Movie Review: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

It's a well-known fact that I like musicals. It is (one of) my dream(s) to someday have an all-musical, all the time channel (and by have, I don't mean have it available to me - I want to be in charge of it [go figure]). It would have the classics, the little-known ones, the Muppets, everything.

Sadly it had been awhile since I had watched a musical. Yesterday, however, I was inspired to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which I hadn't seen in awhile. I like it.

In case you don't know, it's the story of 7 back-woodsmen brothers. Adam, the oldest, decides he needs to find a wife, because with 7 men around the house, there's a lot of cooking and cleaning and sewing that needs to be done. So he goes in to town, finds a girl, marries her, and takes her home. (All without telling her there are 6 more men to take care of, of course.) Milly is a fiesty little thing who whips them all into shape, and makes all the brothers decide they need wives, too. This is Oregon territory in the 1860s, though, so women are scarce, and the brothers have to fight for them. (And they get quite clever in their pursuit.)

Luckily, this is a musical, so some of the fighting takes the form of a dance-off. One of the best dance scenes of all moviedom. Also, luckily, this movie does not have a ballet scene that I have to fast forward through because it's so boring. There's a cheesy song and a half sung by Milly in her shrill operatic voice, but other than that it's just plain fun. And it has the song 'Lonesome Pole Cat.' Any song men sing comparing themselves to skunks is just plain a happy thing. It also has an underwear song, like all good musicals should.

And I've always had a crush on Benjamin.

So that's my review. It makes me smile.