Damn Yankees, Bedeviling Movie with Tab Hunter

I first saw this 1958 film when it aired on television, likely in the 1960s, but I really can't recall the year. It "may" have been first shown on one of the network movie nights, which were popular back in the 1960s and 1970s, as NBC, ABC and CBS all had such movie nights at some point in those days (there were no true cable stations back then). The networks would broadcast movies for their initial television showing that had been main features in movie theaters when they were released. I saw the movie again later a couple of times on local television, which was common after films had been shown once or twice on network television, and then these movies would often be rented out to local television stations.

The movie opens with a man watching a baseball game on television at home, as his wife, Meg, played by American actress Shannon Bolin, sits sewing. After a little while, the wife asks, "Is Washington winning, dear?" The husband answers, "No... Those damn Yankees." This brings the opening credits. Hm, "Those damn Yankees..." I've heard that said a few times in my life... a few thousand times! But I don't believe I ever said it myself, because I always said much worse than that. Hahaha! Actually that's not true, although perhaps in the heat of the moment I may have uttered something about the Yankees or some other opponent, my most scornful and curse filled lines would have been directed at my own Cleveland Indians team, a team that's deservedly had Cleveland fans utter more profanity laced statements ..... well, let me put it this way: if you think the transcripts of the Watergate tapes had a lot of messages of "expletive deleted," think again.

Anyway... we learn the man's name is Joe and Joe is a middle-aged guy, played by American actor Robert Shafer, who loves baseball and the Washington Senators. * Joe walks out onto his porch talking to himself about his team and how he wishes Washington had a power hitter. He wants a power hitter so much, he's willing to sell his soul for a player who can hit the long ball. When Joe turns around, there's a man standing behind him on his porch, a Mr. Applegate, played by American actor Ray Walston (later known for his role on "My Favorite Martian" in the 1960s). Applegate discusses Joe's desire to add a power hitter to the Washington ball club, and he takes up Joe's offer to trade his soul for that power hitter, especially since Joe always wanted to be a baseball player himself. Applegate tells Joe to come along with him, and he'll make him the greatest baseball player ever. Joe is convinced, especially when a couple of neighborhood ladies walk by, but they can't see Applegate, who is in plain view to Joe.** Now Joe knows that Applegate is legit, ah, illegit...oh, whatever the hell it is! Joe does get an escape clause; that is, he has until September 24 to get out of the deal; otherwise, Applegate gets his soul. (NOTE: In those times there were no playoffs, as there were no divisions, only 16 major league teams; 8 in the American League and 8 in the National League. Let me check my math.... let's see... 8 + 8 is ...ah, wait until I take my shoes off to use my toes... yep, 16! There was only the World Series, which was played between the two pennant winners; that is, the teams with the best record in their respective leagues. The World Series typically started within the first few days of October. In 1958, the year the film was released, the World Series actually began October 1.)

Applegate "changes" Joe from a guy of about 50 to a guy in his early 20s and he later tells the Press Joe is from Hannibal, Missouri, actually the hometown of Joe's wife, Meg. They go to the ballpark, where the Senators are practicing, and Applegate is able to get the Washington manager, played by American actor Russ Brown, to give Joe, who uses the name "Joe Hardy," a chance to swing the bat in practice. Joe proceeds to knock several pitches out of the park. The manager can't ignore such power, and he offers Joe a contract. Joe plays superbly and the Washington Senators begin to become a team to be reckoned with. Some wonder how such a great player just appeared from nowhere, but everyone is so happy, the questions are put aside, by most, except by some in the Press, especially a woman reporter, played by American actress Rae Allen.

In the meantime, Joe's wife misses him, and no matter how pessimistic her friends are about his return, Meg believes he'll come back. Joe decides to go and see her (remember, he's totally unrecognizable), and he tells her he heard she has a room for rent. After consulting with her friends, Meg agrees to rent Joe her husband's den. One of the neighbors recognizes Joe as Washington's new baseball savior, but it means nothing to Meg without her husband to tell her about the Senators. Applegate comes by and tells Joe to stay away from Meg and to concentrate on baseball, so the Senators can beat the Yankees, but it is Joe's love for Meg that upsets Applegate; after all, love is not the inspiring emotion in Hades. To pry Joe from his wife, Applegate promises to get Joe "a real sexy baby," but Applegate doesn't understand, and could never understand, Joe's love for Meg. Applegate goes to a phone booth and drops a good many coins into the slot to call Lola. I guess it took so many coins, because any call to the "infernal regions" is a long distance call.*** Applegate tells Lola about Joe and puts her on the case to seduce him to make Joe forget his wife. Applegate is happy that Washington fans are now brimming with hope since Joe's play has inspired the team. With people so hopeful, Applegate wants to pull the rug out from under the team at the last moment, which will bring despair to the fans, and despair, along with some suicides and heart attacks, is what will make the devil... ah, Applegate, happy.

The Press keeps asking questions about Joe, bringing Applegate to portray himself as a newspaper man from Joe's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, where he says everybody is proud of Joe.

Lola fails in her attempt to seduce Joe, as he proves to be a kind and respectful young man who only wants to get home to his wife. So Applegate feels he'll have to take matters in hand himself. Applegate goes to Joe's neighborhood and tells some stories, since Joe is living in the same house with Meg. He figures the gossip will force Meg to make Joe leave, and it does. The season is near its end, with only two games left, and Washington needs to win just one of the two games to win the American League pennant, but September 24th has come too. In the meantime, Lola joins Joe's fan club and she finds she is more than a little fond of Joe.

The lady reporter goes to Applegate to tell him she just came back from Hannibal, Missouri, where nobody knows Joe Hardy. Applegate deliberately drops a hint that Joe's name might not really be Joe Hardy, and he also drops the name Shifty McCoy, who the reporter finds out was a player who had thrown a game (that is, deliberately lost the game in exchange for some gain, usually money) in the Mexican League, but he'd been caught at it and nobody ever heard of him again. She naturally wonders if Shifty McCoy has resurfaced as Joe Hardy. The reporter digs up the old story and a new story about Joe Hardy hits the headlines. The baseball commissioner calls a hearing and Joe struggles to explain why no one in Hannibal knows him, but Applegate steps in and says he has someone flying in who actually knows Shifty McCoy. Applegate has to keep Joe busy until the escape clause is no longer valid, then Joe's soul is his and he plans to have Joe throw the game, just as he had Shifty McCoy do a few years earlier.

A tribute is held for Joe by various fan organizations, and Lola performs in one of the acts during the tribute. Washington fans are behind Joe and so is the team. Some believe the whole thing was instigated by the New York Yankees to thwart Washington's drive for the pennant. Meg and her neighbors are upset by the allegations against Joe and they decide to testify that they DO remember Joe (they were all originally from Hannibal). Other witnesses brought in from Hannibal by the newspaper say they don't remember Joe Hardy. At Applegate's, Lola tells Applegate she feels sorry for Joe, and Applegate has Lola repeat over and over, "Never feel sorry for anybody." Joe comes to see Applegate to tell him he wants to use the escape clause, that he now realizes that there is something more important than being a hero. Applegate tells Joe he needs to speak up at 5 minutes until midnight, and if other people are present, the two of them will go out of sight and Joe will be changed back to himself. Joe leaves and in order to rehabilitate Lola, whose feelings for Joe have seen her losing her devilishness, Applegate gives her the assignment to think of three dirty tricks, "and they'd better be good," he tells her.

At the hearing, Meg and the two neighbors come in and tell the commissioner they want to testify that they knew Joe in Hannibal. Meg even talks to one of the witnesses who testified against Joe, trying to make him remember Joe. Meanwhile it is nearly midnight and Joe grabs Applegate so he can exercise the escape clause. Meg takes Joe by the arm and the clock begins to strike midnight and Applegate smiles. It's too late, Joe's soul will belong to Applegate. Joe goes out and sits by himself, but Lola comes to him and tells Joe she gave Applegate pills that will knock him out until after the game is over, so Applegate can't cause Joe to lose the game for the Senators. Joe asks Lola what she had been before Applegate took her soul. She says, "I was the ugliest girl in Providence, Rhode Island." Joe calls them "two lost souls," and he gives Lola a kiss and off they go to a club for drinking, singing and dancing (hey, this is a musical).

The game is well underway, but Applegate awakens when the game is in the 7th inning, with Washington leading 1 to 0. Applegate quickly changes and takes Lola with him to go to the game. He tells Lola he knows she doped him, but he wants to know why. She says, "Because I love him," which is enough to make Applegate sick. The two get to the game, where it is the 9th inning, and Lola thinks it's too late for Applegate to use Joe to lose the game for Washington, but he tells her he will change Joe back to his former self, a statement that causes Lola to turn to leave, but Applegate changes her back to her former self, an ugly witch of a woman. The Yankees get a hit and have a runner at first, with two outs, and the very dangerous Mickey Mantle comes to bat. Mantle hits a long drive to center field. Joe runs back, but Applegate now changes him back to his old self, and the now much older man falls to the ground, then struggles enough to put his glove up and to catch the ball for the final out. Washington wins and Applegate is as hot as the Devil... ah, as mad as hell... ah, he's plenty angry. Joe runs through a door in the center field wall and disappears. Everyone wonders what has happened to Joe, and we hear speculation on the radio that a possible answer is about "foul play" by a group of New York gamblers who lost a bundle on the game. Joe goes home to Meg and who appears but Applegate. As Joe and Meg embrace, Applegate rants about how Joe has cheated and robbed him. He then disappears. 

* The Washington Senators were one of the original teams of the American League in Major League Baseball. They were also called the "Nationals," at times. This team has no historical connection to the present Washington Nationals, as the original Washington team moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, and became the Minnesota Twins, but it was immediately replaced by a brand new Washington Senators team (termed an "expansion team," because the American League then "expanded" to ten teams from eight teams). This team moved to Texas in 1972 to become the Texas Rangers, and it wasn't until 2005 that the Montreal Expos team moved to Washington to become the Washington Nationals that Washington DC again had a major league team, but it was now in the National League. Try not to be too confused, but I'll understand if you have trouble; after all, I lived through all of these changes and I have difficulty keeping track. 

** One of the ladies is played by American actress Jean Stapleton, who later became famous for her portrayal of Edith, the wife of Archie Bunker in the popular CBS television comedy series, "All in the Family."   

*** I guess I need to explain to younger people today, that in the past there were public landline telephones all over the place (no cellphones back then, AT ALL), usually in booths (some with wooden frames, some with metal frames, but both with lots of glass panes) with folding doors. There were standard charges for local calls, a dime when I was a kid, and if you called outside what was considered your local calling area, the cost of the call escalated according to its distance. You had to deposit the amount of the call into the coin slot, and such a call required the assistance of an operator. No credit card slots back then, but they did change that later. I can't quite remember, but I'll guess by 1980, but I don't believe all public phones had even changed by then. Even long distance calls made from home required an operator, and perhaps even more than one, as an operator in your home community might well connect you with an operator in the area you were calling. Understand, these things gradually changed over time, with metro areas seeing changes faster than in rural communities, but it took time for "direct dial" long distance calls to become nationwide. "Direct dial long distance" was when you didn't need an operator to connect you to the number, but you simply dialed it yourself and you were connected.


Photo is of Warner Home Entertainment DVD

WORD HISTORY: 
Seduce-This prefixed word, the main part of which is related to "duke" and "duct," words of Latin derivation borrowed by English, and it is distantly related to "tow" (as in, "tow your car"), a word going back to the Germanic roots of English, but connected to the previously mentioned words through Indo European. The "se-" goes back to Indo European "sed," a pronoun form which meant, "itself," ^ but also prepositionally meaning, "off to itself, by itself;" thus also, "apart." The main part of the word goes back to Indo European "deuk," which meant, "to lead, to guide, to draw or pull along" (that is, "to cause to move along"). This gave Latin "ducere," with the same meanings. These were combined in Latin as "seducere," literally meaning, "to lead off to itself;" thus, "to lead off, to lead away from," thus, "to lead astray." It was borrowed into English in the early 1500s, initially with the meaning, "to lead someone away from allegiance to an authority," its meaning at the time in Latin. Within just a few decades, it also took on the meaning in English, "to lure a woman into giving herself over for sexual purpose," but it wasn't long before the "luring" could be from either gender.  

^ For those familiar with German, the reflexive pronoun "sich" is from the same Indo European form, which gave Old Germanic "sek." Old English, Old Saxon and Old Frisian all changed, however, to use forms of the personal pronouns, in English: "itself," "himself," "herself."