Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Directed by Stanley Donen
Written by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley based on a story by Stephen Vincent Millay
1954/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#294 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Milly: Well, it wouldn’t hurt you to learn some manners, too.

Adam: What do I need manners for? I already got me a wife.[/box]

For us dance fans out there, this entertains despite the dated sexual politics and corn.

Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) is the eldest of seven parentless brothers carving out a homestead in a remote region of the Orgeon territory.  The housekeeping and cooking isn’t exactly up to scratch, so he decides what they need is some wives.  Adam makes one of his rare visits to town for supplies and starts scouting prospects.  All the eligible ladies are already spoken for.  But, rather miraculously, Milly, the feisty cook at the local saloon takes a long look at the big galoot and decides to marry him on the spot.  After she gets used to the idea of living with seven illiterate ruffians, the marriage works out ok.

Milly begins to groom the other boys to win them wives as well.  They succeed in attracting some girls at a local barn-raising but courtship is not going so fast as they would wish.  Inspired by tales of the Sabine women, Adam decides to simply kidnap the lasses.  With Russ Tamblin as one of the boys and Julie Newmar as one of the brides.

The superb dancing and singing was enough for me to overlook any political incorrectness in this one.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers won an Academy Award for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Writing, Screenplay; Best Cinematography, Color; and Best Film Editing.

Clip – Barn-raising dance