Damn Yankees is a 1958 American widescreen 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, 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 and centers on the New York Yankees and Washington Senators baseball teams. With the exception of Tab Hunter in the role of Joe Hardy, the Broadway principals reprise their stage roles, including Gwen Verdon as Lola.
Theatrical release poster
Hunter as Joe Hardy
George Francis Abbott was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. He received numerous honors including six Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1982. the National Medal of Arts in 1990. and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Abbott in 1928
George Abbott and Philip Dunning (1928)