Movie Review: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: The "dance off" dance sequence, fun story

Cons: Too many characters, forgetable songs.  Both are minor

The Bottom Line: 

Perfect musical?

No.  But its charms make up for

Its deficiencies

Fun Romantic Comedy with Singing and Dancing Thrown in for Good Measure

Somewhere back in a long ago time, I know I've seen at least the final 10 minutes or so of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, but I'd never seen the whole thing.  Curiosity finally got the better of me, and I sat down to watch it.  It has some flaws, but there is plenty to make it a fun musical.

In 1850 Oregon, Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) has decided to take for himself a bride.  So on his next trip to down, he scouts around until he finds Milly (Jane Powell).  Surprisingly, she agrees to marry him that day and return to his farm 12 miles away.

When they return to the farm, Milly discovers much to her surprise that Adam is the oldest of seven brothers, and she is expected to cook and clean for the clan.  She quickly puts a stop to that, making the men clean up their own act.  Soon, the other brothers begin to long for wives of their own, and Milly tries to help them all learn some of the necessary skills.  Will it be enough to help them win brides?

Even if I hadn't caught the ending years ago, the plot of this movie would still be fairly predictable.  It is a romantic comedy, after all.  The large cast of characters makes it impossible to truly get to know anyone super well outside of Adam and Milly.  There are moments of character development, but most of the brothers and their brides are blurs.  Considering the movie runs just over an hour forty minutes, it's not that surprising that character development is the first thing to go.

As I said, the plot is fairly predictable, but the movie is charming along the way.  You can't help but root for the brothers to marry, even when they start doing some pretty stupid things.  Honestly, I would have preferred that there be a tad more development between Adam and Milly at the end to resolve the fallout of his stupidity, but I'll take what is there.  It works, but it could have been better.

One thing I look for in musicals are great song and dance numbers.  Sadly, the dancing is actually pretty minimal through much of the movie.  But the big dance number more than makes up for it.  There's a dance off at a barn raising that is a show stopper and had me grinning the entire time.  And the barn raising that followed is pretty good.  The songs are good, although there is a reason I didn't already know any of them - they aren't super memorable.

The acting mostly works.  You get some over the top or unbelievable moments, but for the most part the performances work for the movie.  Fans of TV's Batman will be interested to note that Julie Newmar, one of the actresses to play Catwoman, plays one of the brides here.

The movie was shot on sound stages, but most of the time they cover it fairly well.  The most obvious time is the scrolling background any time they are on a wagon.

On the other hand, the movie is a feast for the eyes.  The colors and bright and vibrant, especially when the entire cast is in town where they wear bright colors to help us keep them straight from the town folks.

There are lots of issues with the film, but the story is so charming it is easy to ignore them and get sucked into the charm.  That's the reason that Seven Brides For Seven Brothers is still so well-known almost 60 years after it was released.