Best movie of this year hands down!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Gwen Vernon is a force of nature! I'm not sure how long her and Bob Fosse were married, but together they were fire storm! Ray Walston is sheer perfection as the arrogant spoiled man-child Devil...Oh and Tab Hunter, that shy, humble hunk of mid-west corn fed young man...Mmmm Mmmm...I could go on and on about the entire amazing cast...One of the best musicals of all time!

This is a largely uninspired movie. There are a few memorable musical numbers - "You gotta have heart", "What Lola wants" - but even they aren't staged in a memorable way. The musical ran for years on Broadway, so there must have been something to it. But whatever it was didn't transfer to this movie.Some of it may have had to do with casting the then-popular Tab Hunter in the male lead. He wasn't a dancer, so that leaves Gwen Verdon, who was a fine dancer, to dance largely by herself. And that, in a movie musical, is a problem. It's one of the things, for example, that separates the Eleanor Parker movies from the Astaire-Rodgers movies.But the script is also flat. Compare this movie to Music Man, for example, which also only has 3 memorable musical numbers. But that has a great script, incredible energy, wonderful lines. This is simply not at the same level.And no, it really has next to nothing to do with baseball.There's nothing actually wrong with this movie. No one gives a bad performance. It just doesn't have much energy, and doesn't get us to care about any of the characters.Again, I suspect the Broadway show was a lot better.

This is not a very good musical. So much is lacking: the lead actor can't dance enough for the big production number, the lead actress can dance but is downright homely (there's a point in the script where she says she used to be the ugliest girl in such-and-such a town before Ray Walston turned her into a vamp, and one can't help but think, gosh, is this the best he could do? It makes the devil seem damn weak.) That young Tab Hunter is so pretty makes her uglier in comparison--just bad, bad, casting. (She no doubt looked leggy and good from a second balcony, but on screen--gah!) Most of the dancing is dull, shockingly enough to this Fossy choreography fan, until the big drunken production number. And the songs aren't good at all.What's better about it is that the plot (until the illogical ending) is an engaging baseball-Faust, Tab Hunter is sweet and adorable as Shoeless Joe, Ray Walston is as terrific as he always is, and the wardrobe is quite good.But since a major thrust of the plot is Lola's attempted seduction of Joe, and she's just so awfully homely, the plot is weakened. That leaves Ray Walston being devilish and Tab Hunter being aw-shucks cute--perhaps enough to support a straight comedy, but not nearly enough to support a musical-comedy.The same group of songwriters, etc. did Pajama Game, which is a much better musical, with a couple wonderful songs. Knowing this one had run for several years on Broadway, I had hoped for something as good as Pajama Game but was disappointed.

This musical, when revived about a decade ago with Jerry Lewis as Applegate, was referred to as a fable for the Eisenhower Years. It is set in a faintly comfortable period (once the McCarthyite Persecutions were finished), because the concept of this musical was the preoccupation of the American public with the national pastime of baseball, and it's singular domination (between 1947 and 1962) by the New York Yankees. Although the Yankees had had other periods of greatness, with Ruth, Gehrig, "Murderers Row" in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they had to share the domination of the World Series with other teams in that period (the Philadelphia Athletics, the Detroit Tigers, and the St. Louis Cardinals, to name three). But the Yankees in this period started with Joe DiMaggio, entered into the period dominated by Mickey Mantel, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Don Larsen, Roger Maris, and presided over by Casey Stengel. They did not always win (one memorable defeat was by their perennial enemy the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1955), but they won so often that to non-baseball fans it was monotonous to follow the sports news: you knew what should finally happen.So the background of this baseball era is important to understand the musical (one of the few times the actual historical background of the time the musical was created becomes that important). Joe Boyd (Robert Shafer) is a fanatical baseball lover and fan of the woebegone Washington Senators (the saying for many years about the Senators was, "First in war, first in peace, and last in their league."). The team had only one great moment: in 1924 they won the World Series when the team had one of baseball's greatest players on it - Walter Johnson. But it never really was in competition again after that. But Boyd is a fan, and he makes the mistake of being willing to sell his soul to allow the Senators a chance to win the series again. Enter Mr. Applegate (a.k.a. the Devil) played fiendishly well by Ray Walston. He offers Joe a contract that will make Joe the greatest baseball player of all time - and lead to the world series - in return for his soul. Hesitant at first, Joe agrees. He is transformed into Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter), and proceeds to try to join the Senators (with Applegate as his agent).The Devil can never be trusted in any agreement. Applegate hopes to cause a wave of hope and hysteria by the anti-Yankee baseball public, letting Joe lead his team to the World Series. He plans to pull the rug from underneath the team at the final moment. Unfortunately Joe is a good salesman on his own, and has insisted on an escape clause for himself. Applegate has to accept it for the sake of his own plans. The escape clause is there because Joe loves his wife Meg (Sharon Bolin) and does not want her to be hurt. So Applegate decides to recruit his best female agent, Lola (Gwen Vernon) to vamp Joe and make him forget Meg. But Joe is too faithful, and succeeds in overcoming Lola's "irrisistable" personality (as she sings, "Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets" - except here). Lola, shaken by the experience, becomes a type of groupie for Joe - and eventually starts a mini-revolt on her own against Applegate.The score of the show is memorable. Besides the key song "Heart" (sung by the Washington team players), and Lola's "Whatever" number, there is also "Two Lost Souls", "Goodbye Old Girl" and Walston's wonderful "Those were the good old days!" (when he fondly recalls all the tragedies he created in the history of mankind - including the day Jack the Ripper was born). Walston was not nominated for any awards for the movie performance*, but his Applegate is one of his best film performances, with his Gillis in SOUTH PACIFIC. He had played both on Broadway first, so we are lucky to have his film performances here.*(But won the Tony Award for the role on stage.)Stanley Donan co-directed this film with George Abbott. Abbott was usually a stage director (he had done the musical on Broadway). There is a moment when it is apparent that he is directing. There is a small dance done by one of the three ball players in the "Heart" number, and the close-up of the player as he smiles shyly and steps forward is out of place in the film - but would have worked on stage.