SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS: 2-Disc OCTOBER 12TH (1 Viewer)

[DeeF]

Funny you should say this.

Of the 7, Howard Keel (Adam) is a big singer, so he's never seen in the dance numbers. Jeff Richards (Benjamin) couldn't dance (he was a baseball player) so he sits out all the dance numbers, too. And Russ Tamblyn tried dancing, but he was mostly hired for gymnastics.

Most of the time, only 4 brothers are seen dancing.

 

[Drew Salzan]

I'm definitely going to quadruple dip (VHS, Laserdisc, MGM DVD and now this.

So many films, so little time and money.:frowning:

 

[DeeF]

One of the important points about Seven Brides is that it was done cheap. It wasn't the A picture that year -- that was Brigadoon.

Brigadoon got the money and the main focus, and the main talent too. Gene Kelly, Alan Jay Lerner, Vincente Minnelli, etc., and certainly Brigadoon was an important property.

But Cinemascope was new, and Minnelli didn't know how to use it (the widescreen is a disaster for dance), and Gene was a poor choice anyway. Brigadoon (also shot twice!) turned out quite poor, and the studio (MGM) knew it, so they opened their B-picture, 7 Brides, at Radio City instead.

Surprise! It was a big hit.

 

[Thomas T]

Excuse me for disagreeing, DeeF. I agree that 7 Brides is superior to Brigadoon but Minnelli is a master of wide screen use and his CinemaScope films of the 1950s are amongst the examples of the use of this format.

As for "the widescreen is a disaster for dance", in addition to 7 Brides For 7 Brothers, other wide screen prove you wrong including West Side Story, Oliver!, Silk Stockings, It's Always Fair Weather, Young Girls Of Rochefort, Black Tights, Sweet Charity, Grease, Carousel, Les Girls, Bye Bye Birdie, Can-Can, Unsinkable Molly Brown, Hello Dolly! among them.

 

[DeeF]

It's fine to disagree! I love a good debate.

I agree that they finally figured out how to put dance on the widescreen. It does work well with West Side Story.

But the Minnelli musicals before that. He didn't know how to fill the screen, and you can hear him say it in many documentaries.

The original Cinemascope was 2.55:1, very, very wide. Widescreen dimensions are the antithesis of humans, whose shape is tall and thin.

A very simple example, I hope you're familiar:

In Singin' in the Rain, filmed in 4:3, there are a number of dance numbers, and the one I'd like to focus on is "Good Morning," which features all three of the main cast members, Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds doing a sublime routine, mostly in unison, meaning, all three dancing the same step. Because of the size of the screen, when they stand side by side, one is aware of the exactingness of the dancing -- they are in perfect alignment. As such, one appreciates and is energized by the dancing, as one should be.

Just 4 years later, Gene directed It's Always Fair Weather, which features Gene, Michael Kidd, and Dan Dailey. In their trio dances, they are also seen dancing the same step, often moving along in the street. But here's the problem -- because of the widescreen, they are spread out, so spread out, that they not only don't fill the screen (which is distracting enough) but one cannot make out that they are doing the same step. You see? The dance becomes incoherent.

After Brigadoon, Vincente Minnelli said he would never again direct a show with major dance, and he didn't. Watch Brigadoon and then watch Meet Me In St. Louis, if you want to see what happened to overall composition when the widescreen became widespread. The directors, choreographers, and cinematographers didn't know what to do. It took years before the problems were ironed out.

Many directors hated the widescreen, and said so. George Stevens, et al.

 

[Andrew Budgell]

I personally love Brigadoon, and will purchase the Special Edition when it is released next year in 2005. That will be the triple dip for me: MGM VHS, and Warner DVD. I think it is filmed beautiful. Minnelli always put so much detail into every shot, evident in Meet Me in St. Louis.

Andy

 

[Joe Caps]

I also love Brigadoon, thought it does have a lot of problems. I wonder if we will get the same extras on Brig that the laser box set had, - three hours of raw recording sessions and the cut numbers - The Sword Dance, Come to Me Bend to Me, and From this day on. There was one other number that was shot they could't find - There but for you go I - I wonder if they have since found it.

 

[Peter Kline]

Interesting that the studio that couldn't hold a candle to MGM in making musicals, WB, now owns the films.

 

[RafaelPires]

I just hope that more and more musicals will be released by WB in the next year.
Dancing Lady, Naughty Marietta, Born to Dance, Rose Marie, Rosalie, Maytime, Babes in Arms, Strike Up the Band, Lady Be Good, Little Nelly Kelly, Babes on Broadway, Bathing Beauty, Neptune's Daughter, Best Foot Forward, Thousand Cheers, A Date with Judy, Till the Clouds Roll By, Yolanda and the Thief, Ziegfeld Folies, Easter Parade, A Date with Judy, Words and Music, It Hapenned in Brooklyn, Two Weeks with Love, Three Little Words, Summer Stock, Royal Wedding, Hit the Deck, Deep in my Heart, Love Me or Leave Me...and others.

 

[Thomas T]

We'll just have to agree to disagree, DeeF.

I don't have any problem at all with space between the dancers. When I see a stage musical or a ballet, the dancers are very often spread through out the stage area. My eyes are quite capable of going from one dancer to another and I do the same with wide screen film musicals. I think the trash lid dance in It's Always Fair Weather is one of the best examples of wide screen photography.

Yes, I know some directors never accepted wide screen like George Stevens but most, like Minnelli, not only overcame their initial distrust but learned to love it. Though it couldn't be called a "major" dance musical, Jack Cole's choreography is one of the highpoints of Minnelli's much maligned 1955 Kismet and Minnelli's Gigi (the Maxim sequences especially), Some Came Running, Lust For Life, Designing Woman, the Reluctant Debutante, The Cobweb and Home From The Hill show Minnelli in full command of the CinemaScope screen.

I wouldn't wait until West Side Story to say that they had "figured out" how to do it right. Hermes Pan and Eugene Loring's choreography for Silk Stockings (1957) is about as perfect as you could ask for.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Another WS musical with extradinary dance numbers that really "make the most" of the WS composition is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Toot Sweets and Me-ole'-Bamboo just grab that 2.20:1 canvas and run with it...

-dave

 

[TonyDale]

I'll interject and say watch "What a Picture" in Paramount's HALF A SIXPENCE and "Me Ole Bamboo" in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG. George Sidney's widescreen compositions have quite the edge over Ken Hughes'. Sidney also did wonderful widescreen work for M-G-M with Elvis' VIVA LAS VEGAS.