Damn Yankees
(1958)
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Damn Yankees is a 1958 musical film made by Warner Bros., a modern version of the Faust story involving the New York Yankees and Washington Senators baseball teams. The film is based on the 1955 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version was directed by George Abbott, as was the earlier stage version, with assistance from Stanley Donen. With the exception of Tab Hunter in the role of Joe Hardy, the Broadway principals reprised their stage roles, including Gwen Verdon as Lola. A notable difference between film and stage versions was Gwen Verdon's performance of the song "A Little Brains". For the film, Verdon’s suggestive hip movements were considered too risqué for a mainstream American film in 1958, and so, in the film, she simply pauses at these points. The film was released in the United Kingdom under the title What Lola Wants, to avoid use of the word "Damn" on posters, hoardings and cinema marquees. It was also possibly because the title's pun, alluding to the American Southerner's colloquial term for Northerners would be lost on foreign audiences.