Stanley Donen's snappy musical was one of the greats of the MGM musicals, when the genre was beginning to lose momentum after dominating film for nearly three decades. Taking inspiration from Stephen Vincent Benet's story 'The Sobbin' Women', this (very sexist!) film follows Adam and his brothers as they search in the nearby town for women to bring back as wives and homemakers.
Early on, Adam (the gloriously voiced Howard Keel) finds Milly, 'the girl fer me' and without letting on there's six other grown-up brothers at home, persuades her into a quick marriage. The rest of the film concerns the other brothers wooing and finally kidnapping their intended girls - just at the time their barn gets snowed in for the spring- and the way the girls' revulsion and war turns into love and devotion by the time the snow thaws.
There's lots of great dance sequences, notably the one in which the brothers outdo the local lads in acrobatic leaps and dives. The songs are mostly memorable and fun, from 'Bless Your Beautiful Hide' to 'Those Sobbin' Women'.
The other brothers apart from Keel are Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, and ballet dancer Jacques d'Amboise - all for some inexplicable reason redheads! Alongside snub-nosed Jane Powell as Milly, the other girls are Julie Newmar, Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr, Virginia Gibson, Ruta Kilmonis, and Norma Doggett. As they are pretty girls, and this is a 1950s musical, we get a song while they're all in their underwear (just like 'Out Of My Dreams' in Oklahoma!), and otherwise they are as winsome as any other flotsam in musicals.
'Seven Brides ...' looks great and has to be up there with the cream of the crop of MGM musicals.
Early on, Adam (the gloriously voiced Howard Keel) finds Milly, 'the girl fer me' and without letting on there's six other grown-up brothers at home, persuades her into a quick marriage. The rest of the film concerns the other brothers wooing and finally kidnapping their intended girls - just at the time their barn gets snowed in for the spring- and the way the girls' revulsion and war turns into love and devotion by the time the snow thaws.
There's lots of great dance sequences, notably the one in which the brothers outdo the local lads in acrobatic leaps and dives. The songs are mostly memorable and fun, from 'Bless Your Beautiful Hide' to 'Those Sobbin' Women'.
The other brothers apart from Keel are Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Marc Platt, Matt Mattox, and ballet dancer Jacques d'Amboise - all for some inexplicable reason redheads! Alongside snub-nosed Jane Powell as Milly, the other girls are Julie Newmar, Nancy Kilgas, Betty Carr, Virginia Gibson, Ruta Kilmonis, and Norma Doggett. As they are pretty girls, and this is a 1950s musical, we get a song while they're all in their underwear (just like 'Out Of My Dreams' in Oklahoma!), and otherwise they are as winsome as any other flotsam in musicals.
'Seven Brides ...' looks great and has to be up there with the cream of the crop of MGM musicals.