Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Stanley Donen, 1954): USA

Reviewed by Byron Potau.  Viewed on VHS.

Musicals come with a preconceived notion of being more feminine than other genres.  Certainly, there is some truth in this, but whoever would make that claim wouldn’t include Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in a list of musicals as proof.  This is by far the most masculine of Hollywood musicals I have ever seen and also one of the best.  So once again I dusted off my VHS copy (I am waiting for the Blu Ray release) and saw what a musical is really all about.

Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) is a man who, when he sets his mind on something, gets it.  So, why should getting a wife be any different?  He lives several miles out of town on his ranch in the mountains with his six brothers so he has to make the most of his trip.  Indeed, after a stroll through town he sets his sights on Millie (Jane Powell), the cook at an inn, and they get married, much to the chagrin of several of the townsfolk.  Millie thinks she is going to finally be cooking, cleaning, and taking caring of one man, but is in for a rude surprise when she finds she will also be doing the cooking, washing, and cleaning for Adam’s six unclean, rowdy brothers, Benjamin (Jeff Richards), Caleb (Matt Mattox), Daniel (Marc Platt), Ephraim (Jacques d’Amboise), Frank (Tommy Rall), and Gideon (Russ Tamblyn).

After the initial shock Millie manages to put the brothers in their place and begins to go about teaching them manners and etiquette.  The brothers take a liking to Millie and it’s not long after that they each want a wife of their own, so Millie goes about showing them how to get one.  As luck would have it there are six girls in town that the brothers take a liking to, but things aren’t that easy as they have six men in town already courting them.

This is that rare film that can lift your spirits no matter what mood you’re in.  The kind you can watch, rewind (in my case) and start all over again like you didn’t just watch it.

So much credit to be spread around, but none more so than to Michael Kidd for his incredible, athletic, and inventive choreography which perfectly blends skilled dancing with the surroundings of 1850 Oregon, letting the brothers dance masculinely on wells, planks of wood, and two by fours.  One of my favorite choreographed scenes in all of cinema is when the six brothers mope through their wood chopping chores, missing their girls, and one of them does a melancholy dance while cutting the air with his axe.  It’s a beautiful scene made all the more enjoyable by the song that accompanies it “Lonesome Polecat,” an infectiously hummable tune.

Indeed, the film’s song score by Johnny Mercer, Saul Chaplin, and Gene De Paul is full of delightful and funny songs like “Bless Your Beautiful Hide,” Spring, Spring, Spring,” and the wonderfully misguided “Sobbin’ Women” that you will find yourself humming, if not outright singing them.

As great as the singing and dancing is the film does not letdown one bit when these things are not going on.  The script by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley is witty, well paced, and hilarious.  Director Stanley Donen is no stranger to directing musicals and here he guides the film perfectly never letting any component of the film lag behind the others.

The acting is uniformly good, with Howard Keel particularly excellent in the lead role as Adam, and Jane Powell the perfect blend of woman and sass as Millie.  The whole cast is incredibly likeable and you cannot help be under their spell.

Masculine as it is, women will no doubt find much to enjoy, as will anyone, in the interplay of men and women as they each get their laughs at each other’s expense.  This is truly a film for all to enjoy and everyone certainly should.  If you don’t like this, then you don’t like musicals.