Although a lifelong lover of movie musicals, I’ve only started to grok the MGM films of the ‘50s over the last five or ten years. Since I was born in 1954, I was too young to see them when they first came out (my movie-going started in earnest in the early '60s, so I saw *Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, *and My Fair Lady as new releases ), and they lack the kitschy anachronistic glamour that lent Fred and Busby their charm when I discovered them in the late '60s.
There were, of course, a lot of very good musicals – and a couple of great ones – made during the '50s. One of them is our current subject, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which came out halfway through the decade, in 1954. And I think I’m going to argue that it’s not just a very good musical, but a great one.
Why great? The barn-raising, which is, for my money one of the ten best dance numbers ever put on film. The choreographer, Michael Kidd (The Band Wagon, Guys and Dolls, Hello Dolly!), was reluctant to work on the movie, because of his insistence that dance not only arise out of the story but further the story, and he just couldn’t see these roughnecks with manure on their boots as dancers.
Boy, was he wrong.
In the barn-raising, the brothers meet and court the brides and challenge their rivals in some of the most macho ballet ever danced, with tricks and twirls and a marvelous joy that completes the first part of the story – Milly’s civilizing influence on the unruly brood – and sets up the second – the kidnapping of the brides.
And, yeah, there were a few other numbers (I’m sure the Howard Keel fans expect a mention of “Bless Your Beautiful Hide”), some good (“Lonesome Polecat”) and some forgettable (literally – every time I watch it, we get to the brides’ ballet in the attic and I think “oh yeah, this thing, I remember now”).
What makes the movie so amazing to me is that it’s so freaking low budget, and yet it works so wonderfully. Apparently the budget started low and was halved when the producer mentioned they needed a full year to film it, so as to catch the different seasons – at that point, the whole thing was moved to a soundstage, with some seriously cheesy backdrops. Brigadoon was being filmed at the same time, and that was where the money went, with prestige expected to follow. No one expected Seven Brides to be the hit it was – including being nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
(There’s a “making of” feature on the DVD, which covers much of the trivia given here.)
Even if the budget had been higher, I’m not sure the movie would have been exponentially better, since they managed to put together a hell of a cast. Howard Peel and Jane Powell were fine, and beyond that they were forced, due to the lack of budget, to work with people who were under contract to MGM and available. Luckily, those people included Russ Tamblyn (a gymnast rather than a dancer per se) and the amazing Tommy Rall, who never had a huge movie career but was in both Kiss Me Kate and our last Club entry, the not terribly popular Pennies from Heaven. I haven’t been able to find any explanation for Jacques D’Amboise’s presence, but it definitely elevated (sic) the level of dance. They also had, in addition to Howard Keel, a second non-dancer, Jeff Richards, who sits out most of the big numbers. (Literally, in the case of “Goin’ Courtin’” – you can see him sitting at the right of the set clapping along while Jane dances with the other five brothers.)
A couple of other points: It was directed by Stanley Donen, after *Singin’ in the Rain *but before Funny Face, Pajama Game, and Damn Yankees.
They originally planned to use authentic folk music for it, but ended up hiring Johnny Mercer (who also wrote lyrics for songs like “Moon River,” “Satin Doll,” and “One for My Baby”) and Gene de Paul (okay, not a major songwriter, but he did write “Cow Cow Boogie,” which has to count for something).
