Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Jane Powell: Milly Pontipee

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Adam : What do you call her?

  Milly : I was thinking of some name like Hannah or Hagar or Hephzibah, picking up where your mother left off.

  Adam : Hannah.

  Milly : Hannah.

  Adam : I got to thinking up at the cabin, about the baby. How I'd feel if someone came creeping in and carried her off. I'd string him up the nearest tree. I'd shoot him down as I would a thieving fox.

• Adam : [sarcastically]  May I escort you to the ball, ma'am?

  Milly : Well, it wouldn't hurt you to learn some manners, too.

  Adam : What do I need manners for? I already got me a wife.

• Milly : Somehow it just don't seem fittin' for a bridegroom to spend his weddin' night in a tree.

• Milly : Raise your hat. What's the matter, Caleb?

  Caleb : My hair ain't combed.

• Milly : Don't you like girls?

  Gideon : We ain't never hardly ever seen one.

• Milly : Good morning my brothers. If you're looking for your outside clothes they're hanging up drying on the line. I came in before and got them. I couldn't get your inside clothes so I'll take them now.

  Benjamin : Our underwear?

  Milly : You're winter underwear that you're sleeping in. You might as well hand it over because you're not gonna get your clothes or food or nothing til you get all cleaned up and shaved.

  Benjamin : Where's Adam? We wanna talk to Adam.

  Milly : He's out plowing, he had his breakfast over a half an hour ago. I got hot muffins waiting, crisp bacon, steak, fryer potatoes, fresh ground coffee. Now do I get that winter underwear or do I have to come in there and take it off of you?

  Benjamin : Don't listen to her. She wouldn't dare.

  Milly : Oh wouldn't I?

• Milly : Which one is Ephraim and which is Daniel?

  Ephraim , Daniel : Me.

  Milly : Y'all live around here?

  Caleb : Not round, here.

• Adam : Smells good enough to eat.

  Milly : Tastes good too, so they tell me.

  Adam : Got any ketchup handy?

  Milly : My stew can stand on its own feet.

• Milly : Say something nice, Gideon.

  Gideon : Nice night for a coon hunt.

• Milly : [Desperate to stop the fistfight]  Don't just stand there, do something!

  Frank : [Casually]  What for? There's only three little ones!

• Sam : When are you gonna marry me Milly?

  Milly : Oh, next week Sam.

  Tom : She's gonna marry me, ain't you Milly?

  Milly : What would your wife say Tom?

• Adam : This is my brother Caleb.

  Milly : How are you brother Caleb?

  Adam : This is Milly, my wife.

  Caleb : Your wife? Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! Hey Dan, he did it, he got married!

• Milly : [after the barn fight]  Frank?

  Frank : Kick in the pants.

• Adam : [after Milly has banished him and his brothers to the barn for kidnapping the girls]  Now you're takin' this too hard! Everything will work out fine. We'll get a preacher up here someway or another.

  Milly : [Shocked and irate]  You this that those girls would marry them now? You think it's so easy because I didn't court you or nothin', that that's all there is to it! I married you because I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, but I thought it was the same for you too.

  Adam : [Trying to be conciliatory]  Now, Milly...

  Milly : [Enraged and distraught]  You think a wife's just a cookin' thing! You've got no understandings, you've got no feelings! How could you do a thing like this? Just think of these poor girls sick with fright-!... And their families crazy with worry-!... I can't abide to look at you!

  [goes inside, slams the door] 

• Milly : [to the Pontipee Brothers]  This house is for the girls. You're not gonna set foot in it as long as they're here. You'll eat and sleep in the barn with the rest of the livestock. Now get out of here. I'm ashamed of you.

• Milly : Reverend, ever since I came here, you've been after me to marry. "A girl had no right to stay single," you said. "The country needed to be settled."

• Milly : It's a whole month before the barn-raising and the picnic. But there's one thing you gotta remember: You're gonna have a lot of competition, 'cause every one of those girls down there has five or ten fellas buzzing around them.

• Milly : [singing]  Ding-dong, Ding-a-ling-dong, Where the steeple bells, Ever quite as gay...

• Milly : Do you all live around here?

  Caleb : Not around. *Here.*

• Milly : [singing]  Forgive me, If I simply throw out my chest...

• Milly : When you meet a girl, don't grab her like she was a flapjack. Hold off for a while. Offer her your arm. When you've got her alone, steal your arm around her. You gotta court a girl to get her. You gotta call her "my darling, my dear, my precious, my pet."

  [singing] 

  Milly : Goin' courtin', goin' courtin', Oh, it sets your senses in a whirl, Goin' courtin', goin' courtin', Dudin' up to go and see a girl...