Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

[ivan]

The dress colors worn by the six prospective brides during the barn-raising scenes are: Dorcas--mauve/white checked ; Ruth--blue; Martha--green; Liza--pink/white checked; Sarah--yellow/white checked; and Alice--salmon.

[bernice]

Many of the actors' singing voices were dubbed: Matt Mattox's singing was dubbed by Bill Lee, Nancy Kilgas's singing was dubbed by Marie Greene, Julie Newmar's singing was dubbed by Betty Allen, two of the brothers had their singing dubbed by Allan Davies and Charlie Parlota, Ruta Lee had her singing dubbed by Betty Noyes, and Betty Carr had her singing dubbed by Norma Zimmer.

[ella]

Jane Powell and Howard Keel would later revive their roles in a stage production of the show in 1978.

[caroline]

Jeff Richards (a former professional baseball player) was one of the two "brothers" not chosen for his dancing ability. The other was Howard Keel, who was an actor/singer.

[bessie]

Final film of Anna Q. Nilsson.

[phyllis]

According to studio head Dore Schary, the idea for turning Steven Vincent Benet's story into a screen musical originally came from director Joseph Losey.

[melinda]

Jacques d'Amboise's credit includes the acknowledgment "Courtesy New York City Ballet", but he still had to leave before filming was finished because he was under contract with them. A stand-in for him was used during the last few days of filming. You can see someone else playing Ephraim as the brothers are pacing downstairs during the baby's birth.

[nina]

In the final scene, when Rev. Elcott asks the six brothers if they take the six brides, they all look behind at the fathers for approval. When the Reverend asks the six brides if they take the six brothers, they also look back at the fathers. Problem with this is that Gideon and Alice didn't have a father (or future father-in-law) to look back at since Alice's father was standing in front of them, performing the ceremony. Though, it is also possible they are merely checking with the men holding the guns rather than specific fathers.

[ray]

Stanley Donen was producer Jack Cummings' choice for director from the outset, thanks to his success with On the Town (1949) and Singin' in the Rain (1952).

[ethel]

The story of the Sabine women referred to in the film came from Plutarch's 'Life of Romulus'.

[frances]

One of the most popular films of 1954, it made MGM a profit in excess of $3 million--a considerable sum at the time.

[nora]

The avalanche was filmed at Corral Creek Canyon, at Sun Valley, Idaho.

[harry]

The shirt colors worn by Adam's six brothers during the barn-raising and final scenes are: Benjamin--orange; Caleb--yellow; Daniel--purple; Ephraim--green; Frank--red; and Gideon--blue.

[jessica]

For the dancing during the "June Bride" number, Ruta Lee (Ruth) and Julie Newmar (Dorcas) were kept in the background as they were clearly the least graceful dancers out of the six abducted brides.

[jessie]

Rehearsals for the barn-raising sequence took 3 weeks.

[scarlett]

The only Best Picture Oscar nominee that year to be also nominated for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.

[mathew]

For the famous barn raising dance sequence, the cast rehearsed for three weeks in order to get the intricate choreography down. It was during one of these rehearsals that Russ Tamblyn wandered over to the set along with Jeff Richards to see how the scene was coming along. "Michael Kidd called me over and said, 'Rusty, somebody told me that you're a good tumbler, that you can do some flips'," said Tamblyn in a 2004 interview. "So I did a back flip for him. 'Fantastic!' he said. 'We'll put it in a number.' I told him I really wasn't a dancer, except for some tap dancing. But he said, 'Listen, this is just like square dancing. All you have to do is lift your legs high. You can do a lot of acrobatic stuff. It's perfect.' That's how I became a dancer in Seven Brides."

[javier]

In the late-1960s the original camera negative was damaged when the film was blown-up to 70mm for a re-release. This, along with the problematic color stock, made a restoration impossible for many years. The current restoration of the film is taken from a clean interpositive.

[alyssa]

The cast list in the on-screen end credits is broken up into three groups with the following subheadings: The Pontipee Brothers, The Brides, The Townspeople.