Cláudio’s Best Shot Pick: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

The next episode of our series, ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot,’ arrives tomorrow night. It’s focused on the 1954 musical extravaganza Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. You still have time to participate. For now, as something of a preview, here’s Cláudio’s entry.

Adapted from Stephen Vincent Benet's The Sobbin' Women, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is the definition of problematic. Indeed, for some, a romantic premise that hinges on the real and horrifying subject of bride kidnapping might be irredeemable. Even for one like me, who regards cinema as audiovisual expression that can be entirely divorced from narrative, this effervescent tale of abducted women falling for their captors can be hard to swallow, look past. Consider that such objections don't even touch on the picture's penchant to treat rape imagery as comedy – yikes…

Thankfully, with Stanley Donen on the director's chair, there's plenty of formalist interest to obfuscate the story being told. More than anything, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers feels like an opportunity to engage in the wonders of Cinemascope. Or, more accurately, how it can cram a veritable crowd into one shot.

With fourteen titular characters, the screen is often bursting at the seams with people, especially during dance scenes where the entire body is presented in wide shots rather than fragmented through mediums and closeups. The blocking isn't incredibly complex, preferring an indulgent attitude that uses and abuses the paradigms of the aspect ratio to achieve beautiful results. Costumes, in particular, function as guidelines for the eye, individualizing each figure in the epic mural of every group shot. Moreover, Walter Plunkett's creations harmonize and contrast, singing a song of their own.

This is most evident during the movie's best scene, the barn-raising dance, when the unmarried Pontipee brothers sweep the town's eligible maidens off their feet. The choreography is an athletic marvel that blurs the lines between dance and gymnastics, oscillating between the muscular bravado of men showing up to their romantic rivals and the grace of courtship. As the women prance in blushing pastels, the town's men are all hard lines of tailored grays and browns, while the Pontipee fellows explode in AnscoColor excess. It's perfect, maybe one of the best dance numbers in film history.

Obviously, I wanted to pick a shot from the "Barn Raising", whether the dance itself or the homoerotic antagonism that later results in an all-out brawl. However, another shot takes my vote, coming from a scene of antithetical tonality to the picture's highest peak. Instead of rousing, it's melancholic. Shot in one continuous take, "Lonesome Polecat" is a marvel of combined choreography, that of the actor in conjunction with the camera. From the opening tableaux to an ax-wielding ballet, the number is a showcase for Stanley Donen and Michael Kidd's artistry which are, after all, the main reasons to watch the movie.

I know that, in this series, we usually try to focus on individual frames when naming our favorites. However, I couldn't resist picking this entire musical number. In my defense, it's called "Hit Me with Your Best Shot," not "Hit Me With Your Best Frame."

Tomorrow night Nathaniel will share a collection of other Best Shots from this week's participants. Don't forget to post your 'best shot' choices from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Comments

[McGill]

Yes! These dances and these dancers are still so exhilarating to watch.

In “Lonesome Polecat” (I think your autocorrect changed it to Lonesome Poet”) the red haired dancer with a beard is American Mark Platt, who danced with Sergei Diaghilev’s company, the Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo. Everyone in the company had to have Russian names, so he was called Marc Platoff.

There’s a wonderful documentary “Ballet Russes” (2005) that Mark is in, at age 89 (?). The Ballet Russes dancers get together after decades, and there are clips of their early dances. They still move beautifully. There’s also a history of the beleaguered company after Diaghilev’s death.

[Cláudio Alves]

McGill -- Thank you for the correction :) Fixed it.

[Ryan T.]

The real standouts for me in this movie are those 6 brothers and those two numbers are largely why. I didn't appreciate the Lonesome Polecat number until I re-watched it and the one-shot plus axe choreography really are a marvel.

[Sarah]

I watched this movie so so so so many times as a child. My sister and I tried to recreate every dance number failing spectacularly of course but we certainly had fun trying. The barn dance is definitely one of the best movie musical sequences ever.

[Lynn Lee]

Spot-on choice(s), Claudio! The barn dance and "I'm a Lonesome Polecat" are by far the two best shot and choreographed sequences in the film and the ones I can rewatch endlessly.

Seven Brides is such a problematic movie, and yet I still love it so. I think what saves it from being irredeemably ick - besides, of course, said sublime dance sequences - is the character of Milly (played by the late great Jane Powell). She may be way too forgiving of Adam, who is seriously THE WORST, but she can also stand up to him and protect others from him so things don't end up being quite as horrific as the actual rape of the Sabine.

[NATHANIEL R]

I also looooove this number and the strange thing is i didn't remember it until i revisited the movie. I dont know how since it's such a beauty.