his all-time female agent, Lola (Gwen Vernon) to vamp Joe and make him forget 1000000. But Joe is besides true-blue, and succeeds in overcoming Lola'southward "irrisistable" personality (every bit she sings, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets" - except here). Lola, shaken past the feel, 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 fundamental song "Center" (sung by the Washington team players), and Lola's "Whatever" number, there is also "Two Lost Souls", "Goodbye Onetime Girl" and Walston's wonderful "Those were the adept 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 picture show functioning*, merely his Applegate is i of his best motion picture performances, with his Gillis in South PACIFIC. He had played both on Broadway first, then we are lucky to have his film performances here.
*(Just won the Tony Award for the role on stage.)
Stanley Donan co-directed this film with George Abbott. Abbott was commonly a stage managing 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 ane of the three ball players in the "Heart" number, and the shut-up of the player every bit he smiles shyly and steps forwards is out of place in the moving-picture show - merely would accept worked on stage.
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The Vidiot Reviews...
Damn Yankees
Due to all of the skulls that they've crushed, baseball bats probably have a special identify in Hell.
So, it's no wonder the Devil's willing to assist the die-hard fan in this musical.
When Joe (Tab Hunter), a Senators fan, proclaims he'd sell his soul for his club to crush the Yankees, the Devil appears in the grade of a man, Applegate (Ray Walston).
Offering to go Joe one amend, Applegate promises to make Joe the star histrion. The but hitch: he must manus over his soul at the end of the season.
Agreeing, the next twenty-four hours Joe begins his career and leads the Senators to the pennant, playing right into Applegate and his assistant Lola'due south (Gwen Verdon) hands.
The pic version of the musical based on the story of Faust, Damn Yankees has a devilishly good story to accompany its unforgettable songs.
Withal, isn't Hell'southward representative in baseball already Pete Rose? (Xanthous Calorie-free)
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loved it.
The trouble lies with Tab Hunter in the difficult leading function: to put information technology mildly, he lacks pizzazz. In that location's even so a lot of fun to exist gleaned, though: Gwen Verdon is a knockout equally Lola, and Ray Walston is arguably the definitive movie Devil, Mr Applegate. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 3/29/2021.
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good show, could be meliorate
Warning: Spoilers
Kickoff of all, I accept to say and this is kind of sad, just I would have watched this movie a lot sooner if I hadn't been nether the false impression that it was actually near the NY Yankees. I was greatly relieved to see that it is instead the long defunct Washington Senators who are the focus of the play. Ray Walston is wonderful as the devil, or as he calls himself here Mr. Applegate. Rae Allen also has some dainty scenes and songs as an intrusive reporter. Simply to me there are problems with this film precisely because of it sticking too shut to the original play.
Gwen Verdon is the major trouble for me. She simply is not winsome and erotic plenty to pull off the famous "Lola" scene on the big screen. I felt kind of embarrassed for her. She has proficient chemistry with Walston but I didn't sense any sparks flying betwixt her and Tab Hunter at all. I really did relish their 1 big dance scene together though, "Two Lost Souls," that was the highlight of the whole motion-picture show for me. Like the previous Donen/Abbott collaboration on "Pajama Game", this picture has excellent choreography past Bob Fosse.
It seems odd to complain about the presence of the original star in a film, but I just experience that Verdon did not take what it takes to agree down a motion picture. Walston does what he can to basically fill up up the infinite with comedy. The entire moving-picture show looks and feels very dainty, although yous get the feeling that you're looking at recycled sets from a Minnelli movie when they're in Lola's hotel suite. Also whatever potential at that place was for whatever kind of drama is thrown away -- in some means the movie is comparable to "Cabin in the Sky" in terms of the supernatural one-act merely surprisingly because one of the show's anthems is "You Gotta Have Heart" this picture just has very fiddling of it. Notwithstanding, information technology's entertaining and it moves chop-chop enough.
The mediocre nature of this film provides me with still more bear witness that Donen was the to the lowest degree important member of the Donen/Kelly partnership.
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Could Anyone Move Like Gwen Verdon?
The superb Gwen Verdon sings and dances and mugs through this very good adaptation of the nail 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 all-time dancers Always! Hither she plays Lola, the temptress used by the devil (Ray Walston) to lure Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter) from going dorsum 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 evidence. The rest of the cast recreates their parts for the moving-picture show. Verdon, Walston, and Russ Brown (the managing director) all won Tony awards. Hunter seems rather stiff and uncomfortable through much of the film (though he looks peachy) only that'due south the part of Joe.... Hunter is, however, merely terrific in the "Two Lost Souls" number with Verdon. He sings, dances (not too bad) and seems to be having a ball. Verdon is only astounding in this number and laughs all the way thru it. Great song.
Verdon is also a showstopper in "Whatsoever Lola Wants" and "A Fiddling Brains, a Piffling Talent." Information technology seems these songs were written for her and no i else tin can practise them the way she does. Verdon, like Ethel Merman or Carold Channing, was a full original. The vocalization is slightly nasal; the inflection is odd. Merely information technology works. And her dancing is totally crawly.
Ray Walston seems to have been typecast in weirdo roles after Damn Yankees and My Favorite Martian. He was a meliorate thespian than these roles allowed him to evidence. Russ Brown is solid as the managing director, 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 Hurting," and Robert Shafer plays quondam Joe.
Good songs past the same squad that did The Pajama Game. Many of the songs were hits of the after 50s. My only beefiness is that most of the songs are truncated (I had the Broadway soundtrack) and at to the lowest degree one "I Thought About the Game" is used only equally groundwork music. Verdon's "A Lilliputian Brains, a Little Talent" is cut in half as is Bolin'southward "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.
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The movie with "Heart"........
Warning: Spoilers
It may well have been the Devil'southward cleverest trick to have persuaded united states that he does not be,only it is a relatively recent 1.Even 50 years ago when "Whatever Lola wants" was released the concept of an anti - Christ was widely accepted in the Westward and the possibility of inbound into a diabolical bargain for earthly riches and success was not considered seriously - "get thee behind me,Satan",as my Auntie Edie used to say.Now,it appears,near everybody will do anything to be rich and famous and looking at the richest and nearly famous of them all information technology is difficult to discern whatever particular talent or merit they might possess. Accordingly,Faustian compacts may have been entered wholesale thus assuring the Devil an countless supply of souls like Joe Hardy whose relatively harmless vice was the Slap-up American Game. Portrayed by Mr R.Walston as an earthly class with a certain raffish charm and an All-American name "Mr Applegate",the Devil is a" can do" kind of guy.His assistant - Lola - played by Miss G.Verdon is the paradigm of feminine seductiveness employed to keep Joe in line. As a Brit to whom baseball is footling more than a more than butch version of the rather girlie game of rounders the back story and plot of the movie take piffling cultural significance.It's significance to me is purely based on its merits as a musical - and they are considerable.Certainly Miss Verdon got me very hot under the collar as an xviii yr former,and Mr Walston made me laugh a lot.Mr Tab Hunter was very skilful - looking and had already been in the "Pinnacle Twenty" in the U.K. with "Young Love",so it had a whole lot going for it.I had a 78 of "Eye" by the Four Aces and my friends and I had a lot of fun copying the harmony parts so it would be fair to say that I was quite involved in the whole "Whatever Lola wants" feel.Time,sadly,has non been very kind either to me or the movie,and,when I saw information technology recently just "Heart" moved me as information technology had done originally,the other songs - although remaining clever - lacked much substance and only the dancing of the wonderful Miss Verdon raised the level to that I remembered .Nevertheless it remains a nostalgic favourite,and a movie with "Centre" - in both meanings.
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A damn proficient time
DAMN YANKEES is pure confectionery and Gwen Verdon is the cherry on summit. Her dancing is perfection and she steals every scene from her co-stars. Still, Ray Walston is a damn smashing devil and Tab Hunter is appealing as the potential Faust at the middle of the story.
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Entertaining with a keen cast.
Warning: Spoilers
*Spoiler/plot- Damn Yankees, 1958. A over-the-hill mid western homo wishes his baseball squad to win the league and gets his wish through devilish assistance. His work gets his favorite ball club to win the American league playoffs.
*Special Stars- Tab Hunter, Ray Walston, Gwen Vernon, Bob Fossey. DIR: George Abbot & Stanley Donen.
*Theme- Breaking the rules has dire consequences.
*Trivia/location/goofs- Technicolor, Musical. Many classic stage show tunes with the enticing Ms. Vernon in sexy dance and costumes. Mr. Walston is perfectly cast and provides a wonderful devil office. Might past one of Tab Hunter's primeval large roles as the young naive ball player.
*Emotion- A enticing funny and clever Faustian story about a middle anile die-hard Washington "Senators" baseball game fan who gets to make a deal with the devil to become 20 again and to play major league baseball.
*Based On- Broadway stage play.
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Steeeeeeeriiiiikkke!
If nothing else, this movie version of the striking 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 game team, he sells his soul to the Devil (who comes to earth in the human form of Walston) and transforms into a immature, super-hitter (Hunter) who can help them win the pennant. He'southward bright enough to insert an "out clause" in his agreement, and then Walston brings up temptress Verdon to make certain he doesn't take that opportunity when the fourth dimension comes. Meanwhile, Shafer'south wife frets over where he's gone, kept visitor by a pair of flighty sisters who keep their noses firmly planted in everything. In translating this to moving-picture show (utilizing a larger number than usual of the original cast), the directors somehow managed to deadening things down and give the moving-picture show an aura of stagnation when information technology ought to be bursting with free energy and vitality. Shafer'south (purposefully?) drab house, with the planet's ugliest wallpaper, always looks just like a prepare. Ditto Walston'south sparsely furnished lair. The locker room is nearly ever filmed from the same angle, as information technology would have been seen from a theatre audience. Hunter is drop-dead gorgeous with a deep tan, cropped blonde pilus and a charming. adolescent smiling. He is given very little to do, though. He hardly sings, tries to concur his ain briefly in a grouping dance number, and (nigh 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 function, but never really comes alive as much as 1 would like. It'south hard to believe that the Devil would choose this face and body to inhabit on world. 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 trip the light fantastic toe 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 function, only she may have been wrong for the moving picture version. Bonny as she is, she just isn't the blazon of looker that would lure men to their doom. Other cast members include an authentically leathery Linville every bit the crusty baseball jitney, Bolin every bit Shafer'southward drab married woman, Allen as a loudmouthed reporter and Stapleton doing a caput beginning on her Edith characterization from "All in the Family" and sporting what may exist the ugliest hairdo in cinema history. In that location are a couple of numbers that stand out. 1 on a baseball field has inventive choreography with lots of dust getting kicked upwardly. Verdon and choreographer (and hereafter married man) Bob Fosse go for it in a diversity show mambo. In that location'southward as well a nightclub sequence with lots of the signature Fosse tableaux and moves. It's interesting to encounter his style developing and notation the roots of his afterward, even more challenging, work. No ane in the flick can carry a melody especially well. Vibrato is unheard of equally various singers attempt to hold their shaky notes. Allen sings her entire song under the notes. Then many times, viewers complain virtually films not being true-blue 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 afterward coin after money into a pay phone in order to call Hell.
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A mediocre motion-picture show of what must accept been a better musical
This is a largely uninspired moving picture. In that location are a few memorable musical numbers - "You gotta have heart", "What Lola wants" - simply fifty-fifty they aren't staged in a memorable way. The musical ran for years on Broadway, and so there must have been something to information technology. But whatever it was didn't transfer to this flick.
Some of it may have had to do with casting the then-popular Tab Hunter in the male lead. He wasn't a dancer, so that leaves Gwen Verdon, who was a fine dancer, to dance largely by herself. And that, in a movie musical, is a trouble. It'southward one of the things, for example, that separates the Eleanor Parker movies from the Astaire-Rodgers movies.
Only the script is likewise apartment. Compare this movie to Music Man, for instance, which also just has 3 memorable musical numbers. But that has a great script, incredible energy, wonderful lines. This is simply not at the same level.
And no, information technology actually has next to nothing to practice with baseball game.
There'due south nothing actually incorrect with this picture. No one gives a bad performance. It just doesn't have much energy, and doesn't get the states to care about any of the characters.
Once again, I suspect the Broadway prove was a lot better.
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Still Fresh, Funny, and Poignant Later All These Years
One of the primary reasons to picket this musical fantasy film is that it is a successful adaption form phase to screen that presents clever songs that give more than insight into life in the 1950s than "The Catcher in the Rye." Innuendo is everywhere. Look at Gwen Verdon, the Broadway awareness and former wife and protégé of Bob Fosse, who brought to life and so many Broadway tunes and did the choreography for this flick. Listen to handsome Tab Hunter, charming and the perfect 1958 man. "Whatever Lola Wants" is a peachy tune, made fifty-fifty more than amusing than its lyrics by the over-the-top rendition by Verdon, who was only six years older than Hunter only looks more like his mother. There are songs hither that keep forever, such equally "Yous Gotta Take Eye." If you remember "All in the Family" on television, you'll love seeing Jean Stapleton'due south office in this film. And "My Favorite Martian" fans volition love Ray Walston in "Those Were the Good One-time Days." "Bye, Erstwhile Girl" has to be 1 of the sweetest songs ever written. Accept note of Rae Allen every bit she sings "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo." and blows abroad the idea of women reporters in the locker room years and years before it became an issue. Dancing baseball game players, how fun is that? Detect they are non all white; you can see change a comin' to America. Fosse himself and Verdon exercise a great duet in "Who's got the Pain When They Practice the Mambo." ---from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013
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Verdon Lights Up the Screen...Merely This Once
Gwen Verdon was a Broadway legend with long gorgeous legs and an undeniable stage and screen charisma. Her legendary phase career earned her four Tony Awards, thanks in no small part to her long time Svengali and ex-husband Bob Fosse. Sadly, the simply time Verdon was immune to bring a part she created on Broadway to the large screen was in DAMN YANKEES, a sparkling film adaptation of the Richard Ross-Jerry Adler musical about a middle-aged baseball game 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 drastic 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 game player who helps pb the Senators to the pennant until he starts to go homesick and Applegate sends in his # 1 agent/witch named Lola (Verdon) to distract Joe. The pic 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 nifty songs in the score include "Any Lola Wants", "Center","Those Were the Adept Old Days", and "Shoeless Joe From Hannibal Mo". Not the greatest musical ever made, but Verdon, Ralston, and Fosse's vivid choreography make it worth watching and re-watching.
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Ane of B'fashion's best musicals come up to the screen
bux 28 Oct 1998
Walston steals the bear witness as the Devil that makes a deal with a discouraged baseball fan. Because the story is pure fantasy, the musical numbers don't get in the manner, equally in then many musicals. Verdon is one thousand as the sexy 'Lola', making information technology easy to encounter that she gets whatever she wants! An appearance by Fosse, and his unmistakable foot-piece of work make this one special viewing.
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