Search - Damn Yankees on DVD


Damn Yankees
Damn Yankees
Actors: Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown, Shannon Bolin
Directors: George Abbott, Stanley Donen
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Musicals & Performing Arts
NR     2004     1hr 51min

FILM ADAPTATION OF THE GEORGE ABBOTT BROADWAY MUSICAL ABOUT A WASHINGTON SENATORS FAN WHO MAKES A PACT WITH THE DEVIL TO HELP HIS BASEBALL TEAM WIN THE LEAGUE PENNANT.

     

Larger Image

Movie Details

Actors: Tab Hunter, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ Brown, Shannon Bolin
Directors: George Abbott, Stanley Donen
Creators: George Abbott, Frederick Brisson, Harold Prince, Robert E. Griffith, Douglass Wallop
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Musicals & Performing Arts
Sub-Genres: Comedy, Drama, Musicals
Studio: Warner Home Video
Format: DVD - Color,Widescreen - Closed-captioned,Subtitled
DVD Release Date: 10/12/2004
Release Year: 2004
Run Time: 1hr 51min
Screens: Color,Widescreen
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 14
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Similar Movies

The Pajama Game
   NR   1999   1hr 41min
Sweet Charity
   G   2003   2hr 29min
Bye Bye Birdie
   G   1999   1hr 52min
Gypsy
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
   UR   2000   2hr 23min

Similarly Requested DVDs

Analyze This
Director: Harold Ramis
   R   1999   1hr 43min
   
Crimson Tide
Director: Tony Scott
   R   1998   1hr 56min
   
Girl With a Pearl Earring
Director: Peter Webber
   PG-13   2004   1hr 40min
   
Lost in Space
New Line Platinum Series
Director: Stephen Hopkins
   PG-13   1998   2hr 10min
   
Star Trek - Insurrection
Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition
   PG   2005   1hr 43min
   
O Brother Where Art Thou
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
   PG-13   2001   1hr 46min
   
Analyze That
Widescreen
Director: Harold Ramis
   R   2004   1hr 36min
   
Stepmom
Director: Chris Columbus
   PG-13   1999   2hr 4min
   
The Natural
Director: Barry Levinson
   PG   2001   2hr 14min
   
Rambo
Widescreen Edition
Director: Sylvester Stallone
   R   2008   1hr 32min
   
 

Movie Reviews

Fine Showcase for a Terrific Gwen Verdon
C. O. DeRiemer | San Antonio, Texas, USA | 11/18/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Joe Hardy is a fanatic, middle-aged Washington Senators baseball fan who makes a pact with the devil. In exchange for his soul (although there is a small escape clause). he'll become a 22-year-old savior of the Senators, the greatest long ball hitter in history, and he'll lead the team to a pennant. Later, young Hardy shows signs of yearning for the wife he left behind, so the Devil sends in Lola, his vamp supreme. But thanks to Joe's integrity, the escape clause, and after a number of song and dance numbers, things are put right for both Joe and the Senators.

The movie is an almost exact replica of the 1956 Broadway hit. Tab Hunter moved in as the young Joe, but everyone else reprised their stage roles -- and that's the reason to see or buy the DVD. Ray Walston plays Applegate, the devil, with barely contained glee. He's sly, unethical, untrustworthy and very funny. Best of all Gwen Verdon plays Lola, and she hits a home run with every number. She was a great dancer and a magnetic stage presence. I saw her do her stuff on stage once and it's a great memory. She had her big break in Can Can in 1954, then starred in three more shows during the Fifties. She won a Tony for each. She married Bob Fosse, retired, had a daughter, divorced Fosse. In 1966 she starred in Sweet Charity. And at 50, in 1975, she starred in Chicago. Believe me, she hadn't lost a thing. She was not the starlet type. She had a grainy, slightly smoky voice, and a personality that could range from gamin to raunchy. She could bring innocence to the most suggestive lyrics. As you can tell, I'm a fan.

The score for Damn Yankees is, in my view, better than average but not a classic. It includes "Whatever Lola Wants," "Two Lost Souls" and "Heart." Fosse did the choreography and dances with Verdon in one number, "Who's Got the Pain." It's a clever, fast routine and is a great showcase for them both."
A darling show
Joseph Hart | Visalia, CA United States | 10/17/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tab Hunter was as good as any and everyone else in the picture. I liked him. I never saw the show, but I've had the OBC album for years. Three songs were left out and one added (at least it isn't on the cast album, and is a bloodless little thing and is used inexplicably instead of "A Man Doesn't Know" to end the show). The other 2 left out are "Near to You" and "The Game." Maybe "The Game" was meant to be in the movie but the censors got cold feet, because the tune is in the overture/credits. It's a darling cute song and I wish they'd left it in. As near as I could tell, only one song got cleaned up and that was "A Little Brains - A Little Talent." One word (boffola) was changed to something strange, and a few lines were changed. "You've seen the sign that says George Washington once slept here. Well though nobody spied him, guess who was beside him." What they changed it too was just as risque, just more subtle. "When they turned the lamps on, guess who was with Samson." I swore that if they destroyed this Adler/Ross treasure like they did Pajama Game with their puritanical fantacism, I would return the movie (I rented it to watch and kept the one I bought the day it was released unopened). I'll keep it. Changing "bofola" is just pointless, and the rhyme lamps on/Samson is so clever, it's as good as what it replaced. I'd like it if they'd left both in. The dancing was good, the songs were good, the acting was good, the plot had enough kinks in it to keep it interesting and it was just long enough. If you like musicals, I recommend it. And I repeat in flagrant defiance of all other reviewers including Amazon's sarcastic, caustic professional, Tab Hunter did just fine. I personally dislike Ray Walston, but he was a biggie in his time. And Gwen Verdon was a dream. Finally, Edith Bunker deserved bigger billing!"
Nice preservation of the Broadway show
James M. Shertzer | Winston-Salem NC | 10/14/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)

"When Warners brought Adler and Ross's "Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees" to the screen, they make a wise choice: they brought most of the shows' original Broadway casts with them, substituting just two photogenic major studio contract players (Doris Day for Janis Paige in "Game" and Tab Hunter for Stephen Douglass in "Yankees") in leading roles. In Day's case it was probably an improvement; Hunter's not great but he's no embarrassment. Stanley Donen (on loan from MGM?) teamed up with the great stage director George Abbott for the films, and (thankfully!) Bob Fosse restaged his original dance numbers. Naturally there had to be some cuts - risque material ("The Game" in "Yankees", "Think of the Time I Save" in "Pajama") was excised - and the shows were tightened. But the spirits of the original shows were better captured than in most Hollywood transfers. The new DVD of "Yankees" arrived today and it's regrettable that there are no bonuses and there's no stereo track (unlike MGM and Fox, Warners apparently didn't believe much in multichannel recording at the time). But the show, though a little dated, is still great fun. Anyone who knows Ray Walston merely from "My Favorite Martian" is due for a special treat. Vernon, whose Hollywood career during her musical prime was far too brief, is ALWAYS a treat, and Lola was one of her signature roles. The Warnercolor transfer looks pretty good for a film nearly 50 years old. I remember Warnercolor veering a little to the dark side of the color palette but that seems to have been compensated for here."
Good soul-searching musical.
Chris Aldridge | Washington, DC USA | 02/10/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)

"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 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 retaining most of the Broadway cast of the show in the first place. I've read that the studio tried to lure Marilyn Monroe into playing the Lola role (and assuring box-office returns), but the producers were smart enough to know that the role needed a real dancer-actress combination. In short, it needed Gwen Verdon. It needed her special brand of eccentricity, sexiness, and heartbreak. And it got her. If you're still not convinced, take another look at the exquisite cafe' dance of "Two Lost Souls.""