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Who can blame them? Tommy catches the eye of the nicest perfect ten dancer in Scotland, Fiona (Cyd Charisse). Jeff, on the other hand, gets stuck with an addlepated redhead who won't take no for an answer.
Tommy has a big decision to make. It so happens that Brigadoon exists for only one day per century. He can desert friends and family for Fiona, or leave the idyllic village and never see his smokin' hot dancer friend again. Nightfall is coming. What will Gene Kelly do? Other than dance, that is.
How I felt about it. Brigadoon is burdened with a lot of luggage. With the exception of one scene, involving party-pooper Brigadoon rebel Harry (Hugh Laing), the pace is slower than molasses travelling uphill on a cold day. There are also problems with credibility and predictability.
For the sake of the story, we must believe that Brigadoon exists one day per century, and that the hunters just happen to show up on that one day. Still, does the town have to have a wedding that day, to the sister of the woman Tommy is in love with? Does Fiona really wish to save herself for some thin-voiced sissy stranger over yon hill, when there are three-dozen strapping laddies to pick from (we know they're there, since they all dance in the "Go Home with Bonnie Jean" number). Perhaps Fiona just wants to enlarge the gene pool, or learn about choreography from Gene Kelly.
Even more problematic, why does Harry tell everyone he's going to emigrate, an act certain to make every laddie in the village hunt him down like an escaped convict? (Brigadoon stops re-appearing if a resident leaves, or an extra exits the MGM sound stage). It's as if Harry is such a masochist that he wants to be punished.
I also have to mention that Mr. Lundie (Barry Jones), the town's benevolent and unelected single-man government, is the wisest and kindest old Solomon that ever supervised a sleepy village.
There are predictable moments as well. Just before Brigadoon vanishes into the highlands, Fiona looks for Tommy after all the other villagers have gone to bed for the night/century. Not surprisingly, she not only finds him, they have a ballet dance together. Later, Tommy when returns to civilization/capitalism, we are hardly surprised that his fiancee, Jane (Elaine Stewart), is beautiful but hopelessly shallow and self-involved.
It appears that Jeff, the cynical one, has written this review instead of Tommy, the idealist. I am willing to believe in sudden love between two perfect strangers. I can understand why Tommy prefers a pastoral paradise with adoring Fiona to a New York City rat race with selfish socialite Jane. I am willing to believe that Jeff truly feels guilty about shooting a man, even if it was entirely accidental, and even though it saved the whole village.
The problem, then, isn't with the spirit of Brigadoon. It is with the execution. Singin' in the Rain was MGM musical magic. Brigadoon is perfunctory. The ingredients are right, but the dish is still lacking. More spice is needed, perhaps.