Seven Brides for Seven Brothers | 7 Brides for 7 Brothers | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Cast | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Musical Film | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Stanley Donen | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers Albert Hackett
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a musical film released in 1954. It was directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer. The script by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, and Dorothy Kingsley is based on the short story The Sobbin’ Women, by Stephen Vincent Benét, which was based in turn on the Ancient Roman legend of The Rape of the Sabine Women. The film was a 1954 Oscar nominee for Best Picture.
The film is particularly known for the unusual choreography by Michael Kidd, which makes dance numbers out of such mundane frontier pursuits as chopping wood and most famously raising a barn.
In his introduction to a showing of the film on TCM January 17, 2009, Robert Osborne says MGM was much less interested in the film than it was in Brigadoon which was also in production at the time, even cutting its budget and transferring the money to the Lerner and Lowe vehicle.
On the 2004 DVD commentary, Stanley Donen states that the film was originally shot in two versions, one widescreen and another in normal ratio, because MGM was concerned that not all theaters had the capability to screen it. Despite the fact that it cost more than the widescreen version to make, he says, the other version was never used. However both versions are available on the 2004 DVD release.(Wiki)