Editing Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (section)

==Production==
According to Dore Schary, [[Joseph Losey]] recommended the Stephen Vincent Benet story “The Sobbin’ Women” as the basis for a musical film to Schary when the latter was head of production at RKO. Schary tried to get the rights but [[Joshua Logan]] had it under option for a stage production.<ref>{{cite book|page=168| title=Heyday : an autobiography|last=Schary|first= Dore|year=1979 }}</ref> When Logan dropped the option, Schary arranged for MGM to purchase the rights. Schary later said "everything worked" on the film.<ref>Schary p 273</ref>

Dorothy Kingsley was brought on to the film to replace Frances Goodrich, as well as Albert Hackett, who she said: {{quote|"...didn't get along with Stanley Donen. They were lovely people, darling . . . but the script just wasn't coming out right, they were unhappy, and he was unhappy. They wanted to bow out. Stanley Donen called me in and I looked at the script and said, 'The big trouble in the original short story is that the Howard Keel character is the one that tries to get all of these boys married off, and that's not right. The girl has nothing to do, and she's got to be the one to engineer all this stuff.' That was changed around and seemed to please everyone, and we went from there."<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Dorothy Kingsley: The Fixer|first=Pat|last=McGilligan|editor-first=Pat|editor-last=McGilligan|title=Backstory 2: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 1940s and 1950s|publisher= University of California Press|year=1991|url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft0z09n7m0&chunk.id=d0e6341&toc.id=&brand=ucpress|page=127}}</ref>}}

Choreographer Michael Kidd originally turned down the film, recalling in 1997: {{quote|"Here are these slobs living off in the woods. They have no schooling, they are uncouth, there's manure on the floor, the cows come in and out&nbsp;– and they're gonna get up and dance? We'd be laughed out of the house."<ref name="Independent obit">{{cite news | title=Michael Kidd | work=The Independent | date=2007-12-29 | pages=44}}</ref>}}

Lyricist Johnny Mercer said that the musical numbers were written at Kidd's behest, as an example "of how a songwriter sometimes has to take his cue from his collaborators."<ref name="Songs of Hollywood">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/songsofhollywood0000furi | url-access=registration | title=The Songs of Hollywood | publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |last1=Furia |first1=Philip |last2=Patterson |first2=Laurie | year=2010 | page=188 | isbn=978-0195337082}}</ref> For example, Kidd explained to Mercer and dePaul both his conception of the "Lonesome Polecat" number and the lament of the brothers for the women, and the two then worked out the music and lyrics.<ref name="Songs of Hollywood" />

In his introduction to a showing on Turner Classic Movies on January 17, 2009, host [[Robert Osborne]], as well as [[Jane Powell]] in her autobiography, ''The Girl Next Door'', both say MGM was much less interested in ''Seven Brides'' than it was in ''[[Brigadoon (film)|Brigadoon]]'', which was also filming at the time, even cutting its budget and transferring the money to the [[Lerner and Loewe]] vehicle.<ref name="Jane Powell Autobiography">{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Jane |title=The Girl Next Door...and How She Grew |edition=1st |year=1988 |publisher=Morrow |isbn=0-688-06757-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/girlnextdoorandh00powe }}</ref>

Most of the movie was shot on the MGM sound stages. One exterior sequence not filmed at the studio was shot on location at Corral Creek Canyon in Sun Valley, Idaho. It was here that the escape following the brothers' kidnapping their future brides and the avalanche that closed the pass was filmed.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047472/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2 |title=Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) - Trivia |work=IMDb |accessdate=2015-12-28 }}</ref>

On the 2004 DVD commentary, Stanley Donen states that the film was originally shot in two versions, one in [[CinemaScope]] and another in normal ratio, because MGM was concerned that not all theaters had the capability to screen it.  Despite the fact that it cost more than the widescreen version to make, he says, the other version was never used. However, both versions are available on the 1999 LaserDisc and 2004 DVD releases.{{fact|date=May 2025}}

The dresses worn by the female cast were made from old quilts that costume designer [[Walter Plunkett]] found at [[the Salvation Army]].<ref name="Jane Powell Autobiography" />

Howard Keel wrote in his memoirs: "Donen did a good job directing ''Seven Brides'', but the real hero and brains behind it was Jack Cummings."<ref>{{cite book|first=Howard|last=Keel|year=2005|title=Only make believe|page=196}}</ref>

Donen later said making the film was "a nightmare because it was a terrible struggle from the beginning of the picture until the end."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Los Angeles Times|date=1974-08-25 |title=Perfect imperfection: that's Donen|page=32}}</ref>