Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Rating:
Summary: 2 thumbs and 10 toes up!
Review: This is the BEST musical EVER! Definately check it out!

Rating:
Summary: Here it is, the best musical of all time!
Review: Ok, tied with Sound of Music, but completely different. Awesome music--awesome. Get the soundtrack as well. The music sticks with you. I have been singing some of the songs to myself and have had random people start to sing along with me. On more than one occasion. "I'm a Lonesome Pole Cat" is a song that really fits any occasion. It is such a fun, humorous movie. Wonderfully written, acted, and preserved. Over-the-top just enough to be taken seriously. There is even time in all the shenanigans to have good character development and for you to fall in love with the brothers and their would-be wives. Jane Powell gives her best performance, as does Howard Keel (who is also great in Show Boat, but better here). Great for the whole family. And for those of you who love a red-headed hunk of beautiful man meat, this movie has seven prime prospects for ya, buy it just so you can meet Benjamin, trust me on this one. There also some beautiful women to, ie, Dorcus. See, with characters with names like that, then it has got to be great. This is probably the silliest review I have written, but the movie stirs that up in you. It is sooooo fun and enjoyable. Truly unforgettable. Buy it. It is so good, buy seven and make six of your nicest friends very happy.

Rating:
Summary: IT WILL LIVE FOREVER. ONE OF THE ALL-TIME MGM GREATS!
Review: This exceptional deluxe DVD arrives on our shelves just at the time we lose the magnificent Howard Keel. But he will live forever as Adam Pontipee in this peerless, energetic love-fest of film musical enthusiasm. Warner Bros. has assembled a stunning anamorphic transfer with sharpness & color never before seen on this title, plus the alternate 1.77 version, an expanded documentary, assorted newsreels, and the incredible MGM JUBILEE OVERTURE which astounds in a glistening new 16x9 transfer with 5.1 audio.

Rating:
Summary: RIP Howard Keel, Legendary Musical He-Man
Review: Dear Mr. Keel, while we respected you and cheered you on in your late-life comeback as Clayton Farlow on TV's DALLAS, we loved you best in the MGM musicals that made you a star. My mom and dad used to say they had seen you on Broadway taking over John Raitt's old parts and giving them new luster in CAROUSEL and OKLAHOMA, but for me I used to see you on the Late Show many times, always playing the he-man, swashbuckling Errol Flynn type, but with a difference, your magnificent voice that rang out through a dozen musical movies, everything from Kiss Me Kate (in 3D, with you singing "Where Is The Life That Late I Led" in the middle of the audience, perched on a piece of scenery like a gargoyle or angel), to Calamity Jane opposite the tomboyish Doris Day. Many years passed before we saw you on VHS as Frank Butler in the George Sidney version of Annie Get Your Gun, one of your very best parts, delayed for eons due to legal complications with the Berlin estate. And only recently thanks to the miracle of DVD have we seen the second, "flat" version of SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, the movie in which you played Adam Pontipee and made us laugh and cry out for more, your signature role.

We liked you in SHOWBOAT and JUPITER's DARLING and so many more, and even in your non-singing parts like The DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (scary!) and THE BIG FISHERMAN (kind of religious, and the very first movie I remember ever seeing). It's a sad day for the movies today, but thank God we are blessed with so many chances to live out your greatness once again, the sparkle and eclat you gave to so many roles, and the thrill of your voice lives on forever.


Rating:
Summary: Outstanding classic !
Review: An original and stunnig Hollywood musical which works in every departament. Based on a story of Stephen Vincent Benet, the film tells of six furtrapping brothers who come to town to find wives after the eldest brother has made it . There will be a kidnapping and a great many musical numbers who will rejoin with the savoir vivre .The dances and cast are simply superb.
The musical genre reached in this decade the perfect balance between drama , romanticism and melodrama . The presence of Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly among others were fundamental to get this creativity explosion . The secondary lines acquired such relevance that it was very difficult to you not be engaged with the plot due the whole script worked out as a solid web that allowed the viewer to get fun and besides to establish a credible speech .
One of the landmark musical movies in any age .


Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but DVD is disappointment
Review: This is my favorite musical film. With the exception of Gene Kelly's films, the athletic dance numbers are unique; exhilarating. Good plot, great songs, fun characters... so my disappointment with this new 2-disc DVD makes me curious. If this is a digitally remastered version, why are the glorious colors so washed out? This film often relies on color, some breathtaking shots of the countryside. The photography often looks fuzzy, too. Oscar nominated cinematography by George Folsey should be given a better presentation. I still love this film, and if this is as good as they can come up with, I guess I'll have to be content. The second disc has some wonderful insight (can't believe the studio wrote this off as a B-picture; then got a Best Picture nomination). This is PURE entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Musicals Don't Get Much Better
Review: It's great to finally get a decent, digitally remastered print of this fine film. The Cinemascope version is glorious, with better sound and a sharper focus than the previous DVD release.

The "flat" version (1.77 to 1 ratio), a differently shot film, could stand some serious restoration, but in the end, this version pales beside the one shot in Cinemascope. Performances are less refined, and the dancing, though well done, lacks that last once of polish. I suspect each scene in the "flat" version may have been filmed first, allowing for more discipline later on. That said, the "flat" print is a rarity, and is still wonderful to see.

Now if Fox would only give us a 2-disc Special Edition of "Oklahoma", containing both the Todd-AO and Cinemascope versions of that film.


Rating:
Summary: Finally!
Review: I'm sure I'm not the only one who bought DVD titles of some of MGM's classic musicals, like "American in Paris", "Brigadoon", or "Seven Brides", when they were first released on the format, and were disappointed with the skimpy DVD treatment they got. No bonus scenes, no anamorphic transfer...these releases were pathetic.

Now, thankfully, Warners seems to be re-releasing these titles in far more handsome and respectable issues. This release for "Seven Brides" is quite satisfying. Along with a lovely anamorphic transfer of the CinemaScope version of the film (in 5.1 audio), we also get the rarely screened alternate "flat" version of the film, which was filmed separately from the Scope version. That version is presented in Mono, although the music sequences seem to be in Stereo. It's interesting to do a comparison of the two versions, particualrly for the "barn-raising' dance, to see how the two versions were framed for their respective film format ratios.

As far as bonus features, we get the documentary on the making of the film, now expanded-upon from the previous versions, with extra interviews. It's well-done and worth watching. There are a couple montages of vintage MGM clips, one showing people attending the NYC premiere of the film, with voiceovers from those involved, and another montage shows MGM stars celebrating the studios 30th anniversary. I didn't find either of these to be that inspiring, but they are interesting. There is a running commentary with the film, but the coolest bonus feature (to me) was a short film made in CinemaScope, featuring the MGM orchestra playing selections from their music library. No doubt this film was made to demonstrate the wonders of Stereophonic Sound and CinemaScope...it's amusing to watch. I'm assuming this was run with the feature when first released.

All in all, a very nice package, and hopefully we can look forward to more of the classic MGM musicals getting the royal treatment they deserve, in the future.


Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL MUSICAL FROM MGM!
Review: "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is the story of Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel), the eldest of a rough and tumble breed of backwoodsmen living in Oregon. When Adam returns to his dilapidated cabin with Milly (Jane Powell) as his wife, he sets his brother's minds and hearts awhirl with convoluted notions of doing the same. There's just one problem: the troupe is about as couth and gentile as that proverbial bull in the china shop. So Milly sets to work on molding gentlemen out of these ruffians. MGM, the most lavish purveyors of musical entertainment quashed director, Stanley Donen's desire to film on anything beyond a soundstage, resulting in some pretty obvious looking sets and very claustrophobic staging. Regardless, the film abounds with riotous exuberance and rollicking charm. The outstanding sequence remains the "Barn-Raising Ballet" - a fifteen minute tour de force in which the brothers - newly polished up - take on the cultured town's men for the affections of the town's women and come up the undisputed winners.

So too is Warner Brothers newly minted two disc special edition of this classic musical a winner. Featuring both the Cinemascope original (this time anamorphically enhanced for 16:9 displays) and a recently discovered 1:85:1 print, we get to see twice as much as before. Colors are rich, vibrant and bold. Contrast levels are bang on. Black levels are deep and solid. There's only the slightest amount of age related artifacts and minor edge enhancement to speak of. Neither will distract. The audio is dated by features a newly cleaned up and aggressive 5.1 mix. Extras include a new audio commentary track, the previously released documentary on the making of the film and the film's theatrical trailer. Bless your beautiful hide! This is one humdinger of a good show!