It is Sunday morning and I went to Prime for today’s Genre-ary DailyView, and I head for the world of baseball and the classic musical Damn Yankees. 

I did not know that this was a twist on the Faustus legend, where a character sells their soul to the devil in exchange for some kind of success on earth.

In this case, Applegate (Ray Walston), who was the Devil in disguise, approached middle aged man Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) and offered him a chance to reclaim a youthful desire to become the greatest baseball player for his beloved Washington Senators and help them win the pennant. Applegate turned Joe into a younger man and named him Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter). Hardy goes to the Senators for a try-out and impresses everyone.

One of my favorite musical songs appeared in this film. I have a connection to “Heart” (which was performed on General Hospital at their Nurses’ Ball). It is such an upbeat and energetic song and this performance was enjoyable.

I loved Ray Walston’s performance in this movie. He was very much over the top and funny with his evilness. 

I’m not sure I loved how the final scene played out because I am not sure it made any sense in what happened, but I was happy that it turned out as a happy ending. I’m just not sure about the execution of the decision.

Lola (Gwen Verdon) was Applegate’s demonic servant, who was brought to corrupt Joe, who was still in love with his wife (Shannon Bolin).

It was also fun to see Jean Stapleton as one of Joe’s wife’s friends. 

I liked this one. It was a lot of fun and engaging performances, with some good music.