| Damn Yankees | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Damn_Yankees_1958.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | George Abbott Stanley Donen |
| Screenplay by | George Abbott |
| Based on |
|
| Produced by | George Abbott Stanley Donen |
| Starring | Tab Hunter Gwen Verdon Ray Walston |
| Cinematography | Harold Lipstein |
| Edited by | Frank Bracht |
| Music by | Richard Adler Jerry Ross |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 111 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2.6 million[2] |
Damn Yankees (retitled What Lola Wants in the United Kingdom) is a 1958 American musical sports romantic comedy film. It was directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen from a screenplay by Abbott, adapted from his and Douglass Wallop's book of the 1955 musical of the same name with music and lyrics by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, itself based on the 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Wallop. The story line is a take on the Faust legend[3] and centers on the New York Yankees and Washington Senators baseball teams. With the exception of Tab Hunter in the role of Joe Hardy (replacing Stephen Douglass), the Broadway principals reprise their stage roles, including Gwen Verdon as Lola.
A notable difference between the film and stage versions was Gwen Verdon's performance of the song "A Little Brains". Verdon's suggestive hip movements (as choreographed by Bob Fosse and performed on stage) were considered too risqué for a mainstream 1958 American audience, and so she simply pauses at these points in the film. The title was changed in the United Kingdom to avoid use of the word "Damn" on film posters, hoardings, and cinema marquees.
- ^ "Damn Yankees – Details". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
- ^ "Top Grossers of 1958". Variety. 7 January 1959. p. 48. Please note figures are for US and Canada only and are domestic rentals accruing to distributors as opposed to theatre gross
- ^ Fitzsimmons, Lorna, ed. (2008). Lives of Faust: The Faust Theme in Literature and Music. A Reader. New York: Walter De Gruyter. p. 12. ISBN 9783110973976. Retrieved 11 July 2017.