Rodgers and Hammerstein's '''The Sound of Music''' is a
1965 film directed by
Robert Wise and starring
Julie Andrews in the lead role. The film is based on the
Broadway musical ''
The Sound of Music'', with songs written by
Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II, and with the musical book written by the writing team of
Howard Lindsay and
Russel Crouse.
Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay.
The musical originated with the book ''
The Story of the Trapp Family Singers'' by
Maria von Trapp. It contains many popular songs, including "
Edelweiss", "
My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", "
Do-Re-Mi", "
Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and "
The Lonely Goatherd", as well as the title song.
The movie version was filmed on location in
Salzburg,
Austria and
Bavaria in
West Germany, and also at the
20th Century Fox Studios in
California. It was photographed in 70 mm
Todd-AO by Ted D. McCord. It won an
Academy Award for Best Picture and is one of the most popular musicals ever produced. The cast album was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The United States
Library of Congress also selected it for preservation in the
National Film Registry in 2001.
Plot synopsis
'Act I'
In
Salzburg,
Austria,
Maria, played by Andrews, is studying to become a
nun but is not sure if convent life is right for her. She is sent from her
abbey to be the
governess to seven children of a widower
naval commander,
Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp. Maria and the Captain immediately disagree on the way the children are raised; the Captain raises them as in a military camp, while Maria wants them to be free and able to enjoy life as children while they can.
The children, initially hostile and mischievous, eventually come to love her when she introduces them to the joys of singing. Once the Captain finds out about this, he feels very remorseful for them and decides to let them be free and enjoy life. He apologizes to Maria for being strict with the children, asks her to stay for a while, and goes back to the joys of living. One of the Captain's friends, Max Dettweiler, tries to convince the Captain to let the children perform in his concert. Maria finds herself falling in love with the captain, who is engaged to a wealthy
baroness. The Baroness becomes jealous of Maria and convinces her to leave during a grand party at the house.
'Act II'
Although the Captain announces his intention to marry the
baroness, the baroness does not have good rapport with the children. After a talk with the Mother Abbess, Maria decides to return to the Trapp family. Upon return, the baroness realizes the Captain is in love with Maria and decides to leave for Vienna after the Captain reveals his liking. After that, the Captain and Maria reveal their feelings for each other and finally wed.
The
Nazis take power in Austria as part of the
Anschluss, and try to force Captain von Trapp back into service. The Captain, unwilling to serve the Reich, delays Zeller (the
gauleiter, or party leader for the district) by insisting he is part of the Von Trapp Family Singers and must remain with them during a performance at the Salzburg Music Festival, in a guarded
theater. After a curtain call, the whole family flees and hikes over the
mountains to
Switzerland, escaping with the help of Maria's former convent.
Cast
Production
Julie Andrews as Maria, seeks guidance from the Mother Abbess, played by
Peggy Wood, in this scene from the 1965 film version.
The film, which was released in
1965, won the
Academy Award for Best Picture.
Robert Wise won an
Academy Award for Directing for the film, which stars
Julie Andrews as Maria and
Christopher Plummer as Captain von Trapp. Hammerstein, who wrote the lyrics, died in 1960, several years before the film adaptation went into production, so Rodgers had to write the lyrics for two songs that were added to the score: "I Have Confidence" and "Something Good". "Something Good" replaced the show's original love song, "An Ordinary Couple". Two other songs from the Broadway production were cut from the score as well: "How Can Love Survive" and "No Way to Stop It", though the former song can be heard briefly as background music towards the end of act I. Other songs were shifted to different scenes.
Marc Breaux and
Dee Dee Wood did the choreography for the film.
The film grossed over $158 million at the North American box office. Adjusted for inflation this is the equivalent of $911 million at 2006 prices, putting it third on the list of all-time inflation-adjusted box office hits.
[1] It is important to note that ''The Sound of Music'' is the only movie in the top four grossing films to be reissued (one time in 1972). Later the movie was sold to TV and was the highest rated show of the week when it played in 1976. The soundtrack album on the
RCA Victor label has sold over 11 million copies worldwide, and has never been out of print.
CD cover
The film has since been seen on television and re-released on
VHS and
DVD for its 40th anniversary. When Plummer did not join the rest of the cast for a 40th-anniversary reunion in New York, reports said Plummer was distancing himself from the movie. The reports were fueled by a comment from the President of the
Rodgers and Hammerstein Society, who said "[Plummer] used to refer to it as the 'Sound of
Mucus'". As Plummer took part in interviews and commentaries for the DVD version of the 40th anniversary, and is overwhelmingly positive about the experience in those recordings, it is difficult to know where his feelings truly lie.
''The Sound of Music'' is also credited as the film that saved 20th Century Fox, after high production costs and low revenue for ''
Cleopatra'' nearly bankrupted the studio.
International release dates
★ '
U.K.':
March 29,
1965
★ '
Australia':
April 17,
1965
★ '
Japan':
June 19,
1965
★ '
Hong Kong':
November 11,
1965
★ '
Argentina':
December 1,
1965
★ '
Sweden':
December 9,
1965
★ '
Finland':
December 17,
1965
★ '
Denmark':
December 20,
1965
★ '
Italy':
December 30,
1965
★ '
France':
February 17,
1966
★ '
Norway':
April 7,
1966
Songs
DVD cover
All songs have music by
Richard Rodgers and lyrics by
Oscar Hammerstein II unless otherwise noted.
Instrumental underscore passages are adapted by
Irwin Kostal.
In order of appearance:
# "Prelude and
The Sound of Music"
# "Overture" (Main Titles, consisting of "The Sound of Music", "Do-Re-Mi", "My Favorite Things", "Something Good" and "Climb Ev'ry Mountain") seguéing into the ''Preludium''
# "''Preludium: Dixit Dominus''", "Morning Hymn" (''Rex admirabilis'' and ''Alleluia'', based on traditional songs)
# "Maria"
# "I Have Confidence" (lyrics as well as music by Rodgers)
# "
Sixteen Going On Seventeen"
# "
My Favorite Things"
# "Salzburg Montage" (instrumental underscore based on "My Favorite Things"
# "
Do-Re-Mi"
# "The Sound of Music" (reprise)
# "
The Lonely Goatherd"
# "
Edelweiss"
# "The Grand Waltz" (instrumental underscore, based on "My Favorite Things")
# "''
Ländler''" (instrumental based on "The Lonely Goatherd")
# "So Long, Farewell"
# "Processional Waltz" (instrumental underscore)
# "Goodbye Maria/How Can Love Survive Waltz" (instrumental underscore, incorporating "Edelweiss" and the deleted song "How Can Love Survive?")
# "Edelweiss Waltz" (instrumental, Act 1 Finale, based on "Edelweiss")
# "''Entr'acte''" (instrumental, consisting of "I Have Confidence", "So Long, Farewell", "Do-Re-Mi", "Something Good" and "The Sound of Music")
# "Climb Ev'ry Mountain"
# "My Favorite Things" (reprise)
# "Something Good" (lyrics as well as music by Rodgers)
# "Processional" (instrumental) and "Maria"
# "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" (reprise)
# "Do-Re-Mi" (Salzburg Folk Festival reprise)
# "Edelweiss" (Salzburg Folk Festival reprise)
# "So Long, Farewell" (Salzburg Folk Festival reprise)
# "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" (Reprise)
# "End Titles"
Singing voices dubbed
Several key members of the cast had their singing voices dubbed by others.
Peggy Wood, who played Mother Abbess and received an
Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this movie, was dubbed by
Margery McKay after she found that she couldn't handle the high registers of ''Climb Ev'ry Mountain.''
Anna Lee, who played Sister Margaretta, was dubbed by
Marie Greene.
Originally
Christopher Plummer was slated to do his own singing, but although he pre-recorded his singing vocals, Robert Wise and the creative team felt his voice, although good, wasn't good enough alongside the excellent voice of Julie Andrews. Plummer agreed with the assessment, so they enlisted the services of Bill Lee to "ghost" Christopher Plummer's singing.
There were once rumors that some or all of the children's voices were dubbed. Director Robert Wise insists that none of their voices were dubbed, though at times other children's voices were added to theirs for a stronger effect; the extra singers included Randy Perkins, Diane Burt, Darlene Farnon (a.k.a. Darlene Carr) and Sue McBain. Additionally, Farnon, sister of
Charmian Carr, who played Liesl, sang the high note for
Duane Chase, who played Kurt, in the song, ''So Long, Farewell'', because it was well beyond his vocal range.
The movie features a rare ''on-screen'' performance by
Marni Nixon, who plays Sister Sophia and is well known to have dubbed the singing voices for many famous movie stars such as
Audrey Hepburn in ''
My Fair Lady''. It is said that the producers were unsure how Julie Andrews would react to Nixon after she had dubbed Hepburn in a role made famous by Andrews. The story goes that when Andrews first met Nixon, she exclaimed, "Marni, I'm such a big fan of yours!" and the producers were relieved.
Authenticity; 1965 Salzburg
The film presents a history of the von Trapp family which is not wholly accurate.
Georg Ritter von Trapp lived with his family in a villa in a suburb of
Salzburg, called Aigen. Even though the film does not recount an accurate story of the family, it was filmed at original locations in the city and county of
Salzburg and
Upper Austria, including the following:
★
Palace and Garden Mirabell in
Salzburg: where
Maria and the children sing the song "Do-Re-Mi"
★ Café Winkler, today's restaurant M32 on the Mönchsberg in the midst of
Salzburg: where
Maria and the children sing a verse from "Do-Re-Mi"
★
Residenz Square in
Salzburg city:
Maria on the way from the Nonnberg Convent to the Trapp singing the song "I Have Confidence in Me"
★
Nonnberg Abbey: The Mother Abbess and the nuns sing "Maria" - this was filmed on a set. No filming was allowed inside the actual Nonnberg Abbey. However, filming was permitted outside the front gate of the Abbey and in the outer courtyard only.
★ Rocky Riding School: Baron Georg Ritter von Trapp sings "Edelweiss"
★
St. Peter's Cemetery: where the family Trapp hides behind the tombstones - this was filmed in a studio, not in the actual cemetery.
★
Leopoldskron Palace: was one of several locations used for the
Trapp Villa in the film. The scene where Maria and the children fall from the row boat into the lake was filmed here, but only for the camera views that faced toward the lake. Camera shots that faced the villa were made at a different location. The glass gazebo was also located here at the time of the filming, but was later moved, to make it more accessible to tourists.
★
Frohnburg Palace along the avenue to Castle Hellbrunn: was also used for the front views of the Trapp Villa. Scenes that were filmed here include the outdoor views of Maria's first arrival after singing "I Have Confidence", the tearing down of the Nazi flag by the captain, and pushing the car across the courtyard in the family's attempt to leave at night. The rear of this building was not suitable for the lakeside and terrace scenes, and they were shot at different locations.
★ Mountain Untersberg: Opening scene and fleeing scenes
★
Hellbrunn Palace: The gazebo was ultimately relocated here, to the Hellbrunn Palace park. It was in the Leopoldskron Palace gardens during the film. However, the musical scenes that took place within the gazebo, "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" and "Something Good" were filmed on a set in Hollywood.
★
Anif Palace: the moated castle can be seen in the opening scene
★
Hohenwerfen Castle: picturesque backdrop for the song "Do-Re-Mi"
★
Mondsee,
Upper Austria:
Maria runs across the Hill to the convent and in the Mondsee Church: where the Baron and
Maria are married in the film (originally in the Nonnberg Convent)
★
Fuschl am See,
St. Gilgen and
St. Wolfgang in the Lake District
Salzkammergut: opening scene and aerial shots.
Awards
The movie garnered 10
Academy Award nominations and won five:
★ Best Picture (
Robert Wise, producer)
★ Best Director, Robert Wise
★ Best Sound
★ Best Score - Adaptation or Treatment,
Irwin Kostal
★ Best Film Editing,
William Reynolds
It was also nominated for Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Wood), Best Cinematography (color), Best Art Direction - Set Decoration (color) and Best Costume Design (color).
★ In
2001 the United States
Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the
National Film Registry.
★ The cast album was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It spent 161 weeks in the
Billboard Magazine Top 40.
★ In 2006 this film ranked #4 on the
American Film Institute's
list of best musicals.
Television airings
The first American TV airing was on
ABC on
February 29,
1976. They controlled the TV rights to the film until
NBC acquired them; their first telecast of the film was on
February 11,
1979 [1]. They continued to air it annually for twenty years, often pre-empting regular programming.
Starting in 1995, this movie aired in an uncut form on
NBC (on
April 9,
1995, Julie Andrews hosted the four-hour telecast which presented the musical numbers in a
letterbox format). As the film's home video availability cut into its TV ratings, NBC let their contract lapse at the turn of the 21st century. In 2001 it had a one time airing on
Fox. Now, it airs on
ABC.
In the
UK, the first television airing was on
BBC1, on
Christmas Day,
1978.
Trivia and other media references
★ Many people believe "
Edelweiss" to be a traditional Austrian song, or even the
national anthem.
[2]. In fact the song was written for the musical and is little known in Austria. The song was the last that
Oscar Hammerstein II wrote.
★ The
Ländler dance that Maria and the Captain shared was not performed in the traditional Austrian way.
★ "I Have Confidence" is a song that Rodgers wrote as a musical bridge, needed in the movie to get Maria from the convent to the von Trapp manor (as he explained). During that segment, at one point Julie Andrews passes under an archway. As pointed out in one of the DVD's extras, the real
Maria von Trapp, one of her daughters, Rosmarie, and one of Werner's daughters (Maria's granddaughter, Werner being Kurt) can be seen starting to cross the road at that point.
[3] The von Trapps happened to arrive on set that day and
director Wise offered them this walk-on role. It has also been reported that Andrews tripped at one point during the filming, a moment the editors left in because it seemed to fit the character.
★ The order of several of the songs is markedly different between the stage play and the film, thanks to the
screenwriting of
Ernest Lehman. One example is that in the play, "My Favorite Things" is sung at the convent, whereas in the movie it is sung to the children. A couple of the songs were altered. "How Can Love Survive?" (which did not fit the flow of the movie very well) was reduced to an instrumental, one of several waltz numbers played at the party occurring just before intermission. The title song's four-line prelude ("My day in the hills has come to an end, I know..."), sung by
Mary Martin in the stage play, is reduced to an instrumental hint during the overture and dramatic zoom-in shot to Julie Andrews on the mountaintop at the start of the movie.
★ Despite the enormous popularity of the movie, which at the time became the largest grossing picture of all time, noted film critic
Pauline Kael blasted the film in a review in which she called the movie "The Sound Of Money." This review allegedly led to Kael's dismissal from ''
McCall's'' magazine.
★ ''The Sound of Music'' became the highest grossing film of all time in December 1965, when it beat ''
Gone With the Wind'' by slightly less than one million dollars. ''The Sound of Music'' remained the highest grossing film of all time until 1970 when ''Gone With the Wind'' was re-released and it became #1 again. After that, several films (''
The Godfather'', ''
Jaws'', etc) have pushed ''The Sound of Music'' further down on the list.
★ According to
boxofficemojo, the film ranks third in both all-time number of tickets sold (142,415,400) and in gross adjusted for inflation ($911,458,400) in North America (behind ''
Gone with the Wind'' and ''
Star Wars'') Combine this with its success around the world in sales of tickets, videocassettes, laserdiscs, DVDs and its frequent airings on television, it is called "the most widely seen movie produced by a Hollywood studio" by
Amazon.uk
★ The film was released in several foreign countries. In Germany it was re-titled ''Meine Lieder, Meine Träume'' (My Songs, My Dreams); France -- ''La mélodie du bonheur'' (The Melody of Happiness); Portugal -- ''Música no Coração'' (Music in the Heart); Brazil -- ''A Noviça Rebelde'' (The Rebel Novice); Italy -- ''Tutti insieme Appassionatamente'' (All Together with Passion); Netherlands -- ''De mooiste muziek'' (The Most Beautiful Music); Spain -- ''Sonrisas y Lágrimas'' (Smiles and Tears); Greece -- ''Η μελωδία της ευτυχίας'' (''I melodia tis eftihias'', The Melody of Happiness); Israel -- צלילי המוזיקה (''Tzeliley ha-muzika'', The Sound of Music); Saudi Arabia -- صوت الموسيقى (''Saut al-musiqa'', The Sound of Music); Mexico -- ''La Novicia Rebelde'' (The Rebel Novice); Iran -- اشکها و لبخندها (''Ashkha va labkhandha'', Tears and Smiles); Yugoslavia -- ''Moje pesme, moji snovi'' (My Songs, My Dreams); Thailand -- ''มนต์รักเพลงสวรรค์'' (Love Magic from the Song of Paradise)
★ Controversy surrounded the film's release in Germany. According to a 2000 documentary: "...the film's Nazi overtones brought about the unauthorized cutting of the third act." The third act, with its initial images of post-Anschluss Austria, begins directly after Maria's wedding to the Baron. Eventually, the third act was restored to the German release, but audience attendance did not improve.
★ According to the British tabloid ''The Sun'', the movie was selected by
BBC executives as one to be broadcast after a
nuclear strike, to improve the morale of survivors. The BBC did not confirm or deny the story, saying "This is a security issue so we cannot comment"
[4]. However, this would not be broadcast on television, due to both the
electromagnetic pulse and blast knocking down power lines, though radio broadcasts could be possible.
★ Legend has it that South Koreans were even more taken by the movie. A theatre owner in
South Korea, wanting to show the movie more times per day to take the money of more customers, allegedly cut out the musical pieces
[5].
★ While the von Trapp family hiked over the Alps to Switzerland in the movie, in reality they walked to the local train station and boarded the next train to Italy. From Italy, they fled to London and ultimately the U.S.
[6] Salzburg is in fact only a few miles away from the Austrian-
German border, and is much too far from either the Swiss or Italian borders for a family to escape by walking. Had the von Trapps hiked over the mountains, they would have ended up in Germany, near Hitler's mountain retreat, and one of the last places on Earth any Austrian nationalist would have wanted to be.
★ Ironically, the US-made movie is virtually unknown in Germany and Austria.
[7] This can be mainly attributed to the former German-made movie ''"Die Trapp-Familie"'' (1956) and its sequel ''"Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika"'' (1958) but also to the dark period of Austrian history which is cursorily displayed in the later movie as well as in the former Austro-German films, which starred popular German and Austrian actors. According to the German Wikipedia entry for the movie, the real baroness von Trapp says of the first film that 'not a word in it is true, but it is delightful'.
★ The soundtrack album was included in the stockpile of records held in 20 underground radio stations of
Great Britain's Wartime Broadcasting Service, designed to provide public information and morale-boosting broadcasts for 100 days after a
nuclear attack[8].
★ In her autobiography ''Forever Liesl'', Charmian Carr mentions that during filming the gazebo scene, her shoes were too slippery to dance in. As a result, she crashed through the glass side of the gazebo during the dance. Luckily, the only injury was a twisted ankle. She still wanted to do the scene, though, and make-up was applied to the wrap on her ankle and a few camera angles changed so that the injury wouldn't show.
★ Christopher Plummer likened working with Julie Andrews to "being hit over the head with a Valentine's Day card every day!" and reportedly didn't like working on the movie. Still, he and Andrews are good friends to this day.
★ The Cult adult humor comic ''
Viz'' had a pastiche of the film poster on the front cover of issue 163, with
Millie Tant as Maria.
★ The
Will and Grace episode ''Von Trapped'' heavily references the film.
★ In the film ''
Kiss Me Guido'', there is a scene in which the gay roommate goes to dinner with friends and leaves the straight roommate at home watching ''The Sound of Music.''
★ In an episode of
Family Guy, the Griffin children use the song "So Long, Farewell" in the same manner as the von Trapps do, including the stair scene. Also in the
made-for-TV "Family Guy" movie, , Stewie does a spoof of the song "I Have Confidence".
★ In
MADtv, they show us 3 comical
alternate endings of The Sound of Music: one in which the von Trapps are brutally murdered by Rolfe in the Churchyard, another in which the von Trapps surprisingly embrace Nazism, and a third in which the family escapes Austria with the help of superpowers.
★ ''The Sound of Music'' is referenced in the 1996 coming-of-age film
Beautiful Thing. The song
Sixteen Going on Seventeen appears on the soundtrack.
★ In the scene where the von Trapps are hiding in the cemetery, the behaviour of Rolfe differs quite considerably between the stage and screen versions. Whereas in the movie he raises the alarm when he discovers them, in the original stage version he conceals the fact that he has found them, thus aiding their escape.
References
1. DOMESTIC GROSSES Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation
2. How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?
3. http://youtube.com/watch?v=wPBqDZT0gE4&mode=related&search= "I Have Confidence" on YouTube, scroll to 1:08.
4. ''The Sun'' 7 October 2004
5. ''This apocryphal tale is recounted, for instance, at the IMDb
6. The Real Story of the von Trapp Family (from the US National Archives)
7. An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of ''The Sound of Music, , Robert Von, Dassanowsky, Bright Lights Film Journal,
8. Julie Andrews to sing to Brits during nuclear attack Nicholas Hellen
★ Hirsch, Julia Antopol ''The Sound Of Music-The Making of America's Favorite Movie'', McGraw-Hill Publishers (1993) ISBN 0809238373
External links
★
★
★
The Sound Of Music Kids - Where are they now
★
Robert Wise biography at Associated Content
★
The "Sound of Music" Bus in Salzburg used for the excursion on the tracks of the film
★
Salzburg, Austria - sites where filming occurred
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
