'Til Death Do Us Part ~ Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw

Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw

Married 53 years

Peter Shaw was a businessman and an actor and helped oversee Angela Lansbury's long career in film. They were married until he passed away in 2003.

I hope you enjoyed my wedding extravaganza! There are a lot of other couples I wish I could have included and more movies I wish I could have talked about. But I hope I did my 5th anniversary justice by bringing you a June chock full of posts!

'Til Death Do Us Part ~ Eva Marie Saint and Jeffrey Hayden

Eva Marie Saint and Jeffrey Hayden

Married 61 years and counting

In 2011, Eva Marie Saint and Jeffrey Hayden were on stage performing Love Letters, a two-person act in which two characters read love letters they have written to each other over the years. Would have loved to have seen that!

Weddings in Film ~ Newlywed Life ~ Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

"My Weddings in Film series explores the different stages of getting married as seen through classic movies. The sixth film, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), takes a look at the struggles of newlywed life.


Congratulations on your recent nuptials! Now it's time to enjoy newlywed life. Because newlywed life is full of rainbows and puppies and picnics in the sun. Right? RIGHT?! Well, not really. Not even close. 


Newlywed life differs from couple to couple. Some couples have already had the experience of living together and you've already gone through that phase in which you are learning how to deal with each others quirks and are starting to combine your daily routines together. In fact, for those couples newlywed life after the wedding can be quite a relief because the stress of wedding planning is over and they can settle back into their old routine. For couples who have not lived together and were waiting until after the wedding to do so, newlywed life brings with it a whole bunch of new experiences that they may or may not be ready for.

Let's take a look at Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Adam Pontipee (Howard Keel) has just travelled from his home in the backwoods ("bear country") to town in search for supplies and a wife. 

"Well, I'll trade you for a new plow, two tubs of lard, a barrel of molasses, 25 pounds of chewing tobacco and you wouldn't have a wife under the counter there?"

Bless her beautiful hide...

He's spotted Milly (Jane Powell) taking an axe to some firewood out back of the inn she cooks at. 
He sits down in the inn for a meal to take a good look at Milly and to taste her home cooking. He likes what he sees and likes what he tastes. She likes the look of him too.

And he proposes marriage to her over the back of a cow.

It's only been a few hours since they've met. But he won't be back for another 5 months. He wants her and she wants him and they both want out of their current situation. He wants to put an end to his bachelor days and have a strong hardworking woman to help him keep the household. She wants to have a man all to herself, one she's not afraid to marry and so that she can leave the inn days behind her. Later that evening, after Adam has had a good hot bath and a shave, they marry.

Everything seems to be perfect but when their newlywed life begins Milly discovers a big problem. Adam left out the fact that he's got 6 dirty and hungry brothers, who are seriously lacking in manners, waiting back at the cabin. She was expecting to take care of one big backwoodsman but starts her married life having to take care of 7 instead!

Always back at the inn when I hear all the men yelling and screaming for their dinners, I think how wonderful it would be to cook and care for one man. Just one man. - Milly

Married life is a work in progress and sometimes it's a full-time job. For Milly, newlywed life is a very tough adjustment. In her very short courtship with Adam, she didn't have time to learn what she was really getting into.

Before

What's wonderful about Milly as a character is that she is one tough cookie. It's not long before she's whipped the 6 brothers into shape. They are all shaven, cleaned up and wait to say their prayers before they politely dive into their meals. She even teaches them how to properly court ladies. It's that 7th brother, her new husband Adam, who is a tougher nut to crack.

After

The disappointment in Milly and Adam's newlywed life stems from two major faults in their courtship: lack of communication and lack of time to get to know each other. Also, Adam knew that if Milly fully understood what it was she was getting into that she may turn him down. In the end, they both had expectations that didn't match the other persons'. But even a misunderstanding like that can be worked on with lots of future communication, patience, understanding, compromise and love. It's a tough road ahead for Milly and Adam. Can they make it work?

Weddings in Film ~ The Big Day ~ Father of the Bride (1950)

My Weddings in Film series explores the different stages of getting married as seen through classic movies. The fifth film, Father of the Bride (1950), takes a look at all the chaos of the days leading up to a wedding.

“I would like to say a few words about weddings. I’ve just been through one. Not my own, my daughter’s. Some day in the far future I may be able to remember it with tender indulgence but not now. I always used to think that marriage was a simple affair. Boy and girl meet, they fall in love, get married, they have babies, eventually the babies grow up and meet other babies and fall in love and get married and so on and on and on. Looked at that way it’s not only simple it’s downright monotonous. But I was wrong.” - Stanley

Oh boy! The big day is near and there is still so much left to do. You'll need to gather up your bridal party for a rehearsal, check with all your vendors, make all the payments, cross your T's and dot your I's and much more. And once the wedding is nigh, time seems to fly by at such a rapid pace that you wish time would freeze just so you could take a breather. Those few days right before the wedding are the most stressful.

In fact you may be experience a few headaches during the whole process.

Father of the Bride (1950) follows Stanley T. Banks (Spencer Tracy) as he prepares himself both financially and emotionally to his daughter's upcoming wedding. Things are moving really fast for Stanley. It's only been a short while since his daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor) announced that she was in love with and planning to marry her beau Buckley (Don Taylor).

"It was just three months exactly… that the storm broke here." - Stanley

Three months isn't a lot of time to deal with the stress that comes along with a wedding. Not only that, Stanley has to come to terms with the fact that he's losing his beloved 20 year old daughter to a man whom he doesn't know very much about while also facing the fact that as the bride's father he will have to finance the whole affair.

And there are lots of things to pay for. Lots. Including things like fancy wedding cakes.

With a price tag like that back in 1950, it's enough to make anyone go a little crazy. (Fun factoid: In 2012, my own wedding cake doesn't even cost that much!).

Did Buckley happen to mention who is going to finance these child marriages? – Stanley 

 There are a lot of big and little details that go into planning a wedding and when you put them altogether they can be overwhelming. But nothing is quite as stressful as those days leading up to the wedding. 

"I hope you have better luck than I did. Spent $5,000 on my daughter’s wedding. 6 months later she was on her way to Reno." – random Dad at the Engagement party

“ CHAOS, absolute complete chaos.” – Stanley

You said it Stanley! Weddings are absolute chaos. Making sure everything comes together can be quite a daunting task. First you have to figure out where your ceremony/reception is going to be held. Then you make your guest list which seems to grow uncontrollably. You make out your invitations, send them out and hope that enough people will say yes. Not too many though, just enough so that you can afford it.

Then there is figuring out the flowers, catering, suits, dresses, gown, trousseau, tents, chairs, candles, cake, entertainment, and on and on and on.

I thought a wedding was supposed to be a joyous occasion. This is a business convention! - Kay

The Stanley and Ellie Banks (Joan Bennett) have their work cut out for them. As the parents of the bride they have to handle and pay for pretty much everything. All Buckley's parents have to do is show up and hand over the groom.

Then there is the matter of attire. One of the most humorous scenes in the movie is when Stanley tries on an old suit and top hat he had in his closet. The box it's in is full of moth balls and the suit is a few sizes too small. Stanley is determined to save some money and re-use a suit he's only worn twice before.

Oops! Stanley has to give in and fork over the money for a new suit. We all find situations like this during the wedding planning stage. You think you'll save money by re-using or skipping something but in the end you just end up paying for it just to not have to deal with the drama.

One thing that does seem to lighten the financial burden of weddings is presents. 

“We were not accustomed to such bounty. The idea that anyone should go out and purchase a gift with hard money filled us with tender gratitude." - Stanley

And when the presents come, make sure you have somewhere to put them! Because they'll take up a whole lot of space.

Wedding planning consists of a whole lot of coordinating. And most of that is wrangling all the people involved. Not only do all the guests have to be selected and invited, you also need to confirm that they will actually be coming to your wedding. Also, bridal parties have to get selected, outfitted in their tuxes and dresses, you'll need to order boutonnieres for the men and bouquets for the women and of course you'll need to have a rehearsal to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Let's hope your rehearsal doesn't go as badly as the one in the movie!

As the wedding day draws near, you may start to have stress-induced nightmares. Like Stanley did!

When the chaos has reached it's peak, it's good to just sit down and talk to somebody about everything that is going on. Being able to sort through all your emotions with a good deep conversation will help immensely.

Just keep in mind what the day represents and all the wonderful memories you'll have after all the chaos has settled and the stress has just become a distant memory.

“On to the slaughter…” - Kay

And by the end, you'll have a big party with lots of friends and family and plenty of booze. Congratulations!

P.S. Did you enjoy the screen caps? You can see a full set of them (including some not seen here) on the Out of the Past Facebook page.