Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954)

I can't deny it, I'm a musicals fan. And musicals just don't get any better than this one. 7 Brides for 7 Brothers has long been my favourite musical and at many times has been my favourite movie of all time. This is a typical black and white classic with typical hollywood sets rather than any on location shooting. This means that the set pieces, dance numbers and songs are all performed at their absolute best.

The story is one of 7 backwoodsmen who work the land all spring, summer and autumn, and are then snowed in all winter. It's a hard life, lived miles away from the nearest town or village that leaves them with no company at all. The eldest brother and head of the house, Adam Pontippee, decides that, while on a trip to town to restock supplies, he'll get himself a wife, and in one day, with great singing, he does.

Adam's wife, Milly, soon learns of the other brothers loneliness and arranges ways for them to meet up with the girls from the town. Adam is not so patient to watch his brothers woo their muses and on a nighttime raid, all seven brothers return to the town and kidnap six girls. On their return to their house in the backwoods, they case avalanche to cut them off from the town for a whole winter.

The rest of the movie is left to the tales of distressed girls hating what the boys have done becoming understanding hearstruck women in love as the men realise the consequences of their actions. Perhaps the first case of Stockholm Syndrome on record.