Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Let's be realistic.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of the greatest musicals of all time! Seven brides for seven brothers is a landmark of the Hollywood's golden age of musicals abs deserve to be seen again and again.

One of the great classic movie musicals, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a must-see for theater fans. I'd heard a bad recommendation of this movie and had put it off until I'd seen virtually every other musical out there, only finally renting it for love of Howard Keel. From start to finish I was pleasantly surprised! Howard Keel starts the movie off, in his brawny masculine splendor, trading supplies in town. He lives very far away and is in search of a wife. He and Jane Powell fall in love at first sight and are married at once, but it isn't until after she leaves her home and travels with him to his that she learns the real story: Howard lives with his six brothers and wants a housekeeper more than a wife. But, as you can tell from the title, there might be more than one woman in the movie. . .One of my favorite scenes was when Jane was brought to the house and ushered into the kitchen, expected to immediately earn her keep. It reminded me of The Color Purple when Whoopi Goldberg sees the state of disarray in her new married home, and it made my heart break for her. She'd been so excited to leave her town with the handsome, charming Howard Keel, and then her hopes and romantic dreams were immediately dashed with no hope of an improvement in the future. Jane made for a very likable heroine, and she had such a beautiful voice I wondered why she hadn't been cast in The Music Man and Oklahoma! instead of Shirley Jones.The most famous number in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is "Bless Yore Beautiful Hide", otherwise known as "Barn Dance". Howard introduces the song to the audience with his big, beautiful voice, and the instrumental theme is repeated several times before the big dance number so the audience knows it's coming. When the town gets together for the barn raising, get ready to watch one of the greatest dances in film history! It's received a lot of hype over the years, but I promise it lives up to the praise. While I absolutely recommend this movie for all musical lovers, there is one condition in my recommendation: Don't make this one the first Howard Keel movie you watch. He has a beautiful voice, but his character isn't at all likable in this movie. You're better off watching Show Boat first so you can forgive his cranky mood in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Why do I date the decline of the MGM musical from this movie? There are some historical issues with it -- it was not kept in repertory and even when you could see it on TV, it was in pan-and-scan, which wrecked its compositions.For me, the real problem is its exquisite choreography by Michael Kidd. featuring the younger Potiphee brothers. This is not the choreography of the movies, showing people who know how to dance for the camera, like Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Gene Nelson. Kidd's choreography is not made for a camera that can move and a pace that includes cuts, and the brothers are not terribly adept at playing to that camera's unblinking eye. You can see it in "Lonesome Polecat", as they pose on the sound stage, carefully and unmovingly; and the Barn Raising sequence is far too formal and mannered in its Agnes-Demille way. Even the story itself, like the dancing, is formal. It's the work of people who are out to reform the movie musical, like Christian missionaries out to convert the heathen Catholics in a William S. Hart movie.I don't mean to say that the movie doesn't have its strengths nor that I don't enjoy it. Jane Powell is great and Howard Keel plays his usual singing slab of beef. I love the barn-raising sequence for its stage choreography, the songs are pretty good and there are a lot of pretty young women in their skivvies, including Julie Newmar and Ruta Lee.

I see complaints of this wonderful movie that it is sexist, etc. What fun. Have the complainers never read the Steven Vincent Benet original? In the original story the whole idea of the abduction was Millie's. She came up with the idea to abduct the town's girls so that she might have some help out there. In the film Millie is the good guy and Howard Keel the villain. I am told that I must fill ten lines with prose to be published, so I apologize to readers for my having to ramble on. Who cannot fall to fall in love with Jane Powell as I did in 1954. I am still in love with her in 2015. My brother-in -law was able to allow me to see this film once again. I owe him for the privilege. I hope equally that all might see this wonderful film.