Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (film)

• Release Date: 1954
• Director(s): Stanley Donen
• Writer(s): Frances Goodrich; Albert Hackett ; Dorothy Kingsley
• Principal Actors and Roles: Betty Carr (Sarah); Jacques D'amboise (Ephraim Pontipee); Norma Doggett (Martha); Virginia Gibson (Liza); Howard Keel (Adam Pontipee); Nancy Kilgas (Alice); Ruta Lee (Ruth); Matt Mattox (Caleb Pontipee); Julie Newmar (Dorcas); Marc Platt (Daniel Pontipee); Jane Powell (Milly); Tommy Rall (Frank Pontipee); Jeff Richards (Benjamin Pontipee); Russ Tamblyn (Gideon Pontipee)
• Book / Story Film Based On: The Sobbin' Women by Stephen Vincent Benet

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was a surprise box office hit for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios and was nominated for five Academy Awards. This American musical was one of the first to be shot in CinemaScope and Ansco Color, as well as in the standard smaller screen version.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers has lively music and dance routines, and the film is often described as rollicking, exuberant, and energetic. The songs and dances were well integrated into the plot, enhancing it and moving the story along.

The barn-raising dance is considered to be especially outstanding. Choreographer Michael Kidd borrowed Jacques d’Amboise from the New York City Ballet for the film, but some critics say that young Russ Tamblyn’s acrobatics stole the show. Another routine that draws special praise for both the music and choreography is "Lament (Lonesome Polecat)," which used wood-chopping to accent the rhythm of the mournful song.

MGM executives put most of the studio’s money into Brigadoon, which they thought would be the bigger hit. They were wrong. Director Stanley Donen fought for more money to shoot on location but the movie was shot mostly in MGM’s back lot. He also had to fight to get original music for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers since the studio thought they could use American folk songs. Lyricist Johnny Mercer was hired and partnered with Gene de Paul to write the songs, including "Bless Your Beautiful Hide," "June Bride," and "Sobbin’ Women."

Established stars Howard Keel and Jane Powell played lead parts and some critics feel they did the best work of their careers. Keel did not dance in the movie and Powell danced in only a few numbers, including "Goin’ Courtin’."

Plot

In 1850, the seven Pontipee brothers live in the mountains of the Oregon territory. When the oldest, Adam, decides he needs someone to cook and clean for them, he heads to town to find a wife. He proposes to Millie, who has been working in a boarding house. She accepts and tells Adam that she will be happy to only have one man to look after. It is not until they reach home that she discovers there are six more wild and unmannerly brothers. At first Millie is upset, saying that Adam only wanted a servant, but since she loves him, she sets to work to reform the younger brothers. She insists they wash and shave, and she teaches them how to court a lady. When they head to town for a barn raising, they are on their best behavior with the attractive women they meet. Unhappy about the brother’s success with the women, the men from town start a fight and the brothers head home in disgrace, knowing they will never be allowed to court the town women.

When winter comes, the unwed brothers are lonesome and Benjamin announces that he is leaving. Adam is determined to keep his family together so he tells the brothers the story of the Romans who kidnapped the Sabine women. Encouraged by Adam, the brothers kidnap the town women and flee, pursued by the town folk. After making it through a mountain pass, the brothers set off an avalanche, trapping the town folk on the other side of the pass.

Millie is horrified when they show up with six kidnapped women. She banishes the men to the barn and Adam, in a fit of pique, moves to a far off trapping cabin. Millie discovers she is pregnant and the other girls long to be married, too. When spring comes, the brothers resume their courting and Millie has her baby. When Adam hears about the baby he still refuses to return home. But with the mountain pass open again he fears the men from town will attack his brothers. He goes home, reconciles with Millie, and says the women must be returned to their families. The women run away because they want to stay. As the brothers round them up, the town folk arrive and are ready to hang the brothers. When Millie’s baby cries, each girl claims to be the mother, and six shotgun weddings are quickly performed.

Significance

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was a box office hit and received five Academy Award nominations for best picture, best original screenplay, best cinematography (color), best film editing, and best musical score. The music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, won for best score.

Other awards included a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination for best picture, and a Directors Guild of America nomination for Stanley Donen as best director. A Writers Guild of America award for best written American musical was shared by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Dorothy Kingsley.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was selected for the National Film Registry in 2004. The National Film Registry chooses films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to be preserved in the Library of Congress. The American Film Institute included Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in its list of the Greatest Movie Musicals of All Time. It was ranked twenty-first.

The musical was one of the first to use the new widescreen process known as CinemaScope together with Ansco Color. Many movie theaters did not have the equipment to show CinemaScope, so director Stanley Donen was required to shoot two versions of the film. One was in CinemaScope; the other was in the standard flat version. Scenes were staged, shot, and edited twice. The budget was already less than that for other movies being filmed, such as Brigadoon, and shooting two versions took a large portion of the budget. Therefore, Donen did not have the budget to shoot on location as he had hoped. Donen felt, however, that the new widescreen process was ideal for shooting fourteen brides and brothers who could be on screen at one time.

A television show called Here Come the Brides was loosely based on the movie and it lasted from 1968 through 1970. A short-lived stage version using the original title was produced in 1978 and briefly revived in 1982. Also in 1982 a musical television series called Seven Brides for Seven Brothers came out that changed the setting to a contemporary cattle ranch in California. It lasted until spring 1983.

Awards and nominations

Won

• Academy Award (1954) Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture

Nominated

• Academy Award (1954) Best Picture
• Academy Award (1954) Best Screenplay (Adapted): Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Dorothy Kingsley
• Academy Award (1954) Best Film Editing
• Academy Award (1954) Best Cinematography (Color)

Bibliography

Barrios, Richard. Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014. Print.

Bloom, Ken, and Jane Powell. Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song-and-dance Movies of All Time. New York: Black Dog, 2010. Print.

Hischak, Thomas S. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print

Kniffel, Leonard. Musicals on the Silver Screen. Chicago: Huron Street, 2013. Print.

Robinson, Mark A. The World of Musicals: An Encyclopedia of Stage, Screen, and Song. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 2014. Print.