Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Howard Keel: Adam Pontipee

Photos 

19 more photos

Quotes 

• Adam : Well, Pa used to say love is kind of like the measles. You only get it once. The older you are, the tougher it goes.

• 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.

• Gideon : Adam, you're my eldest brother. Now I've always looked up to ya, tried to ape ya. But today I'm ashamed of you. Now I know you can lick me, lick the tar outta me! But I wouldn't hold myself no kinda man unless I showed ya how I felt!

  [punches him] 

  Adam : Why you...!

  [throws him on horse, hands him reigns] 

  Adam : Now, GIT!

  [slaps horse] 

• Adam : Morning ma'am.

  Lem's girlfriend : Morning backwoodsman.

  Adam : Nice day for marrying.

  Lem : Well, that's a right good idea.

  Lem's girlfriend : Oh Lem, I thought you'd never ask me.

• 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.

• Adam : [on his wedding night]  9 o'clock an hour past your bedtime.

  Frank : Yours too.

• 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!

• Adam : [to Gideon]  What's the matter with you? Someone butt you in the bread basket?

• Adam : [singing to Gideon about being in love]  How can you tell what's in its spell? How can you tell unless you've tried it? Wait for that kiss you're certain of. And let your heart decide when you're in love.

• Adam : You're beating your head against a stone wall, Milly. You'll never make jackadandies out of them!

• 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] 

• Adam : [singing]  Pretty and trim, But not too slim, Heavenly eyes, And just the right size, Simple and sweet, And *sassy* as can be, Bless her beautiful hide, Yes, she's the girl for me!

• Adam : I like best a widow woman that ain't afraid to work. There's seven of us men. Me and my six brothers. Place is like a pigsty, and the food tastes worse. So I made up my mind. The next time I come to town to trade, I'll bring me back a wife.

  Mrs. Bixby : Well, that's a fine thing, I must say! Thinking you could come here and trade for a wife like she was a bag of meal.

  Adam : Oh, oh, no, ma'am. I wouldn't say that, ma'am.

  Mrs. Bixby : Let me tell you, none of our gals is going to go off to bear country with you - to cook and wash and slave for seven slummocky backwoodsmen.

• Adam : I'm here today to get me a wife. I don't aim to go back home empty handed. Now, you're all pretty and fresh and young. And I'll keep you in mind. But I ain't deciding on nothin' until I look them all over.

• Adam : A man wants a wife who can work alongside of him. Of course, if she's got eyes that are bluer than cornflowers and hair the color of wheat in the sunshine, he counts himself real fortunate.

• Adam : If you could just get a look at yourselves. You look like a bunch of lovesick bull calves.

• Adam : You're a disgrace to the Pontipee name. You're a bunch of lily-livered, chicken-hearted, lick-spittles.

• Adam : This is history! This really happened.

  [singing] 

  Adam : Tell ya 'bout them sobbin' women, Who lived in the Roman days, It seems that they all went swimmin', While their men was off to graze, Well, a Roman troop was ridin' by, And saw them in their "me oh my", So they took 'em all back home to dry, Least that's what Plutarch says, Oh yes! Them a woman was sobbin', sobbin', sobbin', Fit to be tied, Ev'ry muscle was throbbin', throbbin', From that riotous ride...

• Adam : How much is beaver worth this year?