Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Movie Info

This is the best day ever…nothing can ruin how I feel!

Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) is set on taking a wife and he finds the perfect one in Milly (Jane Powell).  What Milly doesn’t realize is that Adam wants someone who will not only take care of him but his six brothers Benjamin (Jeff Richards), Caleb (Matt Mattox), Daniel (Marc Platt), Ephraim (Jacques d’Amboise), Frankincense aka Frank (Tommy Rall), and Gideon (Russ Tamblyn)…something Milly doesn’t intend to do.  Milly must get the boys to go to town to find brides, but when Adam suggests an absurd means to get the women, the “capture” of the brides might cause more problems than Milly ever planned.

Directed by Stanley Donen, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical romance based on Stephen Vincent Benét’s 1937 short story “The Sobbin’ Women” which was published in Thirteen O’Clock:  Stories of Several Worlds and used the story of legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women as its basis.  The movie is frequently listed among “Best Musicals” and won an Academy Award for Best Score with nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography (Color), and Best Film Editing.  It was added to the National Film Registry for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2004.

All I knew about Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is the barn dance sequence which frequently is played.  I didn’t know any songs or the story.  Having watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I can’t say it is one of my favorite musicals…and the movie hasn’t aged well socially.

I’m sure with six brothers and six wives there will be tons of character development…

The Rape of the Sabine Women tells how Romans would essentially carry off women as spoils of war.  Here, that story is played for laughs when the brothers realize there is no chance of marrying their intended women because of the town folks who refuse to allow them and they decide to forcibly kidnap them from their homes.  The women object at first but come around when trapped for the winter and the men start acting nicer…which is pretty absurd and that you get six women suffering from Stockholm Syndrome are married off by their fathers to end the film.  It just doesn’t fly well today.

The cast is rather strong.  Howard Keel and his booming voice provide a good lead while Jane Powell is the only woman who stands her ground somewhat in the movie.  The youngest brother is played by Russ Tamblyn who went on West Side Story and Twin Peaks among other things.  One of the “brides” (who are pretty undeveloped) is Julie Newmar (who is credited as Julie Newmeyer).

I’m sure once you all realize that Adam is the One God that we’ll all laugh about how you were kidnapped and enslaved

The movie was shot on a soundstage and looks like it (though it is deftly shot).  There are occasional stock footage style shots outside, but a majority of the movie is just sets.  It was shot in a nice widescreen Cinemascope version, but the movie also was shot in a regular ratio format because the filmmakers feared that not enough studios would be able to play Cinemascope.

I recognize that Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is an important movie in that it was a massive success and helped really fine tune the musical format, but I can’t say I loved it very much.  The music and the story aren’t very inspiring and with so many musicals that are more upbeat and fun.  The movie was adapted for the stage in 1978 and had a short lived TV series in the ’80s (which featured a young River Phoenix).