DAMN YANKEES

US, 1958, 111 minutes, Colour.
Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Jean Stapleton, Bob Fosse.
Directed by Stanley Donen.

A very enjoyable musical. Directed by George Abbot and Stanley Donen. It has a great deal of appeal, even to a non-American audience.

Abbot and Donen adapted The Pyjama Game with Doris Day at the same time. Donen had worked with Gene Kelly in such films as On The Town and Singin' In the Rain and made quite a number of musicals. He was then to move into light comedies and light thrillers in the sixties, like Charade and Arabesque. In the seventies tax he made such films as The Little Prince and Lucky Lady.

Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse's wife, is very entertaining as the heroine, Lola, and Fosse joins her in a dance routine. He did the choreography and it is very similar to that which he was to use later in choreographing and directing Sweet Charity and All That Jazz. Tab Hunter is unexpectedly good as the hero of this musical and Ray Walston is the Devil.

With a baseball setting, the film is an American version of the Faust and the Devil fable and engagingly and humorously portrayed - even with the escape clause. The songs are worked well into the plot, at times split screen techniques are used and the choreography is certainly vigorous. An effective musical.

1. A popular musical? The musical comedy tradition? Songs, dancing? An entertainment?

2. The fantasy background, Faust and the Devil, a fable Americanised?

3. The range of songs, their insertion in the plot? As expressing character? Bob Fosse’s choreography? Its relation to character and plot?

4. The colour photography, the re-creation of the world of sport? Unreal and real?

5. The updating of the Faust legend, the football team, Joe Hardy, Mr Applegate as the Devil? How did the screenplay develop the Faust theme and selling one’s soul to the Devil?

6. Baseball, Joe Hardy, as a character, his relationship with his wife? The song?

7. Mr Applegate as the Devil, Ray Walston’s appearance and style, his songs? His range of tricks? The escape clause? His innate meanness and exercising this?

8. The bargaining with Joe, Joe’s decisions and motivation, selling his soul? The enthusiasm of the success of the team, papers and applause?

9. His return, the relationship with his wife, the gossip? His friends?

10. The appearance of Lola, Gwen Verdon’s style? Lola and her work? The French aspects, the fan etc? The witch and the good Devil?

11. The sport, the show?

12. The case, the women testifying?

13. The impact of the last fling? The build-up to the climax? The change?

14. The minor characters, Joe and his friends, Sister Miller and her mission? The baseball players? The dancers? The build-up to a happy ending – and the possibility of being redeemed? That the team finally were not Damn Yankees?