Seven Brides for Seven Brothers


Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a 1954 American musical film, directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and choreography by Michael Kidd. The screenplay, by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley, is based on the short story "The Sobbin' Women", by Stephen Vincent Benét, which was based in turn on the Ancient Roman legend of The Rape of the Sabine Women. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which is set in Oregon in 1850, is particularly known for Kidd's unusual choreography, which makes dance numbers out of such mundane frontier pursuits as chopping wood and raising a barn. Film critic Stephanie Zacharek has called the barn-raising sequence in Seven Brides "one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen." The film was photographed in Ansco Color in the CinemaScope format.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers won the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and was nominated for four additional awards, including Best Picture. In 2006, American Film Institute named Seven Brides for Seven Brothers as one of the best American musical films ever made. In 2004, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Plot

In 1850, backwoodsman Adam Pontipee comes to town in the Oregon Territory to shop and look for a bride. He eventually comes upon the local tavern, where he sees Milly chopping wood. After being convinced of her worth by the quality of her cooking and her insistence on finishing her chores before she would leave with him, he proposes and she accepts despite knowing him for only a few hours.
On the journey home, Milly talks about how she is excited to be cooking and taking care of only one man while Adam begins to look uncomfortable. When they arrive at his cabin in the mountains, Milly is surprised to learn that Adam is the eldest of seven brothers living under the same roof. The brothers have been given Bible names alphabetically: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank, and Gideon. All of the brothers have red hair, and all but Gideon are well over six feet tall. Milly is also shocked at how dirty their house is, along with how unkempt and uncouth Adam and his brothers are. Later that night, Milly is angry and tells Adam that he wanted a servant girl instead of a wife. Adam acknowledges he needed her to be able to work because living in the backwoods is a hard life. After he plans to spend the night sleeping in a tree outside their window so that he won't lose face with his brothers, she relents after explaining she was upset because she had had high hopes of marriage and love.
The next morning, Milly decides to teach Adam and his brothers cleanliness and proper manners - especially at the table during meals. After the brothers wash and shave, Milly is shocked at how handsome they are, and that none of them got married. It turns out that the brothers rarely saw girls and never learned how to communicate with them. At first, the brothers have a hard time changing from their "mountain man" ways, but eventually come to see their only chance to get brides of their own is to do things Milly's way. They try out their new manners at a social gathering in the town, where they meet six women they like – Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah, and Alice. The girls take a fancy to the brothers as well. However, all of them already have suitors among the young men of the town, who taunt the brothers into fighting during the barn-raising. At first, the six brothers remember Milly's teachings and try to resist being drawn into a fight. The suitors finally go too far when they attack Adam, provoking Gideon into fighting back. A brawl ensues in which the brothers dominate their physically weaker town rivals. Although the Pontipee brothers did not start the fight, they are kicked out of the town by the townspeople.
Winter comes, and the six younger brothers are pining for the girls they had fallen in love with. Milly asks Adam to talk to the brothers as she fears they will want to leave because of missing the girls. Adam reads his brothers the story of "The Sobbin' Women", from the book of Stories from Plutarch that Milly had brought to the homestead along with her Bible. He tells them that they should take whatever action is necessary to get their women.
Aided by Adam, the brothers kidnap the six girls, then cause an avalanche in Echo Pass so the townspeople can't pursue them. The Pontipee homestead is cut off from the town until the spring thaw opens Echo Pass again. The only problem: the brothers forgot to bring the parson along to perform the marriages. Milly is furious with Adam and his brothers for kidnapping the women, and she kicks Adam and his brothers out of their house and sends them to the barn to "eat and sleep with the rest of the livestock," while the women stay in the house with her.
Adam, angered by Milly's action, leaves for the trapping cabin further up the mountain to spend the winter by himself. Gideon tells Milly and begs her to tell Adam not to leave, but Milly refuses, saying: "He's gotta learn that he can't treat people this way."
Winter slowly passes, and the women vent their frustrations by pulling pranks on the brothers, though there is clear attraction on both sides. After Milly announces that she's going to have a baby, the women and the brothers come together as a family. Milly gives birth to a daughter, in the spring. The daughter is named Hannah as a continuum to the names in alphabetical order, the last one being Gideon. Gideon rides to the cabin to inform Adam of his daughter's arrival and asks him to come home. Adam refuses, saying that he had said he would return home when the pass was open.
Adam does return home, when Echo Pass comes open, to reconcile with Milly and meet his new daughter. As a newly responsible father, he has become aware of how worried the townspeople would be about what has happened to the six abducted girls. Adam admits that he would have hung his daughter's kidnapper on the nearest tree; Milly forgives him for his past behavior.
Adam tells his brothers they need to return the women to their families; the brothers are unwilling, believing their parents won't let them marry their daughters, and the other six women refuse to return to their families, lest their parents to force them to return to their former suitors; they run away to hide. When Milly discovers that they are not in the house, Adam tells the brothers to find them and bring them back.
The townspeople arrive, intent on hanging the Pontipee brothers for the kidnappings. The fathers, who find the brothers trying to force the women to return to town, misunderstand their efforts as assault, and charge to the girls' rescue.
Alice's father, Reverend Elcott -- the minister the brothers had forgotten to grab when they took the girls—hears baby Hannah cry in the distance, and worries that the baby might belong to one of the kidnapped girls. Elcott asks the girls whose baby he heard, and to not be afraid to tell. They each answer "Mine." This misinformation serves the women's and the brothers' needs: the townspeople, including the girls' fathers, insist on immediate shotgun weddings, which are performed by Reverend Elcott, while Adam and Milly watch and the fathers stand behind their respective daughters' grooms, guns over their arms. The film ends with the brothers kissing their respective brides in the living room of the Pontipee cabin.

Cast

The Brothers and their Brides:
To perform the dance numbers and action sequences, choreographer Michael Kidd wanted dancers to portray all six of Adam Pontipee's brothers. Kidd said that he "had to find a way to have these backwoods men dance without looking ridiculous. I had to base it all around activities you would accept from such people – it couldn't look like ballet. And it could only have been done by superbly trained dancers." However, he was able to integrate into the cast two non-dancer MGM contract players who were assigned to the film, Jeff Richards, who performed just the simpler dance numbers, and Russ Tamblyn, using him in the dance numbers by exploiting his talents as a gymnast and tumbler.
The other four brothers were portrayed by professional dancers – Matt Mattox, Marc Platt, Tommy Rall, and Jacques d'Amboise. All four balanced on a beam together during their barn-raising dance.
The wood-chopping scene in Lonesome Polecat was filmed in a single take.
Professional dancers played all seven of the brides.
The four girls whom Adam sees in the Bixby store when he first goes into town, are Dorcas, Ruth, Liza and Sarah.
Choreographer Michael Kidd originally turned down the film, recalling in 1997: "Here are these slobs living off in the woods. They have no schooling, they are uncouth, there's manure on the floor, the cows come in and out – and they're gonna get up and dance? We'd be laughed out of the house."
Lyricist Johnny Mercer said that the musical numbers were written at Kidd's behest, as an example "of how a songwriter sometimes has to take his cue from his collaborators." For example, Kidd explained to Mercer and dePaul his conception of the "Lonesome Polecat" number, the lament of the brothers for the women, and the two worked out the music and lyrics.
In his introduction to a showing on Turner Classic Movies on January 17, 2009, host Robert Osborne, as well as Jane Powell in her autobiography, The Girl Next Door, both say MGM was much less interested in Seven Brides than it was in Brigadoon which was also filming at the time, even cutting its budget and transferring the money to the Lerner and Loewe vehicle.
Most of the movie was shot on the MGM sound stages. One exterior sequence not filmed at the studio was shot on location at Corral Creek Canyon in Sun Valley, Idaho. It was here that the escape following the brothers' kidnapping their future brides and the avalanche that closed the pass was filmed.
On the 2004 DVD commentary, Stanley Donen states that the film was originally shot in two versions, one in CinemaScope and another in normal ratio, because MGM was concerned that not all theaters had the capability to screen it. Despite the fact that it cost more than the widescreen version to make, he says, the other version was never used. However both versions are available on the 2004 DVD release.
The dresses worn by the female cast were made from old quilts that costume designer Walter Plunkett found at the Salvation Army.

Songs and music

The "Main Title" is a medley of the songs "Sobbin' Women", "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" and "Wonderful, Wonderful Day".
In the film, Matt Mattox's voice is dubbed in by Bill Lee on "Lonesome Polecat". Mattox can be heard singing the song on the soundtrack album.
Song / Music
Title		CharactersVocalists
Instrumental
Music		Year
recorded
Main Title
N/A
N/A
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
Bless Your Beautiful HideAdam
Howard Keel
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1953
Bless Your Beautiful Hide Adam
Howard Keel
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
Wonderful, Wonderful DayMilly
Jane Powell
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
When You're in LoveMilly
Jane Powell
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1953
Goin' Courtin'Milly and BrothersJane Powell, Tommy Rall, Russ Tamblyn, Marc Platt,
Matt Mattox, Jacques d'Amboise, Jeff Richards,
Howard Hudson, Gene Lanham & Robert Wacker		M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1953
Barn Dance
N/A
N/A
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1953
Barn Raising
N/A
N/A
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
When You're in Love Adam
Howard Keel
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1953
Lonesome PolecatThe BrothersBill Lee and the M-G-M Studio ChorusM-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
Sobbin' WomenAdam & BrothersHoward Keel, Tommy Rall, Russ Tamblyn,
Matt Mattox, Alan Davies, C. Parlato, Marc Platt,
Robert Wacker, Gene Lanham & M. Spergel		M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1953
Kidnapped And Chase
N/A
N/A
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
June BrideThe BridesVirginia Gibson, Barbara Ames, Betty Allan,
Betty Noyes, Marie Vernon & Norma Zimmer		M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
June Bride Brides & MillyVirginia Gibson, Barbara Ames, Betty Allan,
Betty Noyes, Marie Vernon & Norma Zimmer
& Jane Powell		M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
Spring, Spring, SpringBrothers & BridesHoward Keel, Tommy Rall, Russ Tamblyn,
Matt Mattox, Alan Davies, C. Parlato,
Robert Wacker, Gene Lanham, M. Spergel, Bill Lee,
Virginia Gibson, Barbara Ames, Betty Allan,
Betty Noyes, Marie Vernon & Norma Zimmer		M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954
End Title
N/A
N/A
M-G-M Studio Orchestra
1954

Reception

Contemporary reviews from critics were positive. A. H. Weiler of The New York Times called the film "a wholly engaging, bouncy, tuneful and panchromatic package... Although the powers at M-G-M are deviating from the normal song-and-dance extravaganza in 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,' it is a gamble that is paying rich rewards." Variety wrote: "This is a happy, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, country type of musical with all the slickness of a Broadway show. It offers songs, dances and romancing in such a delightful package that word-of-mouth could talk it into solid business at the boxoffice." Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post declared: "Dandy dancing, singable songs and the ozone of originality make 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' the niftiest musical I've seen in months." Harrison's Reports called it "A thoroughly delightful blend of songs, dances and romantic comedy" with "exceptionally good musical numbers." The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the dances "give the picture its remarkably spirited and exhilarating quality... A minor weakness is the playing of Jane Powell, whose Milly is a somewhat colourless figure; Howard Keel, the brides and the brothers, however, are all admirable." John McCarten of The New Yorker posted a dissenting negative review, writing that the film "got on my nerves" and "struck me as desperately contrived and often witless," though he did concede that there were "some fine dances" in it.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 1955. According to MGM records it made $5,526,000 in the US and Canada and $3,877,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $3,198,000.
The film came in third in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Number One Essential Musicals" and was listed as number eight in the "Top 10 MGM musicals" in the book Top 10 of Film by Russell Ash. In 2004, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2006, it was ranked #21 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. In 2008, the film was ranked number 464 in Empire magazine's list of the 500 greatest films of all time.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes awards Seven Brides for Seven Brothers an 88% "Fresh" rating based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. The critics' consensus states: "Buoyed by crowd-pleasing tunes and charming performances, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers makes a successful transition from Broadway to screen that's sure to please the whole family," despite the fact that the movie was originally produced for film and debuted on Broadway over two decades later.

Publicity slogan

The following slogan was used to publicize the film in 1954:
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: