Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical film released in 1954. It was directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The script (by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley) is based on the short story The Sobbin' Women, by Stephen Vincent Benét.

The film is particularly known for the unusual choreography by Michael Kidd, which makes dance numbers out of such mundane frontier pursuits as chopping wood and (most famously) raising a barn. Four of the actors who played the younger brothers were dancers, while another of the younger brothers was played by a champion gymnast and the remaining younger brother was played by a former professional baseball player.

Howard Keel appeared as "Adam", Jeff Richards as "Benjamin", Matt Mattox as "Caleb", Marc Platt as "Daniel", Jacques d'Amboise as "Ephraim", Tommy Rall as "Frank", and Russ Tamblyn as "Gideon". (Morton Downey Jr. almost had Russ Tamblyn's part as "Gideon" in this musical.)

All of the brides were played by dancers. Jane Powell appeared as "Milly", Julie Newmar as "Dorcas", Ruta Lee as "Ruth", Norma Doggett as "Martha", Virginia Gibson as "Liza", Betty Carr as "Sarah", and Nancy Kilgas as "Alice".

Plot summary

The film's story is about a backwoodsman named Adam and his new bride Milly, who marries him after knowing him for only a few hours. On returning with him to his cabin in the mountains, Milly is surprised to learn that Adam is one of seven brothers living in the same cabin. The brothers have been named alphabetically with names from the Bible: Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank (short for Frankincense, the Bible having no names beginning with F) and Gideon.

Milly teaches Adam's younger brothers manners and social mores, including how to dance. They are able to test their new manners at a barn-raising, where they meet six girls they like -- Dorcas, Ruth, Martha, Liza, Sarah and Alice -- and, fortunately, the girls like the brothers too. However, the girls already have suitors who jealously taunt the brothers into fighting during the barn-raising, and, although the brothers did not start the fight, they are banished from the town by the townspeople because of it.

Winter arrives, and the six younger brothers mope for their girls. Adam inspires his brothers to kidnap the girls of their choice (so the boys can marry the girls), following which the brothers cause an avalanche so that they can't be followed by the townspeople. The girls are upset at being kidnapped, and Milly is furious. She consigns the brothers to the barn while the girls are living in the house. Adam, who is also furious, leaves for the family's cabin to live out the winter by himself.

Months pass, and eventually it is spring. The girls have now fallen in love with the brothers, who are now allowed to court the girls. Milly gives birth to a daughter, Hannah (picking up the Biblical-alphabetical pattern). Gideon rides to the cabin to inform Adam about his daughter's arrival and asks Adam to come home, but Adam refuses to do so, saying that he would return home when the pass was open once more to traffic.

Adam, who has had time to think about his baby daughter, returns home in the spring. As a newly responsible father, he has become aware of how worried the townspeople would be about what has happened to the girls. Adam intends that the girls be taken back to their homes in the town by his brothers, but his brothers don't want to do so. The girls don't want to return to their homes, either — they all want to stay at the farm with their boyfriends. When Milly discovers that the girls are not in the house, she mentions this to Adam, and he tells his brothers to go after the girls and bring them back. Meanwhile, the townspeople arrive, with the intention of taking vengeance against the brothers for the kidnappings. Then Alice's father, who is a Preacher, hears a baby cry in the distance, and worries that the baby might belong to one of the girls. When he asks the girls whose baby it is, they all decide, simultaneously, to claim the baby as their own, with this misinformation giving the girls and the brothers their greatest wish — the townspeople insisting that all six couples marry immediately in a shotgun wedding.

Trivia and mistakes

In the end credits of the film, Daniel is incorrectly 'paired' with Liza, and Ephraim is incorrectly 'paired' with Martha. The end credits were subsequently used as the basis for the pairings of these two couples during the stage musical version. In actuality, during the film itself, Daniel married Martha and Ephraim married Liza, so the end credits were wrong.

In the scene where Milly is giving birth and the brothers are walking about downstairs, there is a different actor playing Ephraim. The original actor then returns in the next scene when they are giving Milly and Hannah the presents.

On the 2004 DVD commentary, Stanley Donen states that the film was originally shot in two versions, one widescreen and another in normal ratio, due to the fact that MGM were concerned not all theatres had the capability to screen it. Despite the fact that it cost more than the widescreen version to make, the other version was never used (Donen states)^*.

Among the best

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" came third in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals" (wherein Nation refers to the United Kingdom). ^*

"Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" came eighth in the top 10 MGM Musicals in the book "Top 10 of film" by Russell Ash.

Stage version

During 1979, Jane Powell and Howard Keel reprised their roles of "Milly" and "Adam" for an off-Broadway stage production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

The first Broadway stage production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was in 1982.

Television version

A television series Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which was based very loosely on the film, was made in 1982. The TV series ran from September 19, 1982 to July 2, 1983 on CBS. The series told the adventures of a parentless family of rowdy brothers trying to run the family ranch in northern California. Into the chaos came feisty Hannah, who married Adam and took on the task of bringing order to the household. The series contained about one musical number per episode. Despite a dedicated, but small fan following the series was cancelled after one season.

Television Cast List

Richard Dean Anderson as Adam McFadden Drake Hogestyn as Brian McFadden Peter Horton as Crane McFadden Roger Wilson as Daniel McFadden Tim Topper as Evan McFadden Brian Utman as Ford McFadden River Phoenix as Guthrie McFadden Terri Treas as Hannah McFadden

Television Series Source

Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earl. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 - Present. Balantine, New York, 2003.

Non-English Language Titles

French: "Sept Filles pour Sept Garcons"
German: "Eine Braut für Sieben Brüder"
Hungarian: "Hét menyasszony hét fivérnek"
Hebrew: "שבע כלות לשבעה אחים"
Italian: "Sette Spose per Sette Fratelli"
Scots Gaelic: "Seachd bean na bainnse ri seachd bràthair"
Polish: "Siedem Narzeczonych dla Siedem Braci"
Portuguese: "Sete Noivas para Sete Irmaos"
Spanish: "Siete Novias para Siete Hermanos"

A popular Bollywood movie, Satte Pe Satta, was based on this film. This movie's plotline also has seven brothers, with the elder brother getting married much before the others. But apart from that, the movie deviated signficantly from the original Hollywood version.

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