Trailer
Plot summary
Middle-aged Joe Boyd follows the Washington Senators with an obsession that has strained his marriage to Meg. He declares he would sell his soul to see Washington beat the New York Yankees, and a suave con man, Mr. Applegate, appears with a larger offer: Joe's youth restored, so he can be the player who wins the pennant. Joe agrees, demanding an escape clause available only on the day before the season's final game. He says goodbye to the sleeping Meg and becomes Joe Hardy of Hannibal, Missouri. After a batting display earns him a Senators contract, he carries the club into contention and becomes a national hero, but he keeps slipping away to his former street to watch for Meg. Applegate sends Lola, a seductress in his service, to make Joe forget her.
Cast
- Robert Shaferas Joe Boyd
- Herschel Grahamas Baseball Game Spectator (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Damn Yankees! (1958)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Gwen Verdon's suggestive hip movements in “A Little Brains”, as choreographed by Bob Fosse and performed on stage, were considered too risqué for a mainstream 1958 American audience, so in the film she simply pauses at those points.
- The title Damn Yankees was considered unacceptable in Britain, where "damn" was seen as vulgar and "yankees" as derogatory toward Americans, so Warner Bros.' British branch released it under the title What Lola Wants.
- A 2009 remake attempt for New Line Cinema, with Jim Carrey as the Devil and Jake Gyllenhaal as Joe Boyd, stalled because Lola was never cast and the project was postponed indefinitely.
- Most of the baseball action specific to the movie was filmed at Los Angeles' Wrigley Field, a site often used in the 1950s for Hollywood films about baseball, which was available with the minor league Angels no longer operating.
- Star Gwen Verdon later said the film “looks like a stage show, which is not good”, and that Stanley Donen, who had done great movies, did not want to shoot it that way but did so out of deference to George Abbott.
- Real New York Yankees players including Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Bill Skowron appear uncredited in archive footage in the film, along with the umpire Art Passarella.
