Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

This month's film SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) is a film that seemed to be calling out to CrazyFilmGuy to be reviewed.  Every time I would flip through Turner Classic Movie's TV Guide with my remote to see what they were showing for a given week, SEVEN BRIDES would always seem to be one of the films on their schedule.  Its title was intriguing, leading me to ponder, "How could a family have seven boys?" But then I remembered I went to a Jesuit university where I met students that came from families that had nine, eleven, and even sixteen siblings.  Then, I read TCM's brief synopsis of the film.  SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is set in Oregon in 1850.  I'm from Oregon. The last made in Oregon film I had watched many years ago Anthony Mann's BEND IN THE RIVER (1950) had some great Oregon scenery including Mount Hood and the Columbia River.  Could SEVEN BRIDES top BEND IN THE RIVER with its Oregon locales?

The answer to that question is an emphatic no. Although SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is set in Oregon, the MGM musical directed by Stanley Donen (SINGING IN THE RAIN) was filmed on the studio backlot in Culver City, California with painted backdrops used instead of actual locations. Director Donen wanted to film in Oregon but MGM had another big musical in production at the same time, Vincent Minnelli's BRIDGADOON (1954) with Gene Kelly and Van Johnson so Donen's budget was scaled back. SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS was little brother to big brother BRIGADOON which was supposed to be MGM's big musical event that year.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the box office.  SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS turned out to be more popular and made more money than BRIGADOON, the Broadway musical about a legendary and mysterious Scottish town that appears once a century.

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS is not based on a hit musical like BRIGADOON but rather on a story called The Sobbin Women by Stephen Vincent Benet. With a screenplay by husband and wife team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich along with Dorothy Kingsley and directed by Stanley Donen, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS takes place in the Oregon Territory in 1850. The Paul Bunyonesque backwoodsman Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) arrives in town from his forest home twelve miles away with two goals: to trade for goods with the locals and to find himself a wife. None of the local women catch his eye until he spies a plucky, beautiful young woman Milly (Jane Powell) chopping wood for her boss Mr. Bixby (Russell Simpson) and then serving food at the local tavern to a group of men. In a whirlwind (just a few hours) courtship, Adam asks Milly to marry him. Adam visits the Reverend Elcott (Ian Wolfe) to ask his permission to wed Milly who has been raised by Elcott and his wife. Elcott gives his permission and Adam and Milly are wed. Adam whisks his new bride back to his forest cabin. 

Upon arriving at his cabin, Milly discovers Adam left out one small detail.  He lives with his six equally handsome, rambunctious brothers. Besides Adam, there's Benjamin (Jeff Richards), Caleb (Matt Mattox), Daniel (Marc Platt), Ephraim (Jacques d'Amboise), Frank aka Frankincense (Tommy Rall), and Gideon (Russ Tamblyn). Like their big brother, they all have red hair and red beards. The brothers are out of control and nearly ruin Adam and Milly's wedding night. Milly's not happy she's been misled but she soon makes the best of the situation, making the brothers shower and shave and say their prayers.  Milly can't understand why all these good looking young men have no girlfriends.  When Milly goes into town, the brothers all join her. The brothers are mesmerized by all the young ladies milling about in town but the brothers have no manners. They end up getting into fights with the town's male suitors, forcing them to return home. 

Milly instructs the younger brothers how to be refined, polite, and gentlemanly. And she teaches them how to dance. Adam, Milly, and the brothers return to town for a dance and barn raising.  Milly's girlfriends leave their hometown dates and come to see Milly including Dorcas Gaylen (Julie Newmeyer later Newmar), Alice Elcott (Nancy Kilgas), Sarah Kline (Betty Carr), Liza (Virginia Gibson), Ruth Jepson (Ruta Kilmonis), and Martha (Norma Doggett). In SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS best sequence, the Pontipee brothers have a dance off with the six local ladies versus their suitors. Later, the Pontipee brothers compete in a barn raising contest against three other teams. But the local men take advantage of the Pontipees new polite ways, dropping boards on them until Adam snaps and chews out his siblings for not pushing back. A huge brawl ensues, bringing down the barn and causing the Pontipees to be kicked out of town.

Winter arrives. The Pontipee brothers are dejected and lovesick especially Gideon who misses Alice. Benjamin plans to leave, tired of snow and loneliness. Adam gives his brothers a pep talk, encouraging them to return to town and grab their sweethearts. The brothers take Adam up on his suggestion and kidnap their girls. They flee thru Echo Pass, chased by their suitors.  The girls scream, bringing down an avalanche that cuts off the Pontipee's from the town until Spring. Milly is furious with Adam for encouraging the boys behavior. Adam storms off to a higher mountain cabin to sulk. Milly sends the brothers to live in the barn for their actions.  She becomes the den mother to the young women who begin to go stir crazy and man crazy all cooped up. Milly reveals she's pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Gideon hikes up to Adam's secluded cabin to tell him he's a father. Gideon scolds Adam for leaving Milly and tells him to become a better husband and father. Spring arrives. Echo Pass reopens.  Adam wants to return the six young women back into town but both his brothers and the women protest. The townspeople including Reverend Elcott creep near the homestead to take back their women.  But the sound of a baby crying will cause great confusion and make the Pontipee Boys, their girlfriends, and the fathers of the girls to make a quick, comic decision that makes everyone (including the audience) happy. 

The film might be called SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS but some of the plot owes to SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES (1937) with Milly as the Snow White character and the Pontipee brothers as the lovable miners. Milly becomes a mother figure to the Pontipees who have had no maternal upbringing since they were babies. Milly tames the rowdy brothers, forcing them to shower and shave and learn good manners. She teaches them to say their prayers before every meal and how to dance with a member of the opposite sex.  And when Milly goes into town, the brothers join her, ready to try out their new skills on the town's local ladies. 

What's surprising is that Adam (Howard Keel) the oldest brother who woos Milly in whirlwind record time is no Prince Charming. In fact, he's not very sympathetic or heroic even though he's the oldest, the big brother his siblings look up to. He basically tricks Milly into marrying him so she can take care of his wild younger brothers. He may ooze confidence but like his younger brothers, Adam is a novice to the intricacies of a relationship. When Milly has their baby, Adam is the absent father, his pride hurt by Millie scolding him for his part in persuading the brothers to kidnap their future brides (Adam's retelling of the Greek philosopher Plutarch's "the Abduction of the Sabine Women" which he comically pronounces "Sobbin Women" probably not the best example to use). Adam shirks his man of the cabin duties, hiding from his responsibilities. Adam will finally come around but not until the very last reel.

If there's a real hero in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, it's dance choreographer Michael Kidd (THE BAND WAGON). The dance sequences in SEVEN BRIDES literally leap off the screen, innovative and modern, like audiences had never seen before. The barn dance (which took three weeks to rehearse) is exhilarating with its ensemble dancing and kinetic energy. Kidd incorporates axes and chopping wood as a type of dance when the brothers sing Lonesome Polecat. And the barn raising contest is choreography of a different nature, a combination of stunts and fighting that still plays like a dance number. Throw in director Stanley Donen's expert direction of the dance sequences and lyrics by Johnny Mercer and a score by Gene de Paul.

How do you distinguish multiple brothers and brides in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS? With vivid colors of course.  As the animal kingdom can attest to, color can also be an aphrodisiac to attract a mate of the opposite sex. Each Pontipee brother wears a different brightly colored shirt in both the barn dance number and whenever they're opposite their prospective brides to help them stand out.  The brides also wear a dazzling palette of colors to distinguish each girl from one another.  The town men are dressed in drab grays so they don't clash with the Pontipees. The Pontipees are all given red hair and/or beards to help the woodsmen stand out from the local boyfriends. For the record, the seven brothers and seven brides that connect are Adam and Milly, Benjamin and Dorcas, Caleb and Ruth, Daniel and Liza, Ephraim and Martha, Frank and Sarah, and Gideon and Alice. 

Howard Keel looks like a giant mountain man as Adam Pontipee next to Jane Powell's Milly in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS and no wonder.  Keel was 6 feet 4 inches tall.  Keel was a singer, a baritone, who had a good run of starring roles in musicals in the 1950s including SHOW BOAT (1951) with Ava Gardner and KISS ME KATE (1953) a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. It's reported that SEVEN BRIDES was Keel's favorite musical.  Co-star Jane Powell also had success in musicals in the 40s and 50s with films like A DATE WITH JUDY (1948) and ROYAL WEDDING (1951) with Fred Astaire also directed by Stanley Donen. But Powell would outgrow her girl next door image and move on to television and theater later on.

As for the brothers and brides, they include a former professional baseball player, many professional dancers including ballet dancers, and a dancer/actress who would later play the Catwoman on television.  Jeff Richards who plays Benjamin Pontipee made it to the triple A level of baseball before turning to acting. Chosen for his good looks and not his dancing, Richards was relegated to the background in some of the dance sequences. Matt Mattox, Marc Platt, Tommy Rall, and Jacques d'Amboise were professional dancers and perform the majority of the dancing in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. The one brother who went on to a long career in film and television was the youngest - Russ Tamblyn who plays Gideon. Tamblyn wasn't a dancer but had gymnastic training that's put to use in the barn dance sequence. Tamblyn would appear in Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins WEST SIDE STORY (1961) and later have a rebirth on David Lynch's surreal TV mystery TWIN PEAKS (1990-91 and reboot in 2017) as hippie psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence Jacoby.

All of the brides were professional dancers and many performed on Broadway. All but one of the actresses had their singing voices dubbed by someone else (not uncommon in film musicals).Virginia Gibson who plays Liza and marries Ephraim does her own singing on June Bride with the others dubbed. Nancy Kilgas who plays Alice Elcott (daughter to Reverend Elcott) and marries Gideon is one of the most striking brides. The blonde Kilgas would also appear and dance in the film version of OKLAHOMA! (1955). Then, there's dancer/actress Julie Newmeyer who plays the bride Dorcas and marries Benjamin. Newmeyer is better known to audiences now as Julie Newmar and would go on to fame playing the feline villainess the Catwoman opposite Adam West's Batman on TV's BATMAN (1966-67) and still provides her voice for the animated BATMAN videos. 

Some final SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS tidbits. SEVEN BRIDES was shot in widescreen CinemaScope but MGM was worried that not all movie theaters would be able to screen CinemaScope so SEVEN BRIDES was also filmed in a normal film ratio. The normal version cost more to shoot than the widescreen version but was never shown until MGM put it on the SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS 2004 DVD release. Although SEVEN BRIDES takes place in Oregon, no footage was shot there (the few live action sequences were shot in Idaho).  However, both Jane Powell who plays Milly and Jeff Richards who plays Benjamin were born in Portland, Oregon. It's common now for a film to be turned into a musical but SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS was an early example of this. Two television series would be based on SEVEN BRIDES. ABC's HERE COME THE BRIDES (1968-70)  starring Joan Blondell and David Soul and later CBS's SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1982-83) with MCGYVER'S Richard Dean Anderson and a young River Phoenix. 

In a way, the fact that SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS wasn't filmed on location in Oregon and outside I think worked in its favor. There's something surreally naturalistic about the mountain and forest backdrops. We concentrate more on the characters than the setting.  WEST SIDE STORY would show audiences what it was like to see dancers in an outdoor, urban setting.  BRIGADOON with its distinctive Scottish locale would have been served better to have been filmed in Scotland. SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS doesn't have one memorable song that audiences have sung over and over for generations  but it has plenty of catchy tunes like Bless Your Beautiful Hide; Wonderful, Wonderful Day; Sobbin Women, and Spring, Spring, Spring that will have you humming for a few days after viewing.  Isn't that what you want from a musical like SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS?