Seven Brides for Seven Brothers | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Stanley Donen |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | "The Sobbin' Women" 1938 story in Argosy by Stephen Vincent Benét |
Produced by | Jack Cummings |
Starring | |
Cinematography | George Folsey |
Edited by | Ralph E. Winters |
Music by | Gene de Paul Johnny Mercer (lyrics) Adolph Deutsch (musical direction) Saul Chaplin (musical supervision) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Loew's, Inc. |
Release dates |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2,540,000 [2] |
Box office | $9,403,000 [2] [3] |
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a 1954 American musical film, directed by Stanley Donen, with music by 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." [4] The film was photographed in Ansco Color in the CinemaScope format. [5]
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."
In 1850, backwoodsman Adam Pontipee arrives at an Oregon Territory town to look for a bride and breaks into song about it. ("Bless Your Beautiful Hide"). He eventually meets Milly and proposes to her after seeing her strength, hardworking attitude, and the quality of her cooking. He is further pleased at Milly’s insistence on finishing her chores before she leaves with him. Despite not knowing him well, she accepts Adam’s proposal under the belief she will be taking care of only him and she sings about it ("Wonderful, Wonderful Day").
When they arrive at his mountain cabin however, she is surprised to learn that he has six brothers – Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank, and Gideon – who all live uncouth lives with him. As Adam walks her through their house, he informs her she will be responsible for cleaning, laundering, and cooking for all of them, telling her to make dinner and leaving her alone in the kitchen. After a disastrous dinner, an angered Milly accuses Adam of manipulating her into becoming his servant, but he acknowledges that he wanted to marry someone strong and hardworking to work alongside him due to how difficult living in the backwoods is. Adam plans on sleeping outside to avoid losing face with his brothers after Milly refuses to share a bed with him. She eventually lets Adam back into the room upon seeing him climb up to sleep in a tree, explaining she had high hopes regarding marriage and love and decides to sing a song ("When You're in Love").
The next morning, Milly uses her cleverness, skills, and persuasion to begin teaching the Pontipee brothers cleanliness and proper manners. She is later surprised to learn that despite their handsomeness, Adam's brothers have remained unmarried because they rarely see women and never learned how to interact with them. Despite initial difficulties in changing their "mountain man" ways, they realize they can find someone to marry if they follow Milly's example. They then sing ("Goin' Co'tin'"). At a barn-raising social gathering, the brothers meet the townswomen Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah, and Alice, all of whom take a fancy to one of the brothers despite the women already having suitors, resulting in another song ("Barn Dance"). The suitors taunt and sneakily attack the Pontipees during the barn raising. The brothers resist the urge to fight at Milly's previous request even after the suitors hit the brothers with the barn-raising tools and boards, but one suitor then attacks Adam, provoking Gideon to retaliate. A brawl ensues in which the physically superior Pontipees overpower the suitors, but the Pontipees anger the townspeople by ruining the barn raising and beating down their men. This cuts down their chances of being with the women they care for.
As winter comes and the brothers pine for the women they fell in love with they sing ("Lonesome Polecat"), and Milly asks Adam to help them. He reads his brothers "The Sobbin' Women" and Milly's Bible, telling them they should do whatever it takes to get their loves.
With Adam's aid, the brothers kidnap the six women before causing an avalanche in Echo Pass to stop the pursuing townspeople. However, the Pontipees realize they forgot to kidnap a parson to conduct their weddings, and they will be snowed in at their homestead until spring. Furious at the Pontipees' actions, Milly forces the men to live in the barn while the women stay in the house with her, sleeping in the brothers' beds. In response, a similarly furious Adam leaves for the Pontipees' trapping cabin further up the mountain to spend the winter alone. Gideon tells Milly, but she refuses to stop Adam from leaving.
Over the winter, the women vent their frustrations by pranking the remaining Pontipees and muse upon their slowly softening feelings towards marriage and decide to sing ("June Bride"). Milly informs the women that she is pregnant with Adam’s child and will give birth in the spring. Spring arrives and the women and the Pontipees are paired off and happy in each other's company prompting another song ("Spring, Spring") until Milly announces she is having Adam's baby, causing everyone present to come together to help her. She gives birth to a baby girl and Gideon leaves to tell Adam. Adam still refuses to return, despite learning that he has a child. He expresses anger that Milly has had a girl rather than a boy and accuses her of having a baby just to make him come home. Gideon rebukes him for his selfishness and punches him before leaving, stating that he is ashamed of Adam's behavior towards Milly. Angered, Adam sends Gideon home. After the snow in Echo Pass melts, Adam returns, as he had said he would. He meets his daughter, and together, he and Milly choose a name for her: Hannah. Adam states that while he was in the hunting lodge after hearing about the birth of his daughter, he started to understand how the townspeople would feel having their daughters stolen away from them. He realizes how worried the townspeople must be over the missing women and tells his brothers they should return them. The brothers—although heartbroken—acquiesce, and attempt to bring their respective brides back to their families, but the women run and hide, refusing to go back to town. The brothers try to gather the women to bring them back to the town only to encounter the angry townspeople, who have come through the pass intending to hang them for kidnapping the girls.
Alice's father, Reverend Elcott, hears Hannah crying as the townspeople sneak up onto the farm. Assuming the baby belongs to one of the six townswomen, he asks them whose child Hannah is. After they all answer "mine", the fathers begrudgingly agree to give the six brothers and the six women a collective shotgun wedding.
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. [6] [7]
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. [8]
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.
According to Dore Schary, Joseph Losey recommended the Stephen Vincent Benet story “The Sobbin’ Women” as the basis for a musical film to Schary when the latter was head of production at RKO. Schary tried to get the rights but Joshua Logan had it under option for a stage production. [13] When Logan dropped the option, Schary arranged for MGM to purchase the rights. Schary later said "everything worked" on the film. [14]
Dorothy Kingsley was brought on to the film to replace Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett who she says "didn't get along with Stanley Donen. They were lovely people, darling . . . but the script just wasn't coming out right, they were unhappy, and he was unhappy. They wanted to bow out. Stanley Donen called me in and I looked at the script and said, "The big trouble in the original short story is that the Howard Keel character is the one that tries to get all of these boys married off, and that's not right. The girl has nothing to do, and she's got to be the one to engineer all this stuff." That was changed around and seemed to please everyone, and we went from there." [15]
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." [16]
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." [17] 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. [17]
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. [12]
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. [18]
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 1999 LaserDisc and 2004 DVD releases.
The dresses worn by the female cast were made from old quilts that costume designer Walter Plunkett found at the Salvation Army. [12]
Howard Keel wrote in his memoirs "Donen did a good job directing Seven Brides, but the real hero and brains behind it was Jack Cummings." [19]
Donen later said making the film was "a nightmare because it was a terrible struggle from the beginning of the picture until the end." [20]
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 | Characters | Vocalists (Singers and speakers etc.) | Instrumental Music | Year recorded |
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Main Title | N/A | N/A | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1954 |
Bless Your Beautiful Hide | Adam | Howard Keel | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1953 |
Bless Your Beautiful Hide (reprise) | Adam | Howard Keel | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1954 |
Wonderful, Wonderful Day | Milly | Jane Powell | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1954 |
When You're in Love | Milly | Jane Powell | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1953 |
Goin' Courtin' | Milly and Brothers | Jane 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 (reprise) | Adam | Howard Keel | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1953 |
Lonesome Polecat | The Brothers | Bill Lee and the M-G-M Studio Chorus | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1954 |
Sobbin' Women | Adam & Brothers | Howard 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 Bride | The Brides | Virginia Gibson, Barbara Ames, Betty Allan, Betty Noyes, Marie Vernon & Norma Zimmer | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1954 |
June Bride (reprise) | Brides & Milly | Virginia Gibson, Barbara Ames, Betty Allan, Betty Noyes, Marie Vernon & Norma Zimmer & Jane Powell | M-G-M Studio Orchestra | 1954 |
Spring, Spring, Spring | Brothers & Brides | Howard 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 |
Contemporary reviews from critics were positive. When it premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, 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." [21]
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." [22] 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." [23] Harrison's Reports called it "A thoroughly delightful blend of songs, dances and romantic comedy" with "exceptionally good musical numbers." [24] 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." [25]
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. [26]
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was the 5th most popular film at the British box office in 1955. [27]
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. [2]
The film came in third in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Number One Essential Musicals" [28] 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 's list of the 500 greatest films of all time. [29]
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. [30]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
The following slogan was used to publicize the film in 1954:
Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).
Stanley Donen was an American film director and choreographer. He received the Honorary Academy Award in 1998, and the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2004. Four of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.
Michael Kidd was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and who staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Kidd, strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.
Jacques d'Amboise was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and educator. He joined the New York City Ballet in 1949 and was named principal dancer in 1953, and throughout his time with the company he danced 24 roles for George Balanchine. He also made film appearances, including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Carousel. He choreographed 17 ballets for the New York City Ballet and retired from performing in 1984.
Russell Irving Tamblyn, also known as Rusty Tamblyn, is an American film and television actor and dancer.
Charade is a 1963 American romantic comedy mystery film produced and directed by Stanley Donen, written by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. The cast also features Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy, Dominique Minot, Ned Glass, and Jacques Marin. It spans three genres, suspense thriller, romance and comedy.
That's Dancing! is a 1985 American compilation film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that looked back at the history of dancing in film. Unlike the That's Entertainment! series, this film not only focuses specifically on MGM films, but also included films from other studios.
A dream ballet, in musical theater, is an all-dance, no-singing production number that reflects the themes of the production. The plot, themes, and characters are typically the same—although the people playing the characters may be different, as the roles of the dream ballet are usually filled by well-trained dancers rather than actual actors.
Dorothy Kingsley was an American screenwriter, who worked extensively in film, radio, and television.
Matt Mattox was an American jazz and ballet dancer. He was a Broadway performer and a specialty dancer in many Hollywood musicals. His best-known film role was as Caleb Pontipee in the 1954 film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Royal Wedding is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, the film follows an American brother-sister song and dance duo who, while performing, each fall in love — he, with a female dancer, and she, with an impoverished but well-connected nobleman. The film marked Donen's second directorial feature. It was released as Wedding Bells in the United Kingdom.
The Opposite Sex is a 1956 American musical romantic comedy film shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope. The film was directed by David Miller and stars June Allyson, Joan Collins, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, and Ann Miller, with Leslie Nielsen, Jeff Richards, Agnes Moorehead, Charlotte Greenwood, Joan Blondell, and Sam Levene.
Deep in My Heart is a 1954 American MGM biographical musical film about the life of operetta composer Sigmund Romberg, who wrote the music for The Student Prince, The Desert Song, and The New Moon, among others. Leonard Spigelgass adapted the film from Elliott Arnold's 1949 biography of the same name. Roger Edens produced, Stanley Donen directed and Eugene Loring choreographed. José Ferrer played Romberg, with support from soprano Helen Traubel as a fictional character and Merle Oberon as actress, playwright, librettist, producer, and director Dorothy Donnelly.
John Cummings was an American film producer and director. He was best known for being a leading producer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
It's Always Fair Weather is a 1955 MGM musical satire scripted by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who also wrote the show's lyrics, with music by André Previn and starring Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray, and dancer/choreographer Michael Kidd in his first film acting role.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical with a book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, music by Gene de Paul, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn. It is based on the 1954 Stanley Donen film of the same name which is, itself, an adaption of the short story "The Sobbin' Women," by Stephen Vincent Benét, based on the Ancient Roman legend of The Rape of the Sabine Women.
On the Town is a 1949 American Technicolor musical film with music by Leonard Bernstein and Roger Edens and book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. It is an adaptation of the Broadway stage musical of the same name produced in 1944, although many changes in the script and score were made to the original stage version; for instance, most of Bernstein's score was dropped in favor of new songs by Edens, who felt that the majority of Bernstein's music was too complex and too operatic for film audiences. This caused Bernstein to boycott the film.
Samuel Attwater is an English actor and singer who played Leon Small in the British soap opera EastEnders and its online spin-off EastEnders: E20.
Aamhi Satpute is a 2008 Indian Marathi-language comedy drama film directed and produced by Sachin Pilgaonkar. It stars Sachin Pilgaonkar, Supriya Pilgaonkar, Swapnil Joshi, Amruta Sant and Ashok Saraf. The film was a remake of 1954 American film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Supriya Pilgaonkar won Maharashtracha Favourite Kon? Award for favourite actress for her performance in the movie. Also won favourite jodi award along with sachin Pilgaonkar
Alejandro Bernardo Quiroga, better known as Alex Romero was an American dancer and choreographer who was noted for directing Elvis Presley's dancing in the movie Jailhouse Rock and for working with noted dancers and choreographers at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the 1940s and 1950s.