BRIGADOOOON BRIGADOOOOO-OOON
I’m proud and humbled to announce that this is the first month that List Mimsy’s views have exceeded 600 (also the first month views have exceeded 500). And now it is my greatest hope that you won’t all abandon me when
I suggest that these two musicals have some redeeming qualities.
Watching them together is a stretch, bordering on an exercise in masochism, but with what the movies could you possibly watch them?
So what movies am I actually talking about? Brigadoon (1954) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (also 1954). Wow. Before writing this I had no idea both were from the same year. What a horrible time that must
have been. Without Hitchcock’s Rear Window I feel like it might have ended up being the end of cinema completely.
But what’s actually wrong with these movies? They’re objectively terrible and overblown. But so funny, I can’t even explain how funny.
Brigadoon first!
I want to know how they tricked Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse into this one.
“Two Americans on a hunting trip in Scotland become lost. They stumble upon Brigadoon, a mysterious Scottish village that appears for only one day every 100 years. Tommy, one of the tourists, falls in love with Fiona, a young woman from Brigadoon.”
As you would expect with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, there are A LOT of dance interludes (on the moors no less) and A LOT of singing (I did say it was a musical?) Witness the ear worm title piece, which I have not been able to exorcise for five years. Oh yes, and Gene Kelly already has a fiancee, as is the way.
But as Mr. Lundie says, “when ye love someone deeply enough, anythin’ is possible. Even miracles.” (Yes, there will be offensive “Scottish brogue”.)
Want a better idea, check out The Love of My Life. Because you can tell a lot about a film from its comic relief.
Really, what even is this?
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers second!
Have to love a frontier musical based on the rape of the Sabine women!
Should have been their tagline. Missed opportunity.
Long story short: “In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.”
Oh yeah, this is going to be good.
Even better is that backwoodsman Adam decides to marry Milly because of how SKILLED SHE IS AT COOKING AND CLEANING. And there are dance sequences choreographed around chopping wood and a barn-raising turned fistfight and what even is this movie?
Featuring such… individual… songs as “Bless Yore Beautiful Hide“, “Lonesome Polecat“, and who could forget “Sobbin’ Women“. It’s always best to model your romantic pursuits on Ancient Roman kidnappers. A+.
Mkay, I’m going to have Sobbin’ Women in my head for the rest of the day. The things I do for this blog.
But hopefully you’ll at least be stuck with Brigadoon now. Spreading the virus.
Truthfully? I do enjoy these (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers more than Brigadoon) because they’re undeniably entertaining.
How about you? Have you seen these? Can you imagine subjecting yourself to them without alcohol?
List Mimsy 