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I had little idea what it was about, although the title rather sums it up. Adam (Howard Keel) is the first of the main characters whom we meet in this film. He’s walking through a ‘Wild West’ town in Oregon, doing some trading in stores, and also - as he tells everyone - in search of a wife. He and his brothers are farmers who live in the mountains, and they never meet women. The story is set in the 1850s.
The reason Adam wants a wife is extremely sexist - his male-only household needs someone who can cook, and clean, and create some semblance of order. It doesn’t sound at all appealing. He breaks into song as he wanders through the town, criticising the local girls for being the wrong size or shape. Then he spots Milly (Jane Powell) who works for an inn. He sees her serving delicious food, dealing with dozens of men at the same time, and also chopping wood. She seems ideal, and fortunately she likes the idea of getting married to this handsome stranger, and leaving her life of drudgery.
Adam does not mention his brothers, so it’s quite a rude awakening when she meets them. There are some amusing (albeit somewhat gross) scenes as she discovers exactly what she has let herself in for. This causes some inevitable stress with Adam too…
So Milly sets to work, not just to clean the place and provide some nutritious food, but to reform Adam’s brothers. She teaches them about ‘courting’, and tells them to avoid fighting if they want to attract young women. She also supposedly teaches them some basic dance steps; they learn remarkably rapidly. It’s clear that the actors playing the brothers are talented dancers. There are some excellent dance/gymnastic scenes which I very much appreciated.
There’s singing, too; this is, after all, a musical. It’s not over-done, but every so often someone breaks into song, usually as part of the story. It’s not the kind of musical where the story stops as random people appear to sing and dance, for no apparent reason. The songs in this film don’t go on too long and on the whole I thought they added to the story.
The acting is slightly overdone, as was typical for films of this era, but that wasn’t a problem, as far as we were concerned. ‘Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ was made in 1954, so I was quite surprised that it’s in colour. Some of the backgrounds look a bit artificial, but they didn’t detract from the story.
If the film weren’t so well-made, and basically light-hearted, some sections would be quite shocking. Not just because of the way Milly is expected to work every minute of her day to look after seven men, but because of the way the other six ‘brides’ are acquired… to say more would be to give too much of a spoiler.
Other than Adam and Millie it wasn't particularly easy to recall who was whom out of either the brothers or their potential brides; even less so with the many townsfolk who were involved. The only brother who stood out was the youngest, Gideon (Russ Tamblyn). The others looked - and behaved - rather too similarly.
A bonus which we were not expecting was an ‘extra’ feature on our DVD: a short documentary about the making of the film. It has interviews and snippets filmed in the 1990s with several of the cast and crew. Apparently the production costs were slashed in half, although the amount spent still sounded huge for a film made eighty years ago.
Nobody expected this film to be a success, but it was very much so. Still popular in the 1970s when my brother watched it; still popular in the 1990s when the bonus material was made. The DVD has been remastered and the quality seemed pretty good. We enjoyed the film and are happy to add it to our collection.
Recommended.
You can read more about this film on the IMDb site: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
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