Then again, I enjoy every moment of eating chocolate, whereas I was ready to do something that I would have immediately regretted while putting Erini to bed. Multiple times.
Hence today's movie is taken from my memory archives, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. We had seen it back in October, and with my memory recall, this could be short.While a popular musical, especially amoung the LDS crowd, the songs have not penetrated popular culture quite like other musicals such as Singing in the Rain, Hello Dolly!, or The Sound of Music.
Curious to note that Howard Keel played the lead role as Adam, the eldest brother, who comes across as a proud man that doesn't take no for an answer, while four years earlier he appeared in Annie Get Your Gun as the "pompous, big-headed stiff." He has a very powerful baritone voice, but perhaps a bit type cast, especially with his role in Dallas as Clayton Farlow.
Erini had a bit of a time watching this movie, simply because we saw it outdoors, and it was also quite late. Plus, there is a lot of exposition about how to behave properly in public. People taking about a subject that her parents have stressed to her a number of times would be enough to bore any child.
The songs didn't really hold her attention either, partly because Caitlin wasn't there to sing with me and I was trying to keep quiet for the other people who were watching the movie with us. 1950's musicals are an interesting snapshot of the times, especially in regards to marriage. Whereas today, some movies seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum.
That's not to say this film is the poster child for an ideal relationship. Adam comes to town at the beginning of the movies looking for a bride like she's an item on his supply list, and then goes on to make no excuses or changes to his lifestyle. This quote sums it up:
Milly: Well, it wouldn't hurt you to learn some manners, too.
Adam: What do I need manners for? I already got me a wife.
My wife would punch me in the crotch if I ever said that to her. Then she'd probably break down in tears. Or the other way around.
Another thing that sparks a bit of disgust is the fact that after Millie kicks all the men out of the house for kidnapping the women, Adam heads off to a trapping cabin where he spends the winter. Even when he hears about the birth of his daughter, he stays there until the spring thaw, because he swore he would. Nevermind that Millie is running a household with six young women and six young men, carried a baby to term, then was caring for the infant without the support of her husband, whom she had only known for a few hours or less before being wed. But he humbles himself, and resolves to return the women to their homes.
However Stockholm Syndrome has run its course, and the women would prefer to stay in the middle of nowhere with these brothers. Once the townsfolk come up to the farm to take the women back, they find the brothers chasing down the womenfolk in compliance with Adam's edict to return the women. First, they don't want to get captured by them to get taken up to the farm, and now they don't want to get captured to be taken back.
The scene makes me wonder if there is such a thing as "Cornball Irony."
People see what they want to, and assume they must be right, but some facts can't be denied, like a crying baby. Heaven forbid you have a child out of wedlock in the 50's, even moreso in 1889! As a way to get even, the women all admit to the baby being their own, and thus the movie ends with a wedding. A shotgun wedding, but hey, that's backwoods Hollywood!
Yet the musical is a fun piece of cinema, with some of the most insane choreography I've seen. Especially during the Barn Dance.
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