Tommy falls in love with village lass Fiona Campbell, whose younger sister Jean is about to be married to Charlie Dalrymple.

Interrupting the wedding, the jealous Harry Beaton announces he is leaving Brigadoon to make everything disappear, since the girl he loves, Jean, is marrying another man.

Jeff, drunk and remorseful for accidentally killing Harry, tells Tommy he can't just leave everything in the real world behind for this girl he's only known for one day.

[citation needed] According to the film's director, Vincente Minnelli, O'Connor competed with Steve Allen and Bill Hayes for the role of Jeff.

An unpredictable climate and higher location production costs (the latter not compatible with MGM President Dore Schary's thriftiness) forced them to change course.

However, rather than have Mitchell reprise his stage role, the studio instead cast New York City Ballet dancer Hugh Laing as Harry Beaton.

In December 1954, a few months after the release of Brigadoon, Mitchell and Charisse made a cameo appearance dancing with each other to the song "One Alone" in the M-G-M Sigmund Romberg musical biography film Deep in My Heart.

Bosley Crowther in The New York Times of September 17, 1954, described the film as "curiously flat and out-of-joint, rambling all over creation and seldom generating warmth or charm."

He found fault with the film's two stars and its director: "the personable Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse have the lead dancing roles.

What should be wistful and lyrical smacks strongly of trickery and style ... Mr. Kelly's [performance] is as thin and metallic as a nail; Miss Charisse's is solemn and posey ... Vincente Minnelli's direction lacks his usual vitality and flow."

"[10] Variety posted a lukewarm review, calling the dance staging "not particularly arresting, although a few of the numbers will have a desired effect on the audience, and the vocals fail to give the tunes the tonal impact needed to put them over.

"[12] John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote: "There are times in this version of 'Brigadoon' when one is seized by the wild hope that the exposition of the town's dilemma will be quickly boiled down to an essence, so that Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse can get on with their dancing.

Overloaded with Hollywood-Scottish trappings, with tartans, bagpipes and a wedding celebration preceded by a miniature sort of gathering of the clans, the tenuous romantic fantasy is slackly developed ... and the whimsical dream-world it creates holds no compelling attractions.

"[14] Leonard Maltin in his reappraisal feels this adaptation was unfairly overlooked when it first appeared and particularly praises the "lovely" score, orchestrated mainly by Conrad Salinger, and the performance of Van Johnson as Jeff Douglas.