Movie of the Week VII

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Hurray! Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! A terrific movie that is so fun to watch. Fun Fact: An early title was "A Bride for Seven Brothers" since most of the movie is concerned with finding a bride for each brother. But they changed that slightly risque/polygamous title to Seven Brides.

Brigadoon (1954) was being filmed at about the same time as Seven Brides, and the Gene Kelly film was the studio's priority. MGM had high hopes for Brigadoon but did not think that Seven Brides was going to be successful. So Seven Brides had to make do with a slashed budget; for instance, they had hoped to film on location but instead had to use the backlot. The same painted mountain backdrop appears in most of the outdoor scenes. See if you can spot it.

In an awesome moment, you can even see a bird (they used them for a touch of realism) fly straight into the backdrop and plummet down to the artificial meadow below.

The stars of the movie are Jane Powell, who plays Milly, and Howard Keel, who plays Adam Pontipee. These two were singer-actors who appeared in many musicals in the 1940s and 50s. Jane Powell has a soprano voice so high that it almost shocks you. But in this movie she tones down the piercing high notes. In some of her earlier roles, she (and the filmmakers) seem to be determined to show off her range, but in this movie she keeps it beautiful, not "look-how-high-I-can-sing!" This movie also gives her a chance to have a meatier acting role. She was in several frothy musicals playing a rich young girl falling in love for the first time. See Holiday in Mexico (1946), Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), and the aptly named Rich, Young, and Pretty (1951). But in Seven Brides she is a woman!

Howard Keel had a rich, deep voice and a commanding presence. He was almost always paired with a tiny soprano leading lady, like Kathryn Grayson or Jane Powell, so perhaps he just looks tall and broad in comparison. I think he is great as a gruff frontiersman in this film. The year before Seven Brides he starred in a similar role as Wild Bill Hickok opposite Doris Day in Calamity Jane (1953) (another favorite of mine.) He does well as a super masculine, insensitive pioneer man who is eventually reformed. Both Powell and Keel reprised their roles in the Broadway version of Seven Brides.

Adam rides into town (it is 1850, Oregon Territory) determined to buy enough flour for the next few months and purchase a new plough, as well as find a wife. That afternoon. Adam sings "Bless yore beautiful hide, wherever you may be...gotta be right, to be the bride for me!" and lists his requirements for a wife as he struts down the street, brazenly examining every woman he passes. (Johnny Mercer wrote the lyrics for the film, which are stellar.)

Milly is an orphan who works at a boardinghouse cooking and cleaning. Adam and Milly lock gazes as she ladles stew into a man's tin plate. (She misses and the hot stew falls into his lap.) Adam sits down to sample her cooking (wouldn't want to marry her if she can't cook) and he is pleasantly surprised by the stew's tastiness. Milly falls for Adam and agrees to marry him, immediately. On the way to his cabin in the mountains, as she picks sorrel, ("makes real nourishin' soup!") she gushes about the joy of taking care of "just one man."

Turns out that she will be taking care of seven. Adam lives with his six brothers: Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank(incense), and Gideon. (They are named alphabetically with biblical names). Barbarians, all. They are unshaven, dirty, wild-eyed. Mountain men. But with a little work, Milly turns the Pontipee Brothers into clean, handsome, civilized gentlemen. Who can dance superbly.

Five of the seven brothers were professional dancers. (Of the other two, one was Howard Keel, singer, and the other was an actor, Jeff Richards.) And what incredible dancers the other five are! Most memorable are Russ Tamblyn, an acrobat and dancer, who performs all sorts of flips and handstands, and Jacques d'Amboise, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who was "loaned out" to do this movie. He was a favorite of Balanchine and quite a famous ballet dancer. The filming of Seven Brides went on a little longer than planned, which meant that d'Amboise missed premiering in Balanchine's "The Nutcracker" in 1954. Worth it.

My favorite dancer, Tommy Rall, plays Frank. He had smallish roles in lots of musicals. He can spin like a top (sometimes he looks like he is on ice skates he turns so fast) and he combines an extraordinary athleticism with ballet-like grace. A little like Gene Kelly, but Rall was taller and more versatile, I think. Rall's dancing seems purer, if that makes sense. If you like watching him, check out My Sister Eileen, (1955) where he dances a marvelous dance with Bob Fosse, who choreographed it, or Kiss Me Kate (1953) where he plays Ann Miller's love interest. Watching him, I get the feeling that the choreographers and directors just let him go to see what he could do. And it was always something amazing. Here he is jumping over Bob Fosse.

Jacques d'Amboise remembered dancing with Rall. He said that during a break in filming the dancers were talking about various moves and trying things out. They started talking about triple turns, I think, and they agreed that the move was incredibly difficult and they had only heard of a few people being able to do it. Well, Tommy quietly stands up, does a triple turn, and sits back down again. D'Amboise, the top male dancer at the New York City Ballet, said he was absolutely stunned.

Stanley Donen, who had worked his way up from dance assistant to Gene Kelly to full-fledged director, directed Seven Brides, and Michael Kidd choreographed it. So the movie has top dancers and a top dance director and choreographer, so you know the dancing is fantastic and a focus of the film. Funny thing though...I mentioned earlier that only five of the seven brothers were dancers. Howard Keel doesn't really count since he is a singer and doesn't participate in the brother dances anyway, but the other non-dancer, Jeff Richards, does stick out. It is amusing to see how they get Richards out of the way so that the dancers can work. Here are some shots from the "Goin' Cotin'" (courting) number. Richards sits in the right hand corner and tries to clap with the beat while Jane Powell and the other guys do fun things.

Awkward, isn't it? Why didn't they just get a sixth dancer to play that brother? Apparently they didn't have the money or the power to get somebody else. Richards was under contract to MGM and he was available, so they used him. And it isn't that noticeable...I watched the movie for years without noticing. You are so enthralled by the dancing that you don't have time to look at the corner of the screen.

There is no dancing more enthralling than the barn raising scene. (I will admit that as a youth I rewound and played and rewound this scene on my VHS tape of Seven Brides so that I could learn the dance. I also calculated what year I would have had to be born in so that I could be one of the "brides." I really love this movie.) Michael Kidd choreographed an exuberant dance/frontier duel to "Bless Yore Beautiful Hide" between the brothers and the town men over the town women. The brothers are in brightly colored shirts, matching the women in their fresh checked dresses.

The women are passed from town man to brother and back again until eventually they are sort of forgotten when the brothers and their rivals start a more direct competition of manliness and dancing.

Ooh! That brother (Rall) can stay on the spinning log longer than any of the town men!

Look! That brother (Rall again, he can do anything!) is stronger than that other guy!

Wow! Look at those brothers leap!Amazing! That brother (Tamblyn) can jump back and forth over the axe much better than the town guy!Look at them go! Dancin' on sawhorses as though they were trampolines.Can you guess who the girls run to at the end of the dance?

Good choice, ladies.

But unfortunately, even though the six young single town women like the brothers, their parents are not too keen on the Pontipees. Especially not after the barn raising erupts into a brawl between the town men and the brothers...So the Pontipees have to go back to their mountain, alone. They are sad, but not too sad to dance with their axes and saws to the song "Lonesome Polecat." This scene is unintentionally comical. They had to know it was cheesy when they made it, though. Here is a sample: "I'm a lonesome polecat...'cause I ain't got no feminine polecat," "Can't shoot the breeze with a bunch of trees," and "Can't make no vows to a herd of cows." Just fantastic.

The film is based on a short story entitled "The Sobbin' Women," which in turn was based on the Roman legend of the Rape of the Sabine Women. And now that plotline emerges. Adam has been reading about the Sabine Women, and he sings to his brothers about the "sobbin' women" and how although the women were "sobbin', sobbin', sobbin', buckets of tears!" eventually they got to like their captors/husbands. This gets the brothers all riled up and they head down the mountain to kidnap the women and bring them back. But it is all "innocent" and legal--they also intend to capture the minister so he can marry the couples.

In a great scene (kidnapping has never looked so delightful), each brother grabs his sweetheart, and the wagon with the six captured brides heads back up the mountain. They are pursued by the women's fathers and brothers and town men (you do feel sorry for the families). The Pontipees make a lot of noise and cause an avalanche that blocks the pass and enables them to get away with their sobbin' women. Fun fact: The avalanche scene turned out so well that it was used in lots of other movies and TV shows.

But uh oh...they forgot the parson! And they can't go back and get him because of the avalanche! The women are stuck until the snow melts in the spring. Milly is furious and banishes the men to the barn. Which leaves the women plenty of time to dance around in their underthings (even though it is freezing cold and snowing outside, and the log cabin could not have been quite that snug).

Notice how Milly is all bundled up in a quilt dress (beautiful quilts as skirts and dresses in this movie!) and a shawl? Yet the women are in corsets and pantaloons?

They sing about being "June brides" since they have started to really like the Pontipee brothers.

All six of the "brides" were dancers. The tall, dark haired one in the back on the right is Julie Newmar, who played Catwoman in the 1960's TV show "Batman." The one in the front with the bouquet is Virginia Gibson, who performed on "The Johnny Carson Show" a lot. But they are not showcased the way the brothers are since they are only in the second half of the film.

I'm afraid I have already let loose too many spoilers, so no more plot! But I am sure you can guess what happens...

Although it wasn't supposed to be a hit, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers did great business and was nominated for Best Picture. Brigadoon, MGM's hope, did not do so well. (And I've never been a big fan. Although I do love Cyd Charisse...look for her on upcoming posts.)

Seven Brides is still vibrant and delightful...Watch it!

Medieval Art and Paddle Boats

A week ago I spent my last full day in Prague of my free weekend. I met Julie and we went to a National Gallery outpost (the National Gallery has several buildings all over the city). Our choice was the Convent of St. Agnes of Bohemia where there is a museum of medieval art in Bohemia and Central Europe. Really fascinating. More Marys and crucifixes and saints than you can believe. 13th-16th century statues, altars, paintings, reliquaries, etc., fill the equally old convent, though the exhibition is displayed against simple, almost modern interiors. This juxtaposition, for me at least, highlighted the incredible, extravagant, and at times wild, images. I wished I had a religious art history scholar to walk me through every object. Oh the symbolism! It was also very interesting to see the progression from 13th century paintings to 16th century artworks. The realism that develops is quite striking. (I do so enjoy art history.)

Overwhelmed by my nerdiness? There is more. I was very proud when I was able to identify St. Catherine of Alexandria in a painting by the wheel that rested beside her, and St. Margaret by the dragon-like creature peeking out from behind her flowing robe. In college I took a class on religious writing in medieval England, and I struggled through those saints' tales full of violence and dismemberment...Never thought I would need that knowledge again...

So if you come visit me, (I'm talking to you, Mom and Libby) be prepared for a harrowing tour through medieval religious art. It's awesome and weird.

Only part of the convent has been restored to its old old old form. A few chapels, this one is the biggest:

(a view from further back in the chapel:)

and this hall that is now used for concerts:

as well as the sparse refectory, a few small rooms, and a courtyard are all that remain. Really cool part of the National Gallery, and a place I wouldn't have known about never mind found without Julie. Thank you!

We had a delicious meal at an Indian restaurant near Old Town Square and then headed to the river for paddle boating. It was a hot, sunny day; perfect for water sports. Here I am boarding our skiff.

On the water:

We paddled and paddled (lazily) under bridges and around islands, skirting other paddle boats and row boats. There is quite a large area bordered by yellow buoys where boaters may roam. What an excellent way of spending a summer afternoon!

Our dock was right by this neo-Renaissance palace on Sophie's Island. It was constructed by Emperor Franz Josef I for his mother, the Archduchess Sophie. Sorry that the tree obstructs the view. It is a gorgeous yellow palace with lots of windows and porches and things. Very light and summery. Now it is used for various things like parties, "cultural events," etc.
To end with a smile: Hello, baby! Last week he cried if his mom dipped his toes in the pool, and this week he cried if he wasn't floating in the pool. They grow up so fast!

Movie of the Week VI

Midnight (1939)

I stumbled on this movie quite accidentally. I was browsing the movie section at Costco (they have some marvelous boxed sets for much less than Amazon or other stores) and I picked up a two DVD set. One was Easy Living (1937) (look for that in an upcoming post) and the other was Midnight. After some serious deliberations I put the set in my cart. What a wonderful decision!

The title refers to Cinderella, and the movie does have a pleasant make-believe, magical quality about it. Although it doesn't really stick to the Cinderella story, which is nice. (The early title for the movie was the more dramatic Careless Rapture.) The film opens with Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) sleeping on a train that just arrived in Paris. She is wearing a gold lamé dress with a rather silly attached hood, and she has no luggage besides a sparkling evening bag. It turns out she is an American actress/chorus girl who was gambling in Monte Carlo, lost everything, and hopped on a train to Paris. Which explains the evening gown. Well, it is raining, and she hasn't got an umbrella. Or any money. As she walks around the train station rather worriedly, a friendly and handsome cab driver (nice combination) notices her and asks her if she needs a taxi.

She explains that she has no money, but the driver, Tibor Czerny, (Don Ameche) still offers her his taxi. He likes her.

So they drive around for hours searching for a job. Eve auditions at various clubs but there are no job offers...Tibor buys her some dinner and they have the typical discussion over money. She says she grew up with nothing and is determined to marry rich, preferably titled rich. He responds with "money isn't everything" and tries to argue her out of her mercenary attitude. But she won't budge.

He begins to drive her to his apartment and tells her she will stay there tonight...he will be driving around so it is perfectly innocent. But she refuses, "We're no good for each other, Skipper. We're going in different directions." "That's what you think," he retorts.

So when he stops for gas she runs away. He tries to find her, but she sneaks into a fancy party, giving the door man her pawn shop ticket instead of the invitation. Thank goodness she is wearing gold lamé!

Once inside she tries to act as though she belongs. One man notices her, though, and he figures out that she isn't the wealthy society debutante she is pretending to be. The man is John Barrymore, who really does steal the movie. I did not like Barrymore in Twentieth Century (1934), but I like him in this movie.

Barrymore plays Georges Flammarion, a wily aristocrat bored with the party and the people. He is intrigued by Eve and even helps her out when her pawn ticket is discovered among the invitations. She wanders into a smaller room, introduces herself as Madame Cerny, a Hungarian baroness, and begins playing cards with Georges' wife Helene (Mary Astor) and her lover Jacques (Frances Lederer.)

Georges watches and realizes that Jacques is suddenly ignoring Helene and flirting with Eve. Georges comes up with a plan--he will use Eve to draw Jacques away from Helene, and hopefully this will drive Helene back to Georges, who is hopelessly in love with her. Eve agrees to the scheme since Georges provides a luxurious hotel room, an extravagant wardrobe, and some money for her cooperation. He is the fairy godfather who makes things appear like magic.

Unbeknownst to Eve, Tibor drives around Paris looking for Eve all night and all day. He even organizes the other cab drivers in a massive search. He really likes her.

To keep things sort of short: Eve accepts an invitation to the Flammarion's country estate and continues her efforts to woo Jacques away from Helene. Tibor figures out where she is, manages to get his hands on a tuxedo, and crashes the party, claiming to be her husband. Eventually imaginary children become part of the Cerny family back in Budapest. Comic misunderstandings, some screwball, and excellent performances all around make this quite an enjoyable film. Georges' machinations behind the scenes, Eve's quick thinking and outrageous fibs, and Tibor's at first clumsy but then more inspired attempts to win Eve are lots of fun to watch. The movie never feels stagnant or dull, which is quite an accomplishment for a Cinderella story.

Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay with Charles Brackett, and Mitchell Leisen directed. (He also directed a remake of Midnight, called Masquerade in Mexico and starring Dorothy Lamour in 1945.) Excellent people. Fun fact: The studio liked the script that Wilder and Brackett gave them, but wanted a few changes. They mistakenly sent the script back to the original authors, asking for a re-write. Wilder and Brackett sent the exact same screenplay back to the studio without any changes...the studio loved the "re-writes" and sent the film into production!

I am not a huge fan of Claudette Colbert, but I like her in this movie. She is blunt and down to earth and very funny. It is also interesting to watch how she is filmed. Apparently she only liked the left side of her face and demanded that Leisen film her from that side. Which he does in almost every shot. Take a look at the pics in this post if you don't believe me. Even this publicity still has her left side facing the camera!

Mary Astor was a sort of revelation in this movie. I had first seen her as the mother in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Crazy how five years took her from being a beautiful, desirable adulterer in Midnight to the asexual domestic super-mom in St. Louis...It turns out she played dangerous, sexy women a lot in her career. St. Louis was an exception, not the rule. A fun fact: Astor was pregnant during filming so they have to come up with various ways of hiding her tummy. She is usually sitting down.

This movie was also my introduction to Don Ameche. He also starred in several movies with Carmen Miranda, which I watched after Midnight. He is believable and exciting in Midnight, but sort of a cliche in the Carmen Mirana films. It probably doesn't help that I watched a bunch of those one after the other...

I have heard that Reese Witherspoon is remaking Midnight. Should be interesting!

Gardens and Castles and Brides

On my first full day in Prague last weekend I headed to the Prague Castle gardens, which inexplicably I had completely missed both times I toured the Castle. There is a lovely slanting walk through the gardens that first takes you by a vineyard and a cafe and then up up up until you are walking alongside the castle facade. I had never before appreciated how huge the Castle is (biggest continuous castle complex in the world). I had always approached it from the west which takes you straight to the entrance. The complex is sort of a very long rectangle, and this time I walked along one of the long sides from the east instead of coming straight up to a short end. Here is a view from my stroll, looking down on Prague.

This is one of the pretty lanes up to the Castle. I can't believe I didn't know these were here!

I liked this view because the garden down below was wild and unkempt. It was a nice change from the manicured gardens I had seen so far. Not that I prefer uncared-for green spaces, but there was something very real about a neglected garden, especially amidst all the perfect ones.

Here is the long side of the Castle. It was a gorgeous, hot day.

Lovely porch. I thought I saw Scarlett lounging about with a mint julep.This fountain directly across from the porch made me laugh. Did the lion eat a poisonous mushroom and the man is making him throw it up, eternally? Or is the water supposed to be lion spit? Or is the man somehow magically peeing through the lion's head? Help me understand!

I thought this was a nice image of all the various architectural styles of the Castle. I count five. I guess when something has been added to and reconstructed for over a thousand years, the additions don't always blend.

There was a little round tower, closed, unfortunately, but I could see an ornate ceiling through the windows. It would have been a marvelous place for a picnic. The tower boasts an amazing view of the city.

A cappuccino foam decoration. How delicate.

I made it to the Castle, skirted the entrance, and I was going to go back along the other long side, but I decided to go to the Loreta and the Strahov Monastery first. Both places are west of the castle. I got to the Loreta, a 17th century cloister and pilgrimage site at 12, but it closes from 12:15 to 1:00 for lunch. So I decided to head on to the Strahov Monastery. That was closed, too, until 1:00. So I waited...and got to see a wedding! This is the outside of the library on the right and the church on the left. There was a string quartet under the tree and wedding guests + tourists like me sat on benches or stood by the church entrance. It was neat--everyone stopped what they were doing and gathered around. Well, I thought it was neat. Maybe the bride and the wedding guests didn't want all of us around. But when you choose a tourist destination for your wedding you have to expect some random onlookers.

Here comes the bride! Interestingly, the guests all walked in at once, like a giant wedding party and the bride waited outside for everyone else to walk in. You can see the priests in white by the door, and the nicely dressed people are guests waiting to go inside.

After watching them walk in I went back to the Loreta. It contains a copy of the Santa Casa from Loreto, Italy. The white building sits in a courtyard surrounded by the rest of the site. Sort of awkward, like it was dropped there by mistake and they haven't been able to get a crane to lift it out. I also saw the Loreta's collection of monstrances--the thing used to display the consecrated host or relics. The most famous one is huge and has many, many diamonds shooting out from the center like a sunburst. Which is why it is the "Prague Sun" monstrance. It was made in 1699 with the Countess Ludmila of Kolowrat's six thousand diamonds, her wedding gift from her third husband. In her will she stipulated that the diamonds be used to make a monstrance. The Prague Sun certainly sparkles...Jesus would approve.

I decided to walk along the other long side of the Prague Castle on my way back to my hotel. I was starting down the "deer moat" walk and was rather surprised to see this tennis court plonked down right behind the Castle. There are tennis courts in the oddest places.

The deer moat used to be an actual moat that protected the Castle. Then it was filled with deer, a sort of reservation or hunting park. One emperor used to shoot the deer from his Castle window. Awesome. The last deer gave his life for sport in 1743 and then no more deer filled the deer moat. The city tried to build a road through the moat but their attempts were thwarted. In the early 20th century, bears given to the President lived in the moat. People did things there, too. One guy jumped to his death into the deer moat during an uprising against the Hapsburgs in the 17th century. The Nazis even shot people here. And the Communists built a bomb shelter underneath the moat. So that is interesting. Maybe these formidable doors lead to the bomb shelter?

I was the only person walking along the path, which made me think I wasn't supposed to be there...but no, my presence was allowed. I was just the only person to take advantage of the strangely rural path. It was odd to have the Castle on one side and busy Prague all around, but be walking along this quiet, still deer moat. I wish there were still some deer.

I emerged unscathed from the deer moat and walked along to the Prague Castle Riding School. Beautiful but under construction. No more horses, just exhibitions and performances. Bummer.

That was my adventure last Friday. On Saturday it was off to another castle--oh how I love them!--this time Karlstejn (Karlstein) Castle about 40 minutes by train from Prague. Although finding the train station, and then once there, finding the darn ticket office was, unfortunately, an adventure, the actual journey to Karlstejn was quite easy.

And here is my destination!

Straight out of a fairy tale, right?

The town beneath the castle is basically a constant Renaissance, or more accurately, Medieval Fair. There were vendors selling fun food and furs and swords, and even a falconer you could pay to get a picture with. And I was there on a normal Saturday! There is a Medieval Fair there in the fall...I must go back!

Another view of the Castle. It was founded in 1348 by Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia. Relics, the crown jewels, and other goodies were kept in the castle. But almost everything has been removed, and now most of it lives in Prague Castle.

This is the Great Tower which has the Chapel of the Holy Cross. I didn't actually see that part, but apparently it is quite nice. The walls are covered in wood panel paintings (129 of them) of saints and martyrs. Master Theodoric (Charles' court painter) painted them in the 1360s, and they are incredibly unique and important in the history of the Czech Republic and art in general. I saw some replicas at the castle and some originals at a museum in Prague. They are, indeed, extraordinary.

More brides! This one was in the courtyard of the castle. I am not sure where the actual wedding was going to be held. I had also seen another bride in Old Town Square in Prague that morning. So that makes three brides in two days. Weird, huh?

I took this from the castle looking down on a tower and the village. Lovely scenery.

The castle is splendid from the outside, but rather dull from the inside. Pretty empty. As I mentioned, all the treasures that used to be there have been taken away, along with most of the wall paintings and furniture and other objects. It didn't help that I did not know anything about Charles IV. The tour I went on was all about him--how this was his room and his private chapel and his bodyguard's room...etc. But most the rooms that the guide pointed to so enthusiastically were bare or filled with reproductions. Still, worth the price of admission.

I walked back down the hill and had to get a shot of this wall. I was thinking that little male cousins and friends and Honzik and Lukas would love to browse through this shop!

I was not looking for a sword; instead I wanted a trdelnik. I had seen them all over Prague and then there were several carts selling them in Karlstejn. So finally I went for it. Yum Yum Yum. Dough cooked around a metal pipe thing so it comes out as a spiral, covered in sugar and cinnamon and almonds and other good stuff. May I say again, Yum. Also, dork.