Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Well, bless your beautiful hide...for some reason, this movie rarely comes up on musical wish lists. It's probably up there on people's mental most-wanted lists, but we haven't discussed it overmuch. I think it's because of the general apathy that Warners has shown the MGM musical canon in general. All these years, and still only a small handful of MGM musicals are on blu. Why that is, I can't imagine--but they need to start playing catch-up. But so few of them have been released on blu that we pretty much got tired of talking about them and moved on to other musicals that actually have been popping up with increasing frequently in the past year.

I frankly passed on the SBFSB dvd--still have my vhs from way back when. And I will wait and hope they put as much effort into the blu-ray as they did Meet Me in St. Louis. I will repeat that comment for the entirety of the MGM musicals canon. We've already seen that they can do their best work on these films--let's hope that's a trend that will continue as time goes on.

And totally in the wrong forum, but I wouldn't say no if they put out the short-lived "Seven Brides" tv show on dvd while they were at it...

The first musical I remember getting into was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Growing up, I thought musicals were sort of silly and sissy, what with people bursting into song and dancing. This one came on TV one night, and I liked it from the beginning with Howard Keel's great bass voice booming out. I credit it for helping me get into musicals in general; and later, opera. It is probably my favorite of the MGM musicals, and I'd love to see it on Blu-ray.

Ethan, that 2-disc DVD is quite a nice package, with both the CinemaScope and "flat" version, "making of" feature, etc. Basically, it is like the Meet Me in St. Louis and Singin' in the Rain DVD SEs.

The two-disc SE is indeed a nice package. The trouble with this title is that the success of this movie caught everybody by surprise back in 1954 and the original negative was overprinted. Plus, it was shot in Ansco Color.

I would imagine there would have to be a lot of work done on this one before Warner would release it on BluRay. They poured a lot of money into restoring another widescreen Metrocolor title form the fifties, Gigi, with only middling success, given the state of the materials.

I'd get that special edition if you want to see Seven Brides any time soon.

To elaborate on that, it was specifically that 70mm prints were being struck from the original 35mm negative, as this was the only method at the time to get a really good-looking 70mm print, and they totally thrashed the negative doing so. As a result, the CinemaScope version on the DVD doesn't look as good as the flat version.

I'd love to see a Blu-ray with both versions on it.

VHS?? Isn't that the Four Brides For Four Brothers version?




Sorry, couldn't resist - that was always my favorite Pan And Scan joke.

David

I have the 2-disc special edition. I see that a 1-disc edition was released last year on DVD. I would gladly upgrade to Blu-ray!

It's my favorite genre, too, and I get depressed sometimes thinking about all those enjoyable films from the 1940s and 1950s that will likely never see the light of Blu-ray day. We've been promised Singin' in the Rain this year, but I don't know of another musical of that era that's even up for Blu-ray treatment.

 

I think it's time for a rediscovery of "The Band Wagon" which, to me, is the equal of "Singin' in the Rain." I always think of "Singin' in the Rain" as the ultimate MGM Gene Kelly musical with the best salute to Hollywood on film and "The Band Wagon" as the ultimate MGM Fred Astaire musical with the best salute to Broadway. They are perfect companion pieces and equally brilliant apexes of the MGM musical. As such, both are deserving of the most lavish BluRay releases similar to what was accorded "Ben-Hur."

You won't get an argument from me about The Band Wagon. It's a magnificent film. I do wish they had been able to engage Carol Richards to do the singing for Cyd Charisse for the film. India Adams just is not a good match for her voice.

Two questions about Singin' in the Rain:

1. Any indication when this will come out?

2. Does anyone else agree that the one part of Singin' that's really dated is Gene Kelly's "artistic sequence" -- that seemingly endless "Broadway Melody"? The rest is fresh as bread right out of the oven.

I don't know that "dated" is the right word, but the bit with Cyd Charisse and that long veil certainly stops the show in its tracks for a bit of choreographic pretentiousness. It did then, it still does. I believe Stanley Donen always thought so as well. Still, I wouldn't cut a frame of it. It is what it is and even that sequence, poorly paced as it may be, is Hollywood artistry at its finest.

 

That's always been what I don't like about "Singing in the Rain" the songs just stop the film each time they come on without adding to the story.

 

The dancing's great, but "SitR" works better as a comedy without the songs (except for the title number which at least does add to the story) The rest  - well the film was build around the songs not the other way around (as with most musical films/shows which start with a story and then musicalize the scenes)

 

Plus never liked the score to "SitR" for some reason. "The Bandwagon" also has great dancing and the songs are better suited for the story but again, some just stop the film. Sadly never found 7Bf7B to be any fun at all - and find the film a bore. 

 

"An American in Paris" also seems a chore to get through even though it won the Best Picture Oscar

 

During the 1950's  MGM's was at it's best with "Annie Get Your Gun" (MGM's top grossing musical of the decade by the way) "Kiss Me Kate" and the Oscar winning "Gigi"
 

1950's MGM was at it's worst with "Show Boat" and "Kismet" To bad the 1936 Universal film of "Show Boat" which is 100 times better is still unavailable on DVD/Blu-ray

 

 

 

Warner Home Video's Vice President in charge of catalog releases George Feltenstein has already leaked that a 60th Anniversary blu-ray release of "Singin' In The Rain" is definitely being worked on with a street date still "TBA"...be patient, it's coming this year.