NFR Project: “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”
Dir: Stanley Donen
Scr: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, Dorothy Kingsley
Pho: George Folsey
Ed: Ralph E. Winters
Premiere: Dec. 20, 1954
102 min.
Ho boy. All right, kids, read Liz Gloyn’s hilarious and accurate assessment of this film at the National Film Registry. It’s right on target.
This film is problematic to say the least. It endorses abduction and (near) statutory rape. It proclaims Man as the Unmoved Mover and Woman as the clay upon which he works. It reinforces every white heterosexual norm in existence. This is an all-white musical for an all-white audience.
The reason it made it onto the Registry is its astonishing dance sequences. The brilliant Stanley Donen, fully primed to film dance after making movies with Gene Kelly, directed the film with largely studio-bound perfection. As no one ever had tried before, he supported the performers with an understanding of how they fit the film space. That, and he was shooting in CinemaScope. He utilizes his expanded canvas to its uttermost, creating lovingly staged ensemble pieces and exuberant solos.
The story is regressive. It is derived from Stephen Vincent Benet’s 1938 short story, “The Sobbin’ Women.” This car-crash musical is set in Oregon in 1850. There are seven Pontipee brothers living in the wilderness together, all with flaming red hair. Their eldest brother Adam (Howard Keel) goes to town to “get” a wife. He finds Milly (Jane Powell) and proposes. That day. She accepts, of course, and back they go to their backwoods home.
There she discovers Adam’s six other brothers. She civilizes them, and brings them to a barn raising. The brothers, providentially, discover six eligible young women who, appropriately pair off with each brother. This enrages the townsfolk, who drive the Pontipees out.
Winter comes, and the men pine for their women. Adam reads to them one of Milly’s books, Plutarch’s Parallel Lives. He comes across the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women by the Romans. The seven decide to sneak into town and kidnap all their special ladies! Like the Romans! Yeah!
So they do. They trigger an avalanche, separating the townsmen from them for the time being. But oh golly! They forgot to kidnap the preacher! The men go live in the barn, the women take the house. Adam goes away to a trapping cabin. Milly finds she is pregnant. She has her and Adam’s child. Adam returns; he and Milly make up. The angry townsfolk arrive. Every girl claims the baby is hers. Everyone gets married immediately. The End.
It’s ridiculous. The misogyny is palpable. And it is executed in the highest MGM tradition, lavishly staged, costumed to a T, overflowing with talent, lit and shot with meticulous care.
The barn-raising sequence is one of the most captivating dance numbers ever filmed. Choreographer Michael Kidd was a genius, and this is his finest work. The brothers, clad in primary colors, woo the girls who are bust dancing with the men of the town. As the music plays, the women are traded back and forth by their opposing partners, in a delirious display of timing and agility. The men compete, bouncing on suspended wooden boards and performing all manner of astonishing feats. Donen keeps the camera low the more to admire the incredible moves of Kidd’s dancers.
Shortly after this, the brothers and the townsmen compete in raising a barn. This leads to an all-out brawl that ends with the complete collapse of the building’s frame as the brothers stand triumphant, untouched, in the center, surrounded by their prone foes. It’s a manly musical. The fight is shot perfectly, quietly escalating in intensity until the screen explodes with flying fists and bodies. It’s aestheticized violence, a comedy of mayhem.
And then there’s axe dance in the snow. The men (or their overdubbers) sing “Lonesome Polecat” while wielding sharp tools. It’s inventive, but it’s kitschy beyond belief, seeing these men cavorting in slow motion in a studio blizzard. Plus they sing, “But a man can’t sleep/When he sleeps with sheep.” Yeah.
So there you have it. Something really strange from the past that wouldn’t fly today. But as a film musical, it’s a dance-lover’s dream.
The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: A Star is Born.
