Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Movie CD cover
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical film released in 1954. It was directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The script (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. The film was a 1954 Oscar nominee for Best Picture.
The film is particularly known for the unusual choreography by Michael Kidd, which makes dance numbers out of such mundane frontier pursuits as chopping wood and (most famously) raising a barn.
Plot summary
The film's story is about a backwoodsman named Adam Pontipee and his new bride Milly, who marries him after knowing him for only a few hours. On returning with him to his cabin in the mountains, Milly is surprised to learn that Adam is one of seven lumberjack brothers living in the same cabin. The brothers have been named alphabetically from the Bible: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank (short for Frankincense, the Bible supposedly having no names beginning with F- due to Hebrew using "Ph" instead, as in Phineas -- however, Felix, Festus and Fortunatus are all mentioned in the Bible), and Gideon. All of the brothers have red hair and are well over six feet tall, except Gideon, who is younger and shorter than his brothers.
Milly teaches Adam's rowdy, ill-behaved younger brothers manners and social mores, including how to dance. At first, the brothers have a hard time changing from their "mountain man" ways, but eventually they come to see that the only way they will get a girl of their own is if they do things Milly's way. They are able to test their new manners at a barn-raising, where they meet six girls they like—Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah and Alice—and, fortunately, the girls like the brothers too. However, the girls already have suitors who jealously taunt the brothers into fighting during the barn-raising, and, although the brothers do not start the fight, they are banished from the town by the townspeople because of it.
Winter arrives, and the six younger brothers mope for their girls. Adam reads his brothers the story of "Sobbin' Women" (a pun on the Sabine Women) and tells them that they should stop moping around and go get their girls (see bride kidnapping). The brothers do so, and then cause an avalanche so that they can't be followed by the townspeople. The girls are upset at being kidnapped, and Milly is furious at Adam. She consigns the brothers to the barn while the girls are living in the house. Adam, somewhat put out by Milly's reaction, leaves for the family's cabin to live out the winter by himself.
Months pass, and eventually it is spring. The girls have now fallen in love with the brothers, who are now allowed to court the girls. Milly gives birth to a daughter, Hannah (picking up the Biblical-alphabetical pattern). Gideon rides to the cabin to inform Adam about his daughter's arrival and asks Adam to come home, but Adam refuses to do so, saying that he would return home when the pass was open once more to traffic.
Adam, who has had time to think about his baby daughter, returns home in the spring. As a newly responsible father, he has become aware of how worried the townspeople would be about what has happened to the girls. Adam intends that the girls be taken back to their homes in the town by his brothers, but his brothers don't want to do so. The girls don't want to return to their homes, either — they all want to stay at the farm with their new suitors. When Milly discovers that the girls are not in the house, she mentions this to Adam, and he tells his brothers to go after the girls and bring them back.
Meanwhile, the townspeople arrive, with the intention of taking vengeance against the brothers for the kidnappings. Upon finding the brothers trying to force the girls to return, the fathers get the wrong impression and charge to their daughters' rescue. Then Alice's father, who is a preacher, hears a baby cry in the distance, and worries that the baby might belong to one of the girls. The fighting is sorted out, with the fathers rounding up the brothers and announcing that they intend to hang them. When Alice's father asks the girls whose baby it is, they all decide, simultaneously, to claim the baby as their own. This misinformation gives the girls and the brothers their greatest wish- the townspeople insist that all six couples marry immediately in a shotgun wedding.
Production
In his introduction to a showing of the film on TCM January 17, 2009, Robert Osborne says MGM was much less interested in the film than it was in Brigadoon which was also in production at the time, even cutting its budget and transferring the money to the Lerner and Lowe vehicle.
On the 2004 DVD commentary, Stanley Donen states that the film was originally shot in two versions, one widescreen 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. [1].
Cast
Brothers and their Brides:
Howard Keel as Adam and Jane Powell as Milly
Jeff Richards as Benjamin and Julie Newmar (Newmeyer) as Dorcas
Matt Mattox as Caleb and Ruta Lee as Ruth
Marc Platt as Daniel and Norma Doggett as Martha
Jacques d'Amboise as Ephraim and Virginia Gibson as Liza
Tommy Rall as Frank and Betty Carr as Sarah
Russ Tamblyn as Gideon and Nancy Kilgas as Alice
Songs
- Main Title (Bless your Beautiful hide / Wonderful Wonderful day) - MGM Studio and Orchestra
- Bless your Beautiful Hide - Howard Keel
- Bless your Beautiful Hide (Reprise) - Howard Keel
- Wonderful Wonderful Day - Jane Powell
- When you're in Love - Jane Powell / Howard Keel
- Goin' Co'tin - Jane Powell / Seven Brothers (Jeff Richards, Matt Mattox, Tommy Rall, Russ Tamblyn and more)
- Barn Dance - MGM Studio and Orchestra
- House-Raising Dance - MGM Studio and Orchestra
- Lonesome Polecat - Seven Brothers (Matt Mattox, Bill Lee, Jeff Richards, Tommy Rall Russ Tamblyn and more)
- Sobbin' Women - Howard Keel / Seven Brothers (Tommy Rall, Jeff Richards, Matt Mattox, Russ Tamblyn and more)
- Sobbin' Women (Reprise) - Howard Keel
- June Bride - Jane Powell / Seven Brides (Ruta Lee, Julie Newmar, Norma Doggett, Nancy Kilgas and more)
- Spring, Spring, Spring - Brothers and the Brides (Julie Newmar, Jeff Richards, Ruta Lee, Tommy Rall & more)
- Goin' Co'tin (reprise of musical chairs) - Jane Powell / Brothers and the Brides
- End Credits - MGM Studio and Orchestra
Brothers
To perform the electrifying dance numbers and grueling action sequences, choreographer Michael Kidd cast four professional dancers, a gymnast and even a baseball player as Adam Pontipee's six rough and tumble brothers.
Adam: Howard Keel appeared as "Adam," the romantic lead and eldest of the seven brothers.
Benjamin: Jeff Richards, who played "Benjamin," was a former professional baseball star.
Dancers: The actors playing Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim and Frank were all professional dancers - with Jacques d'Amboise (Ephraim) appearing on loan from the New York City Ballet. They balanced on a beam together during their famous barn-raising dance.
Gideon: Russ Tamblyn beat Morton Downey Jr. for the role of youngest brother Gideon. Tamblyn showcased his gymnastics training throughout the action sequences.
Brides
Professional dancers played all seven of the brides.
Milly: Jane Powell channeled her experiences growing up in Oregon to create Milly. She and Howard Keel would later reprise their roles in a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers stage revival.
Dorcas: Julie Newmar (Newmeyer), a classically trained ballerina, would later rise to fame as Catwoman in the 1960s TV version of Batman. She also won a Supporting Actress Tony Award for The Marriage-Go-Round (starring Claudette Colbert). She appeared on her neighbor Jim Belushi's sitcom According to Jim after the two settled a highly publicized lawsuit.
Ruth: Ruta Lee enjoyed a long stage and television career, working with Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr., Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood and Frank Sinatra. Lee appeared in the sitcom Roseanne as the first girlfriend of Roseanne's mother.
Martha: Norma Doggett performed in the 1940s-50s Broadway shows Bells Are Ringing, Fanny, Wish You Were Here, Miss Liberty and Magdalena.
Liza: Virginia Gibson was nominated for a Tony Award in 1957 and performed regularly on the Johnny Carson show.
Sarah: Betty Carr was also a Broadway veteran, dancing in Damn Yankees, Happy Hunting, Mask and Gown and Fanny (alongside Norma Doggett). She died in October 2008 (the first of the seven brides to pass away).
Alice: Nancy Kilgas made her film debut in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She danced in the film versions of Oklahoma, Shake Rattle & Rock and Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain.
Among the best
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers came third in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the UK's "Number One Essential Musicals". [2]
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers came eighth in the top 10 MGM musicals in the book Top 10 of Film by Russell Ash.
In 2004, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
In 2006 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ranked #21 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.
In 2008, the film ranked at number 464 in Empire magazine's list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[1]
- ^ http://www.empireonline.com/500/7.asp
Stage adaptation
In 1979, an adaptation with a book by Lawrence Kasha and David Landay, and new songs by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn were developed for the stage and enjoyed a lengthy critically and commercially successful national tour.
After fifteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Kasha and choreographed by Jerry Jackson, opened on July 8, 1982 at the Alvin Theatre, where it ran for only five performances. The cast included Debby Boone, David-James Carroll, Jeff Calhoun, and Lara Teeter.
Its sole Tony Award nomination was for Best Original Score.
A 1985 West End production proved to be more successful, and a London cast recording was released by First Night Records. A 2002 UK tour starred Dave Willetts.
In 2005, a major revival was staged at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House starring Jacquelyn Piro Donovan and Burke Moses. Directed by Greg Ganakas with choreography by Patti Colombo, the production earned rave reviews from Variety and the New York Times. Songs, Where Were You?,I Married Seven Brothers, and a revised version of Glad That You Were Born were added and the book was heavily rewritten. With a realistic approach, rustic orchestrations and a focus on the Oregon Trail, the show was quite different from its film predecessor.
Plans for a 2005-2006 National Tour of the Goodspeed Opera House production failed. However, in 2007, and this time under the direction of Scott Schwartz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers became a joint production between Houston Theatre Under the Stars, Paper Mill Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, and Atlanta Theatre of the Stars. With set design by Tony Award nominee, Anna Louizos, the current version is a hybrid between the literal approach of the Goodspeed production and the slapstick camp of the original film. While reviews were positive, the real attention was given to Patti Colombo's acrobatic, athletic, and inventive choreography.
The 2007 revival is expected to be the version that will be licensed by Music Theatre International for stock and regional use.
Television adaptation
From September 19, 1982 to July 2, 1983, CBS broadcasted a weekly television series of the same name, which was loosely-based on the film. The series featured early appearances of Richard Dean Anderson and River Phoenix.
See also
- Sabine
- Satte Pe Satta, a Bollywood remake. This Indian film's plotline also has seven brothers, the elder brother is married long before the others and his wife teaches the six brothers how to socialise and clean themselves up. However, apart from those similarities, the movie deviated significantly from the original Hollywood version.
- Bride kidnapping in films
External links
