The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon (1994) - Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Robert Wise

it is the crown jewel of hollywood film musicals   the triumphant consummation of  two broadway songwriting legends   and one of the most beloved screen entertainments  in motion picture history this is how it the happened of music   the sound of music is inspired by the life of  maria augusta couchera born on january 26 1905 she   was placed by her father in the care of distant  relatives after her mother died living with an   abusive uncle maria grew up rebellious tomboyish  and athletic at 16 she ran away and attended   teachers college in vienna although her uncle had  caused her to shun religion vienna's churches and   cathedrals satisfied her hunger for great music  one sunday she found herself inspired by the   sermon and soon after she decided to mend her ways  and devote her life to god after graduation she   entered a benedictine abbey in salzburg but maria  was not suited to life as a cloistered postulant   fortunately the mother abbess found her another  assignment i will tell captain from track to   expect you tomorrow uh captain a retired officer  of the imperial navy a fine man and a brave one baron georg von trapp had received the maria  teresa medal from the emperor for his valor as   a submarine commander during world war one when  the war ended he and his wife agatha whitehead   had moved to vienna with their six children a  seventh was born in the new home a few years   later all seven contracted scarlet fever and as  a result of nursing them agatha von trapp was   herself infected and she died georg von trapp  had not only lost his navy but his beloved wife   after her death the family moved to a villa  outside of salzburg where the story told in   the sound of music begins when maria arrived von  trapp was contemplating marriage to a viennese   noble woman but after several months when  it became obvious that the captain and maria   had feelings for each other the fiancee departed  maria then consulted the mother abbess of nonberg   who advised that she should marry the  captain and be the new mother to his children they were married at nomberg abbey on november  the 27th 1927. over the next few years maria   gave birth to two daughters while across the  german border hitler's nazi party came into power   i think it was 1935 that my father moved all his  wealth that he had inherited from his first wife   from a very safe bank lloyd's of london he  moved it to austria to help this austrian bank   to show that he had faith that austria  was not going to give in to hitler and shortly thereafter the bank failed and  there we were with nothing or very little   and one way to earn money was to rent rooms  so we in our big house moved to smaller rooms   and we rented the nicer rooms to students and  also to professor from the seminary so he came out   and he rented a room he also happened to be very  musical he had an incredible wealth of knowledge   of the church music we had a chapel in our house  and had regular services in the chapel and we   loved to sing and after the service he so he came  to breakfast and he said that was very nice what   you sang but and the butt was the beginning  of the training of the draft family singers   father franz vasna taught the family to sing  as a unit introducing them to a huge repertoire   of sacred and secular music they became so  good that they won a prize at the salzburg   music festival in 1936. offers immediately  came in and the font traps toured europe   then in march of 1938 the third reich  proclaimed austria's unification with germany   my father was very strongly anti-nazi  and realized that they were undermining   everything that he stood for his  faith his country his moral values   then i remember the day that the angelus finally  was announced and we were sitting in the library   everybody was just very solemn and very sad and  i remember thinking that this is like the funeral   of our country and i just remember wishing i could  hug my father and hug the hurt away and my father   was this is true in the sound of music he was  asked to take over the post of the submarine   base commander in the north sea of the german navy  and he refused to do that and then we as a family   were invited to sing on the radio in honor of  hitler's birthday representing the austrian people   of course we couldn't do that and you can't  say no three times to the nazis and stay   so uh we knew we had to leave when  they left austria the von trapps   brought father vassner with them he was  in trouble with the nazis too because   he was also the publisher of the diocesan  newspaper and he had spoken out very   openly against hitler and hitler's way of doing  things and his principles and his attack on   the church and his attack on people and on  the jews he was he had been very outspoken   about that in the newspaper so it was to his  advantage that he come with us and my mother   and father went to the archbishop and they said we  are leaving we don't know what our future will be   we would love to invite father vasna to come  with us because he is in danger as we are   and we really need him for the concerts  and he said take him with my blessing   it will be for the good of this diocese if he  goes and we left austria on concert tour the day   after we left austria they closed the borders the  sound of music presents a symbolic escape for the   von trapp family in actuality a train brought them  across the italian border where they began another   european tour eventually american visas were  granted and the font traps headed for a new life   arriving in america the von trapp settled  outside of philadelphia there maria gave birth   to her youngest child johannes the following  year they were granted american citizenship   for the next 16 years they would be known as  the trap family singers i started traveling   with the family at an early age for a young  person it's it's not that strenuous to travel   and sleep in a different room every night i  suspect that it was quite tiring for my older   brothers and sisters much more than for me to  me it was a great adventure it was a wonderful   way to grow up virtually living out of their  bus the family soon felt the need for a home   in 1942 a vacation brought them to the town of  stowe vermont the area reminded them of austria   so they began looking for a farm to buy we came up  over this rise my father saw the house my mother   saw the view and my father said this was an old  farmhouse my father said oh look at that house   my mother said but look at the view you can  build a house but you can't build a view   so we put a down payment on the farm and it was  a wonderful experience and we were all so happy   to be able to start having our own home that  we all pitched in besides building a house   we had the farm going while the farming  was very pleasant and a nice way of life   it wasn't going to support the family  so while we were away on concert tours   we had skiers staying in our rooms and that's  really how we got into the hotel business   the trap family singers toured extensively  during world war ii in 1944 they established   a summer music camp at an abandoned  military training barracks near the farm   when the war ended an austrian relief fund was set  up at every concert common goods were collected   and sent to the family's devastated homeland one  concert resulted in a most unexpected encounter   while waiting for some forgotten musical  instruments to arrive maria von trapp proceeded   to tell stories about her family to keep the  audience entertained after this concert a man came   backstage and he said to my mother if you can  tell stories like this you can write a book she   said oh for heaven's sake i wouldn't dream of it  i just like to tell stories he said that's right   and i'll print them and it was mr living  cut and that was her first book the story   of the trump family singers in 1947 while maria  was writing captain von trapp died in vermont   the entire family was by his side  and he was buried on the property   the tours the ski lodge and the music camp  continued and maria's book was published in 1949   it was the height of the family's  popularity but by the mid 1950s the   children felt a desire to start families of  their own their farewell tour was in 1956   but a year earlier maria had sold the movie  rights to her book to a german film company it   seemed so strange to be entering the world again  was this the window that sister rafaela meant photographed in salzburg the trap  family starred two popular german stars   hoot leverick and hans halt and became  one of germany's most successful films two years later it was shown to direct  at paramount pictures vincent donahue   who thought it would be an ideal  property for his friend mary martin   and so maria's story was brought to  broadway and rogers and hammerstein   rodgers and hammerstein were were extraordinary  in the musical theater because they   had when they started to work together in 1943  they had each had 20 some years of working on   musicals writing musicals with other people and  obviously when they started to write oklahoma   something in that collaboration worked it was a  magical collaboration they wrote 11 scores in 17   years and in a funny way the sound of music was  kind of a wonderful recapitulation for them the   fact that mary martin brought this to them vincent  donahue was the one who had found it but mary   martin he took it to mary martin and mary martin  brought it to rogers and hammerstein originally   i am told to write one song because they wanted  to use the songs that the trap family used in   their concerts and um rogers and hammerstein  obviously sensed in this story some of the   kind of universal truths that they liked writing  about and it was worth mary martin's time and   richard halliday her husband and lindsay and  krause who wrote the book to wait for rogers   and hammerstein to finish flower drum song before  they could write an entirely new new score for   for the sound of music i think the material was  uplifting my father did believe in the ultimate   nobility of man in the sense that he's not that  everyone in humanity has this nobility but that   it does exist now and then and this is one of the  cases where he could dramatize that the original   production of the sound of music starred theodor  bikel as the captain starting with the german film   howard lindsay and russell krauss condensed the  narrative so that maria arrived at the fontrap   villa shortly before the angelus the secondary  romance between liesel and ralph was developed   and max detweiler as the character responsible  for developing the family's singing more or less   replaced the role of father vassner in the real  life story the captain's engagement to elsa was   used to communicate the show's political theme  which for oscar hammerstein was a personal one   they wrote the score in the summer of 1959 and  the broadway opening was on november the 16th   in attendance was maria fontrap accompanied by  her son johannes a lot of people felt that the   play was too schmaltzy and the the  reviews were not uniformly favorable   which was sad but uh but there was also  a lot of positive response and there was   a great party at the saint regis afterwards  the strengths of the peace are its weaknesses   which is that you you have children music and nuns  personifying the good and you have a peasant girl   and a and a baron and then on the other side  you have you have that almost uh operetta ish   relationship and then you have um the nazis as  the evil doers that the question becomes whether   it is a true story or whether it's manipulated  and there's so many forceful dramatic elements   that it it's so easy to say i was manipulated and  the only answer i have is yeah but it happened   the show was to be oscar hammerstein's last  he died of a terminal illness on august 23   1960 leaving a library of inspired poetry as his  legacy and even as the sensation of the sound   of music continued and expanded through countless  touring productions a success beyond comprehension   was still to come i'm starry-eyed and vaguely  discontented like rogers and hammerstein first   came to hollywood when the head of 20th  century fox daryl f sanik commissioned   the team to write the script and score for a  musical remake of state fair released in 1945 as widescreen and stereophonic  sound developed in the 1950s   the rogers and hammerstein musicals found an  ideal cinematic canvas their 70 millimeter   todayo production of oklahoma was released  in 1955 morning oh what a beautiful day   followed by 20th century fox's  cinemascope 55 release of carousel   one year later daryl f zannock personally  supervised production of the king and i   also released in 1956 everything going well  with us yes everything going well with us in 1958 south pacific produced by rogers and  hammerstein and distributed by 20th century fox   became the year's biggest success solidifying  a partnership that took its next step when the   king and i screenwriter ernest lehmann saw the  sound of music in its second week on broadway   and at the intermission my wife and i went to a  nearby howard johnson's to have a bowl of clam   chowder and i said i don't care what anyone says  about this show someday it's going to make a very   successful movie 20th century fox purchased the  film rights in may of 1960 but daryl left zane   could step down to set up his own production  company in europe and it was a difficult time   for the studio the studio ran into a series a  string of of unsuccessful films at that time um   capped by the uh what they thought was going  to be the picture that would save save them   which was cleopatra a picture that was just  plagued by troubles from beginning to end and   that really brought the studio down to its knees a  glimmer of hope came with daryl's annex production   of the longest day an all-star recreation of the  d-day landings in which he himself had fought   when it was time to release the picture the  studio wanted to get it out as quickly as possible   in as many theaters as possible he didn't  like that idea he wanted a much more special   release of the film over that issue the fate of  the studio really rested and so he simply went   before the board and took over the company and  that was how he came back and why he came back to   20th century fox we virtually closed down  the studio operation but we wanted to prepare   a slative projects so that we would never have to  close down the studio again one of the projects   that had been sitting on the shelf and i don't  know why was the sound of music it had just been   sitting there gathering dust and there had been  no activity on the project at all ernest lehmann's   initial enthusiasm was remembered by zanech so  the writer was approached to do the screenplay   the first thing dick and i did was to go to  see the show we met with daryl the next day   and started talking about casting talking  about directors all we've got is this writer   and i said what about the greatest  director in the world willie weiler   three-time oscar winner william weiler flew to  new york to see the sound of music with lehman   the director was thoroughly unimpressed  but urged lehman to convince him otherwise   so i said i've just got one  question to ask you willie   remember the moment where the captain starts  singing the sound of music with his children   he said yeah it's funny you bring up that  moment he said you know i almost cried   i said that's it willie that's why this  is going to make a very successful movie   lehman finally convinced wyler and together  they took a 30-page outline to salzburg to scout   locations while i'm there in salzburg willie seems  to be calling hollywood a lot and all i could   remember was that he had hated this show  and yet i had talked him into saying yes   we go back to california and i'm left  alone and i confer with dick zaneck   and i say listen dick i'm worried about willie  because in his office i see a stack of books   about a mile high and they're all about the  auntless he was very interested in making a   war story out of the the last part of  the film he wanted to show that invasion   uh of the town and all of you know all of  that tanks rolling through the streets and   guns exploding and all of that so i  wrote that first draft as fast as i could   and i finished it and handed it in to  willie and he called me up right away   and he said ernie i'm embarrassed i've never  read such a wonderful first draft screenplay   i can't think of a single suggestion to make  so i hung up the phone and i called dick zaneck   i said dick we're in trouble eventually the  truth was revealed wyler was biding time   while he negotiated a deal to  direct the collector for colombia   we had to find a new director right away and  there was one who was just as prominent on the   lot at the time as willie and that was robert wise  he was going to make the sand pebbles in taipei   but there was a monsoon and his picture was  postponed so he was seated in the commissary with   nothing to do so i called his agent phil gersh  i said phil i'm sending a copy of the screenplay   of the sound of music over to you  would you please give it to bob wise at 20th century fox robert wise had  directed the 1951 science fiction classic   the day the earth stood still he had begun  his career editing pictures for orson welles   before directing his own films at rko he'd already  worked with ernest lehmann on executive suite and   somebody up there likes me they re-teamed for west  side story for which wise had received two oscars   following two for the seesaw and the  haunting wise was now back at fox   with the sand pebbles postponed ernest  lehman waited for wise to say the magic words but before calling lehman wise forwarded the  script to saul chaplin his associate producer   on west side story i saw the sound of music in new  york when it was on broadway i was very impressed   with the score but i must say in general i wasn't  all that crazy about it then i read the script and   i was wild about it because it may not seem that  way may not seem this way to the average audience   but actually it's quite different than the  show so not only did i read the script but   i got hold of the the cast recording of  the score and listened to that and loved   loved the songs loved the numbers most of them  and so it was a combination of the script that i   thought ernie had done his usual outstanding  job on and and the fine score that made my   final decision that i wanted very much to do it  my phone rings it's dixonic he said come on down   i went down to his office and he said i've got a  surprise for you what would you say if i told you   that i could get bob wise to direct this picture  and i said great and he looked at me and he smiled   and he said you son of a [ __ ] you slept  in the script didn't you and i said me never   in writing the first draft ernest lehman drew up  on the broadway show the german film his visit to   salzburg maria's book aunt maria herself whom he'd  met in new york his script eventually departed   from the stage play in many ways immediately he  felt the two songs sung by elsa and max didn't   belong in the movie when wise and chaplin later  consulted richard rogers the composer agreed   rogers also agreed to write a new love ballad  to replace an ordinary couple which became   something good he also approved of lehman's  repositioning of several songs in the score   my favorite things would no longer be sung by  maria and the mother abbas but by maria to the   children during the thunderstorm the stage played  used the lonely goat herd here so lehman created   the puppet show as a new setting for it and  dore me rather than being sung immediately upon   maria's arrival now showed the passage of time  and became a dramatic musical and visual anchor   once we had the script uh in good shape the next  thing obviously was uh who was going to be in it   everyone agreed maria had to be played by julie  andrews but there had been was a little kind of   underground buzz around hollywood question whether  julie was really photogenic enough for the big   screen whether it would work and so that gave  us just the slightest bit of pause because she   hadn't been seen on the screen yet she had she  had done mary poppins but it wasn't in release   yet they were still working on it bob and i went  over to disney sat in a little projection room   saw some film of julie looked at each other  and bob said let's get out of here before   someone else finds her first and he went right  back to the studio and said sign julie andrews   ironically on their first musical variety special  in 1962 julie and carol burnett did an outrageous   spoof of the sound of music in a skit called  the pratt family singers five years earlier   rodgers and hammerstein had showcased her in  their landmark television production of cinderella   but after mary poppins would julie andrews  want to play another singing nanny i think   the fact that i had done a nanny role as mary  poppins crossed my mind and um i'm very glad   that i had done the americanization of emily sort  of in the in between the two films because i hoped   it would show that i didn't always just play sort  of nanny roles and as it was it was a hard image   to get away from because the sound of music was  so successful and and poppins too i guess but   but i'm glad i had emily in there um but but  listen i wouldn't have turned down the role   for anything so so i was going to do it come  what may if they ask me my only concern was   whether it would be very saccharine because when  you add the beautiful scenery of austria and and   you've got seven children and and everything else  that's kind of gooey and and icky and nuns as well   um it could get very saccharine so she came  over and we met outside in the in the in the   kind of courtyard outside the restaurant at the  20th century fox studio and they met everybody   and then we went inside to have lunch and i was  sitting right next to julie and as we started to   sit down in a chair she leaned over whispered  me said what are you going to do about taking   all the schmaltz out of this i don't inside me i  grabbed her hand right away i said listen we're   going to get along just fine because that's what  we've been working on from the beginning to really   get the over sweetness out of it and that was  the beginning of what's turned out to be a   marvelous relationship in casting the captain  robert wise made a slightly more daring selection   the idea of having chris plummer uh for the  captain was my idea i had seen the play in   london and i felt that the captain was a fairly  stock character so i very much pushed to have   him be play the captain because i thought he  would give it another kind of dimension kind of   a little edge to the captain a little dark side  maybe to him and find him far more interesting   than what i'd seen on the stage in london as  a child i was a skier because i grew up in   laurentian hills north of montreal and i used  to ski right down the east with all my friends   and uh i stayed sometimes with my mom at the old  chalet which belonged to the baroness von trapp   i never knew in those days god i was  what 12 13 14 years old that one day   i would play her 12 13 or 14 year old  husband the portrayal of the captain was   dictated largely by the wishes thank god of  christopher plummer the poor guy on the play   has absolutely nothing to do he goes it comes on  says a few words he's rather nasty to the children   and then mary martin comes breezing on and for the  next half hour belts out number after number and   the guy sneaks on against nasty the children  again goes off and uh so there was no part   at all for poor the bao font trap so we had to  do something about that i thought when when uh   when we were going to do the movie he once  spent four consecutive days in my office   going over every one of his scenes with me  insisting that i write it so that he was strong   and real but ernie didn't smoke too much i wanted  to kind of fill the room with a lot of smoke to   make it look like we were two very real old-time  screenwriters put together old novelists like   f scott fitzgerald that william faulkner i mean  put together in a room a smoke-filled room and   working out trying to make something great  out of something small but he didn't smoke   so the room had no atmosphere but he had  a great sense of humor and uh i think   between us my tiny contribution and his  vast one we we infused some humor into   the character of font trap because you know i knew  the baroness she couldn't have married a dull man   she could not have married a dull man because  she had too much humor and too much naughtiness   and spark in her in her twinkle in her eye the  talent of the other leading actors assured wise   and chaplin that the sound of music would have  the superlative cast richard hayden as max eleanor   parker as baroness schroeder and peggy wood as  the mother abbess all brought professionalism   and stature to the portrayal of these roles most  of the casting process was devoted to the children   we saw hundreds and hundreds of kids here and  in new york and london people were consulted   couldn't find a proper liesel until sharmi and  carl came in well i'm not to tell you i fell   head over heels for sean the minute i saw her i  said that's it this agent that was a friend of   my mother's knew she had three daughters and she  called her and said isn't one of your daughters   over 18 and look 16 and can sing and dance and  act well i happened to fit into that category   and i had not done anything before sound of  music i had studied dance all my life and   both of my parents were singers so i inherited the  singing from them and then they actually hired me   without a contract they felt that my eyes were  too blue and they had to see my eyes on the camera   before they could officially hire me so they i did  my screen test and they officially hired me and   there i was kim karat who plays the little girl  the youngest girl came in with a portfolio under   her arm and walked in and said something to the  effect this little kid here i am i'm what you need   i'm perfect for this part i know what you need and  this is perfect and here's my portfolio here's the   thing that i did and i'm whispering to bob get her  out of here she was climbing walls and bob said   cool and he interviewed her and then when she left  he told me something which is very true he said   how else do you think you can get a five-year-old  kid to read lines and do what you want unless   she's like that she's outgoing and she's anxious  and she's perfect the end result is all the all   the children came out of the los angeles hollywood  scene except for nick hammond the oldest boy   and he's one i had tested in new york the halls  were just filled every hallway every every spare   rehearsal room was just filled with dozens and  dozens and dozens of friedrichs and brigittes   and curts and martas and gretels and liesels every  single one of them to me looked perfect suddenly i   thought what am i doing here i'd broken my arm  skiing on this vacation i had my arm in a cast   i was missing two front teeth because i'd fallen  down and my baby teeth had been knocked out i had   hair like this color dark brown hair i was like  one of the only brunettes in there and so when   they called my name after all these you know like  sort of the entire hitler youth had been there   to audition before me and this kid with his arm  and a cast and no front teeth and the wrong hair   steps forward and has to say i'm  friedrich i'm 14 and i'm impossible   production illustrator and second  unit director maurice suberano   did extensive sketches and storyboards  as the film entered pre-production   working with production designer boris levin and  cinematographer ted mccord the sound of music   took on a simplicity of design that robert wise  carefully monitored in order that the story's   powerful dramatic elements would not drown  in visual overstatement there was a pervading   feeling of of success around that picture from  the very beginning i got it when i first started   to do the sketches i could see there's going  to be a very interesting spectacular looking   picture of that type costume designer is always  very important too on a film and dorothy jenkins   is somebody that both sally and i knew so we met  with with dorothy and talked to her about it she   loved the script loved the idea and she came on  and and did the whole show she didn't make it too   too sweet intriguing if you see what they really  wore you know those fancy dirndls and all that   it wouldn't do you know for this picture  and dorothy knew just how to tone it down   the cast began working in february of 1964.  over a six-week period dialogue and music was   learned songs were pre-recorded and the  choreography was planned and rehearsed   there was an absolute structure to the day every  day so we would as i remember it except for   the hours we spent in school we would roughly  spend half the day going over musical numbers   with bobby tucker who was the musical director  and then the other half of the day we'd spend with   mark brown dede wood we had done mary poppins that  was our first film it was very very successful   we got a call from bob weiss about and probably  miss julie andrews might have had something to   say about this to go and talk to him about doing  the sound of music working on this project and   planning the choreography was working with sally  chaplin extensively and we worked probably a   couple of weeks doing pre-production before  we even had anyone come in to the rehearsal   hall we worked with julie's stand-in larry thomas  and planned out everything for the children and   for the captain and for maria in that way during  pre-production the script underwent a major change   ernest lehmann suggested that a new song be  written to take maria from the abbey to the villa   he and saul chaplin wrote dummy lyrics  and sent them to richard rodgers   after a couple of tries and some suggestions from  chaplin i have confidence was added to the score   now musical supervisor irwin costell another  west side story and mary poppins alumnus   began preparing the songs for pre-recording  harper mckay played the piano behind a   curtain so they could just have enough piano to  know they were singing the song and they sang it   in one shot my job later was to remove the piano  track and substitute an orchestra track behind us   dory me and i have confidence in me are both  shot in exteriors in salzburg and both of them   julie moves and the kids keep moving we recorded  a certain amount of music to fill those distances   but we didn't know if those distances were exact  so we put all the tracks on a piece of tape   and mark bro and i went to salzburg with the  tracks we would both stand at one end of the   street whether the traffic light and when the trap  when the light turned red i turned this machine on   and mark would go dancing down the street the  funniest thing is the policeman came up to me   and i know some german and he said what the hell  are you doing you know and i suddenly realized   i can't explain it to him i mean i couldn't  explain it to him in english certainly not in   german but he he went away thought crazy americans  principal photography commenced on march 26 1964.   on stage 15 at 20th century fox stood the set  for maria's bedroom at the font trap villa   julie andrews and norma varden as frau schmidt  shot the first takes of the film the following   day charmian carr made her wet screen debut and  the song my favorite things began shooting i was   nervous and the children certainly were nervous  and that's supposed to be such a joyous easygoing   song so i did my best to jolly them along i would  pull silly faces off camera to make them smile   i would tickle them i would try to  sort of make us feel like a like a   jolly happy group and it it worked and i think  it cemented a friendship that that has gone on   for the last 30 years also photographed early was  the song maria shot on the huge abbey courtyard   set with several talented actresses playing the  nuns i think first of all my agent had suggested   that i might like to play the baroness and when  i talked to bob white he said no that's already   been cast but how would you like to play a nun and  i said i think i'd like to play a nun very much   and that that i had played nuns before so i  i told him i came from a long line of nuns   i'm very glad i played sister margaret  i wouldn't have liked to have played   the nasty nun i much prefer playing a nice nun  robert wise has this genius of casting to type   which i i'm not sure i liked and sounded music  being so mean but i had the job and i was floored and it was one of the nicest  things probably ever happened   sister sophia was played by marnie nixon who had  become famous for providing singing voices for   the king and i west side story and my fair  lady when i got the part in the movie i had   already dubbed the my fair lady and so it was  interesting to now be actually working with   the real julie andrews and of course  everybody was sort of worried that   julie would be upset that i was hired because  they imagined that she'd have this great   envy related to me because i had done the  dubbing on a part that she should have done   in in my fair lady and when they said and julie  this is marnie nixon and everybody was kind of   how is she going to react and she stood up strode  across the room and extended her hand she said   marnie i'm such a fan of yours and  everybody went ah you know it's going   to be all right filming continued on the abbey  graveyard set for the climax of the picture   i love doing that scene because it was a real  acting scene and also i remember the wonder i felt   of just being on a soundstage that had been so  perfectly built as to look exactly like a rooftop   graveyard in the moonlight and i remember being  thrilled walking onto it and you know walking   across that through those graves with christopher  plummer and julie andrews and peggy wood   and this huge camera on a crane and thinking i'm  in the movies the company traveled to austria in   late april the first scene filmed was the wedding  shot at monza cathedral just outside of salzburg   technically it was an amazing  accomplishment that scene because   uh in those days they didn't have the kind of film  stock and the kind of cameras that can film in   really low light like they can now and uh  ted mcchord did a an amazing job i think of   of what is visually one of the most  stunning scenes in the whole film   was done under incredibly difficult uh uh  conditions nobody warned us how cold it   was going to be it was freezing and of course the  church really the cathedral wasn't heated and so i   was in this beautifully fragile dress designed for  me by dorothy jenkins and it was the most glorious   creation to wear but it was paper thin and i was  cold we started in the montessori cathedral and   we only had it for one day and we had all these  extras and there was a great deal of excitement   and everybody was a little tense because there was  so much pressure to get that day shooting finished   and they're doing the wedding procession and i'm  sitting on the bottom of the crab dolly with bob   and the crab jolly crab crabs up to get the two  principles as they go up towards the otter they go   up the steps they go towards the altar and no  minister there to marry them and i was mortified   and of course bob wasn't very happy we had to do  it over again and we got the scene of course but   i felt very responsible but if i had not  been sitting down i would not have missed it   the next day rain sent the company to the first  bad weather cover set at this at margaritan chapel   the following day it rained again suddenly  it became clear why austria was so green   but it used to be almost a pattern rain three  days be good for three days rain for three days   be good for three days unfortunately there was  a small studio in salzburg it had a couple of   stages small stages there so anticipating weather  problems we had the mother abbas office interior   all shipped over it was made in hollywood and  shipped over there and set up in this small studio   so for days we had for a while where we had bad  weather we pulled in and then work away maybe got   five or six hours shooting on the another  episode filming on the cover set included   the song climb every mountain which robert  wise very carefully planned with ted mccord   so that this operatic inspirational number was  contrasted by visual reserve a harsh photographic   approach was used for the music festival which was  shot with two thousand extras at the felsenkula   an outdoor concert hall where the trap  family singers had actually performed   a lot of very cold nights i remember doing  that quite exciting though in a way because   it had that kind of slight madness to it  that you get at about 2 30 3 o'clock in   the morning and so i thought that worked quite  well for the feel of that scene where it's also   on edge about whether they're going to get away or  not the 1200 year old nomberg abbey where the real   maria had been a postulant gave the film another  dose of realism we got an okay to shoot to shoot   the approach the outside and the and the outer  courtyard that we the where the children come   to visit and try to find her they were able to let  us do that they would not let us inside the abbey   to shoot anything there so all the all the other  things in the picture that to do with the abbey   studio sets back in stages in hollywood  and i had to go all the way through   hollywood set to open a gate in austria  since my gate was in austria that i opened   at one point the children come to look for maria  and they pull the bell cord outside they said we   could put the bell cord up which we did now  when we left we were going to take it down   they said no we like it we've gotten used to it  it didn't bring anything you know it was just   a bell club but the nuns liked it so they have a  gift from 20th century fox and the bellcoin with   the shooting schedule now more structured cast  and crew began to enjoy the wonders of salzburg   it's a fairyland i've been back several times  since by the way and it strikes me all over again   this this ain't real everybody else managed to get  to do a lot of sightseeing but i was so busy and   i was in so much of the film that there wasn't  that much time for me and if there was time i   had my very tiny little daughter with me and  i was sort of either home being a real nanny   or or just being so weary that i decided i'd rest  but i saw as much as i could and of course filming   on location as we did all around salzburg and into  bavaria i had some marvelous opportunities to see   the mountains and the scenery and beautiful lakes  and and it was a very happy time it was a heavenly   city which i loved and peggy wood and i had a  wonderful time we used to walk and walk and walk   there visit all the churches and go to concerts so  it was beautiful sally would take me to concerts   in the original concert hall with the original  instruments where the musicians were all dressed   in 18th century costumes like like mozart you know  and candlelight and you would swear you were back   it might as well be back in the 18th century  that's actually when i first became aware of   saul chaplin because he would be making great  noises with the children used to play games with   the children and keep them amused he was always  on the set to see what was going on and in the   interim he was making this set noisy and i happen  to believe that the set should be calm and quiet   and when we finally got to talking on our first  day of uh our first day shooting i said you're   really a noisy person and he said he felt he  had to he wanted to keep the children happy   and i probably should have been a little quieter  but i was having such fun it didn't matter   well the chamber of music finally  they were just the two of us left   and we kept going to the chamber they  were chanting music almost every night   so we saw quite a lot of each other and we  kind of fell in love with each other and we had   the most beautiful romantic time in salisbury  after shooting and today that lady is my wife   for over 25 years also as i said where else  could he find somebody who loved chamber music   and didn't smoke doremi was shot all over salzburg  it was lots and lots of little scenes a complete   montage of visual shots of salzburg and around it  and it was heavenly because all one had to do was   a little bit here and a little bit there and  yet suddenly when the whole song came together   i had no idea it was going to be as powerful as  it was and i think it came together wonderfully   i remember when we were shooting on what  was called winkler's terrace that's when up   overlooking the town we were doing the section  of the no remy that takes place up there and of   course we had their play back there with the big  horns directed right at them because when you work   to play back the actors actually actually have to  sing and try to sing over the loud playback that's   playing that they're lip-syncing lip-syncing  to and it so happened that my wife pat was down   below the terrace of the town and she said that  evening when i go over says you should have seen   those people because you were you were doing  the number up there and that music was blasting   out all over the place and they were looking up  wondering what the hell was going on in their town   because of that playback that we were having the  final section of doremi was photographed in the   gardens at mirabelle palace following specific  locations picked by ernest lehman a year earlier   at the end they do it they sing the scale they  see though i mean if i saw like the rest of the   show and how i got that idea is when i saw the  um the steps outside of mirabelle garden and i   said my god there's at least eight steps  there they're perfect for her to sing the   scale the kids are singing something else and  that's how that happened the high note at the   end was julie andrew's idea i would never  dare to ask her said she actually always   did shall i do this and she went what there  was that no i said my god yes let's have it while shooting part of i have confidence an  unexpected visitor arrived none other than maria   von trapp herself i was kind of nervous because  i'm sure she must have been very anxious about who   this lady was that was portraying her and so on i  like to think that we took to each other instantly   she actually is in one of the shots  in the film i believe she walks across   in the background when i sing and i have  confidence we became quite friendly and i   eventually um did a a television series and i  asked her to come and be interviewed on that on   the series on one of the shows and she very  sweetly came and we renewed our acquaintance had   a good time the exterior of the font trap villa  required two locations the schloss freonberg was   chosen for the house itself but there was no lake  behind it instead a separate property was found   where boris levin duplicated the back porch  from franberg to allow angles toward the lake   several scenes in the film integrated both  locations the lake was photographed first   including the tipping of the row boat i mean every  other scene was always so carefully planned will   you follow brigitte and then you know lisa will  follow you and and everybody had an absolutely   clearly defined position that you never varied  from and this was the first time where basically   they just kind of said okay when the boat goes you  make yourself you make your way up to this mark   any way you can the first thing was that i was  asked if i would please look after kim the baby   the smallest of the children because she couldn't  swim so when i fell out of the boat the minute i   surfaced would i please grab the little girl and  the boat rocked so violently that i went over the   wrong side of the boat and kim went over the other  side of the boat and there was this awful moment   when i thought my god where am i and where is she  and there actually is an outtake that didn't get   printed where one of the assistant directors had  to just come flying into the into the lake right   in the middle of the shot because he could see  that kim had gone under and hadn't come back up   and after four or five seconds you know he did the  right thing he just thought to heck with the shot   you know let's let's save gretel on subsequent  takes heather menzies was designated to look   after kim karath and although the earlier take  of the boat overturning was used other cuts in   the film show heather carrying him safely to the  landing you know usually with children you have   mothers or fathers watching over them and sort  of nudging them thinking that they should do   this and they should do that and these children  were terrific and the parents were terrific   we weren't allowed to just like you know sit  around and get bored in the lobby of the hotel   i mean we were we were being stimulated all the  time even when we weren't working on the film   and i think he probably was good for the film too  because we were being kept aware of where we were   and aware of the culture of of the country we were  in so they got a little loose a few times and it's   all this play time and i had to sit them down say  look it's not all fun and games here it's not all   just taking these trips and having fun this is  where you're over here to do this picture you know   and i want you to shape up and behave and obey  and not get out of hand or i'm going to have   to get your folks after you and i did that a  couple of times i was 21 the other children   were 13 the oldest was 13 and that gap between 13  and 21 is tremendous at that age i mean now we're   all wonderful friends we're best of friends  now but my socializing mainly was done with   the people who made the featurette the salzburg  sight and sound and i spent time with christopher   plummer he used to play the piano in the hotel  bar every night and insist that we all listen   that little bristol hotel had more  atmosphere than any of the other hotels   it was a family proper family hotel and you  had a mixture of everything our aristocrats   who came impoverished aristotle came in with  monocles and sat and watched the artists and   get drunk which of course we did every night  for 11 weeks i put on so much weight that   that bob wise finally said to me when he i came  back to do my final day shooting and she said   we're going to have to do it get a whole new  costume for you you look like awesome wells   i had i'd eaten so much of the torts and the  you know you can go crazy in in austria whether   with all the sweets that they make so deliciously  and then the beer and the and the and the quiche   and the and the schnapps that you're drinking all  the time all the time can you imagine on june 4th   1964 a rare day when the sky was especially clear  two important scenes were photographed using a   helicopter on a meadow across the border into  bavaria the film's trademark image was captured   it was quite hilarious because the the main  part of that shot was shot by a helicopter   from a helicopter camera was kind of hanging out  over the side of the helicopter which meant that   i would be told to start striding across the field  all of this done with bullhorns because of course   nobody could be in sight on that vast field except  me and so it was okay julie the helicopter's   coming in over the trees you can start walking now  and so i would stride and stride across the field   and the helicopter would kind of come in sideways  in a sort of crab-like way towards me and um   at a particular moment when i judged it  had come close enough i did a big turn and   began to sing once that particular moment had  been captured the helicopter of course would   go around me and go back to the end of the  field and i would race back to the other end of   the field and we'd start all over again well the  downdraft from the jets of the helicopter it was   very close by the time it got to me and it  was so strong that it would just level me   on onto the field so i go how many takes we took  but about eight or nine times i was absolutely   leveled into the mud and it i kept thinking i  will stand up next time i will definitely not be   flattened by by this incredible sort of storm that  attacked me from from the jets fell down every   time a few hours later the picture's final shots  were photographed at another bavarian location   near the eagle's nest hideaway that had belonged  to hitler this small rna was counterpointed by the   difficulties photographing the scene depicting the  angelus the city government had resisted the idea   of adorning the streets with swastikas and nazi  soldiers but when the production manager told them   they would use news reels which show salzburg's  nazi supporters permission was granted and the   scene was captured meanwhile on another mountain  top for the beginning of the do-re-me sequence   severe weather had set in again we were sitting  around and we were absolutely freezing cold and   very wet and we discovered that the farmer of the  area where we were shooting made his own schnapps   and it was passed around and boy were we in a  good mood about 10 minutes later there was a good   shot for all of us and it was the most delicious  stuff and it couldn't have come at a better moment   and at one point julie angels mark bro the  choreographer and i started singing three-part   harmony very loudly just to keep ourselves warm  and we decided that we would call ourselves   the vocal zones which happened to be a little  pastel that i use sometimes when i'm about to   sing it sort of makes my throat feel good and  they're called vocal zones so we were a hot group   called the vocal zones austria didn't have much of  an effect on us because of the song we sang most   was the hawaiian war chant hawaii and austria  don't quite go together two days later the sun   appeared and the scene was filmed the children  were sent back to hollywood now five weeks   behind schedule julie andrews and the crew were  left with one final task to complete the film's   opening number because we had so much rain we had  to take our equipment up on jeeps and uh on julie   too but one time the rain had been so we're up we  had the equipment up and everything but the rain   had been so uh so strong and so heavy it was so  muddy we couldn't get the jeeps up and eventually   on a very cold day i remember being in full makeup  and full sort of peasant skirt with a big fur coat   around my shoulders and they gave me a ride with  all the camera equipment in the back of an ox cart   pulled by these two big oxen that were just  sinking knee-deep into mud just to get us up   the hill there was a very angry farmer i remember  who who got angry that all this hollywood crew   were upsetting his cows and and i think spoiling  their milk or something so and we had a pretty   little pond built a little stream built for me to  throw pebbles in it was there one day and we came   the next day to continue that moment and it was  completely dry and the farmer had come out with   a pitchfork and just pierced all the plastic  that was lining our beautiful little stream   and all the water had run away and we had to start  all over again with that this was designed to be   shot in about five or six different pieces i'd  gotten all but one piece right in the middle of   it and i had been getting calls from the studio  saying look this is going too far over scheduled   budget it's too much you've got to bring them home  and i talked to xanax about i guess it was about   wednesday that week i i agreed i said if i don't  get it this last piece i need by friday i'll bring   the troop home and i don't know how i'm going  to get this missing piece i'm going to imagine   and bye guys friday the last day we were sitting  there huddled under tarps and tents and there   their equipment already they were dolly track  ready the lights all ready with hoods on them to   protect them from the rain and it suddenly  broke for about 20 minutes and boy everybody   got out and threw them truth everything  off got the they got the camera up running   and got in and we grabbed it about 20  minutes or so and got ourselves out of there   to this day i don't know how it  would match that one missing piece production resumed on stage 15 at  20th century fox where boris levin   had constructed the interior of the fun trap  villa i think the rooms were not decorated cute   and boris is very good at that because he's  not sentimental himself it was exactly what   people see in the film i mean remarkably enough i  mean that entire interior of that house that main   huge entryway and then the gold ballroom was all  built there on the stage and all practical it felt   very much like being in a house extras worked  for several days filming the party sequence   including so long farewell and the lendler we  found an old book about folk dances of europe   and we adapted it these are movements back and  forth and turning and everything and one of the   most the nicest moments out of a dance sequence to  me is it is obvious when uh the captain and maria   get at to a certain point and their eyes gazed  you know and they know that they love each other   and christopher and julie did us proud they just  did it beautifully the final scene shot in the   ballroom was the song lonely goat head featuring  the marionettes of puppeteers bill and cora baird   obviously the more complicated stuff that  the puppets are doing or being done by   the professionals but uh we had to we had to  learn all the right you know hand movements so   it was believable and that we could actually move  them somewhat ourselves i found it kind of tiring   because that we were all jammed in a very very  small area and it was just a lot to work out   technically more than anything else and i remember  at the end of it i thought maria really would be   exhausted at the end of this so i thought well  i'm going to show her exhaustion bob wise i think   thought that i'd gone a bit too far because i i  came around the corner of the of the little mock   theater practically on my knees but uh i think  he kept that take in he eventually liked it a lot   and i was exhausted and i figured she would be too  three songs took place in the parlor edelweiss the   reprise of 16 going on 17 and the final scene with  the children where they sing the sound of music   for me that scene has always been uh to this  day if i see the movie is a very poignant   one it's got something to do with uh i think the  feeling i felt for christopher plummer which was   one of huge respect it was kind of like here's  christopher and we don't have that much time   left together and i i never have really gotten  to know him very well and it is a bit like the   relationship between friedrich and his father i  just remember at the time it was it was sad the   final set for the film was the gazebo built as  a green set and surrounded by painted cyclorama   here julie andrews and christopher plummer  worked together on their last scene which   ended up being one of the most difficult by the  end of almost five months i was exhausted and   feeling a bit wobbly and slightly  vulnerable and we got inside this   beautiful set and in order to get the effect of  moonlight our director of photography had tipped a   lot of really huge arcs uh great big spotlights  straight downwards and in in those days those   spotlights were lit by carbons that rubbed  together and because they were tipped at such   a steep angle the carbons occasionally would make  this terrible squeaking noise or groaning noise   and it eventually sounded as if someone was making  a comment on the scene because we would be doing   the most lovely sort of loving things and saying  oh i love you and i love you too and you'd hear   what sounded like a really rotten raspberry from  the background and it since chris and i were in   tremendous close-up and slightly out of focus with  each other anyway uh it was impossible to look   into each other's eyes and hear this comment in  the background and keep a straight face it was so   sort of alien to me and so sort of unnatural to  sing along and right in front of somebody's puss   it's also so rude i felt like it was  frightfully rude and julie the same i   think i mean we i think we did something like 30  takes i got the giggles so badly and chris also   i have to say was no help and we simply collapsed  i had tears running down my face and it was such   an important scene and i felt such a fool there  was nothing i could do about it everybody fell on   the floor like we could never get through that  scene never never never i mean just we'd start and on the floor we went and including robert wise  who was always such a sort of martinet you know   and and uh disciplinarian and he was terrific  particularly with the children but uh he was   on the floor laughing finally he had enough  i think on take 20. he just said come on guys   of course that makes it worse when you try so hard  to just another 10 down down the toilet so we went   and we had a long two-hour lunch and came back and  one of those arcs made the same stupid noise and i   was just gone and finally bob got the idea i think  that it would be wonderful to shoot the scene   in partially in silhouette so that as  we moved into a new part of the scene   he would shoot it so that you actually couldn't  see our faces and i'm sure that as much as it was   a creatively wonderful idea it was an on the spur  creative idea because he he didn't know what else   to do but but but hide our giggles and our smiles  he wasn't angry he was i thought he would be   furious with me but he was very very patient and  very understanding shooting concluded with sixteen   going on seventeen which featured an exuberant  dance by charmian khan daniel truitt as rolf   with its completion the sound of music was  wrapped bringing great joy to cast and crew   as post-production began christopher plummer had  one more challenge to face between my agent and   myself we insisted on recording at the end of the  film instead of at the beginning because i worked   all the time on my voice i constantly worked  through that six months of however long it took to   make the film i was always taking singing lessons  to improve my ones and then when i did i did do   recorder they let me and it was  very very decent of them to do that   he is a singer and he proved it he  did a play on broadway where he sang   the problem here was that the script absolutely  calls for a professional singer at one point   maria says to the captain i understand you  were wonderful so he's got to be not just a   signal but he's got to be a terrific singer  we did record together and i remember she   held on to me and both our hands were absolutely  shaking like man it's a terrifying thing it's a   terrifying thing to be locked up in that little  booth with a 60 of 60 musicians out outside of   scraping away absolutely beautifully under  irwin costell's lovely arrangements terrifying   when our voices were put together the long  sustained notes were not simply good enough   beside hers in the end the singing was recorded  by bill lee who like marnie nixon was a well-known   vocal double his wife ada beth lee played sister  catherine in the film working beside marny nixon   and although peggy wood had been a singer  throughout her illustrious career she no   longer felt able to perfect a song as difficult  as climb every mountain consequently her singing   was dubbed as well in addition to final work on  the songs saul chaplin and irwin costell planned   the background score i think the thing that was  most difficult for me and the most rewarding were   is the uh scene with the nazis and the  nuns at the near the end of the picture   and that for me called for the greatest  amount of originality on my part   while you know being finding it necessary to stick  to richard rodgers and still be creative without   changing anything in january of 1965 the completed  film was taken to minneapolis and tulsa for sneak   previews the response was unanimously overwhelming  six weeks later 70 millimeter release prints were   ready and the sound of music had its world  premiere at the rivoli theater in new york on   march the second to a wildly enthusiastic audience  setting the stage for one of the most successful   hollywood premieres ever at the fox wilshire  theater on march 10th i've never in my life   sat in a movie theater and had the kind of  reaction that that one got people gasping   and this was a pretty sophisticated crowd too  i mean you know the whole theater was made up   of movie stars and you know studio execs and and i  think that's probably then when everybody thought   this is going to be something that we'll probably  remember for a long time the picture didn't   open like a smash hit it it was a perfect example  of what word of mouth can do to a to a good film   uh and it opened i would say rather soft  and in a strange sort of way the picture kept at a level pace and suddenly there came a  day where somebody called me and said we think   this picture is going to be a hit and i said  you're kidding the repeat on the sound of music   was enormous the fact that people would see the  picture over and over again not only in this   country but around the world the film became the  biggest movie phenomenon since gone with the wind   the world had caught sound of music fever except  in germany where the film's nazi overtones brought   about the unauthorized cutting of the entire third  act eventually it was restored but no one came   back in the united states audiences couldn't  seem to get enough of the film or of julie   andrews it was probably one of the busiest  times in my career and i do remember it as   being a sort of an assault on one's senses there  were an enormous amount of press interviews and   lovely honours and accolades like having my  footprints and handprints at graman's chinese and   many many things came along but it did  kind of knock me sideways for a while   it was so much so fast and i was who is  ever prepared for something like that   i certainly wasn't the following year the sound  of music received academy awards for sound for   william reynolds editing and for erwin costell's  orchestration at the oscars it was announced that   the that i would get the uh award for editing  and i i simply said something to the effect that   this picture was really a joy to edit because  whenever i got in trouble i could always cut   to julie robert wise was in the far east  finally making the sand pebbles and julie   andrews accepted his award for direction as the  news reached the set of sand pebbles robert wise   was in for a treat when it was announced that saul  chaplin had picked up his statue for best picture   my uh pr man had sneaked on a team of chinese lion  dancers with their dragon costume and the whole   thing and they had rigged the whole mast of the  ship with firecrackers the chinese love firecrack   and the minute we got all the reports of  this the firecrackers went off this these   diameters came out banging their drums and  dancing all over the ship and we had a marvelous   celebration a big party that night of course  it was a studio heads dream especially a studio   that had been pronounced dead to come back like  this and and win the academy award and it did   unquestionably mark the dramatic  turnaround of 20th century fox   everything about this picture has a happy ending  including the picture itself over the years the   sound of music also brought increased attention  to the von trapp family although adjusting to its   phenomenal popularity took time i think that  originally the family resented some of the   changes that some of the the translations  into broadway and into hollywood   that occurred questions of taste  in the music changes in the story   over the years they seem to have grown to accept  them and i think the realization that the film has   helped a number of people and and been inspiring  to so many people has vastly outweighed the   minor problems that they've had with it many  members of the family have spent much of   their lives working at the trap family lodge  our reputation here as a lodge i think was   is established by the family over the last uh  50 years that we've been located here in stowe   but we do get people here who who have  obviously have seen the sound of music   and who call us because they've seen the  sound of music i think probably my work   with the with the groups and with the seniors  has made me appreciate more the family heritage   that we have because because of their memories  of the trap family and the trap family singers   maria's daughter rosemary has brought music  back to the trap family lodge by giving recorder   lessons and conducting sing-alongs and i think  this uh the older generation our generation they   know all these lovely old-fashioned songs still  that really have good melodies to them and they   have a meaning and they have good songs and rhythm  and if we would keep on singing them you know the   young people would get into them too because i  think the young people are starving for good music   i did the part of maria in the sound of music  a couple years ago just to experience what it   was like to actually do that music and the first  time around i i thought of who my grandmother was   to me it was a wonderful way to connect with  who she was in my life second time around i   thought who am i how would i feel if i were in  the circumstance and it helped me to understand   who i am maria von trapp was the driving force  at the trap family lodge throughout its history   tragedies struck in december of 1980 when a fire  burned the lodge to the ground but the font traps   were accustomed to starting over so plans were  immediately set for a new bigger lodge that opened   in january of 1984. the event reunited  maria with mary martin and father vazner maria died on march 28 1987. her family the lodge  and the sound of music are all part of her legacy   and i think it's a it's a real experience the  sound of music is just an experience it's so full   of messages that if you don't catch one message  you're sure you're gonna get another message and   it's full of wonderful music i mean inspired music  if you know what you're supposed to do then go and   do it and all the adventures that they have to go  through all the dangers i love that scene which is   completely invented but it's a wonderful scene  how the the nuns take away the distributor caps   i mean what an ingenious idea and what a  delight in your heart when those nazis can't   start the car i mean everybody feels  like cheering and sometimes they do   and i feel like cheering you know when i think of  it so i mean these are wonderful moments in that   film and they may not have actually happened  but in the film they happened what really i   see as a red thread of god's hand in our life  running through our life is he used the singing   to touch people's hearts we would feel a piece  descend on the audience after the first song   and they would become very open and they loved the  music and it's unusual to see a family singing on   stage and this was the same thing that the  music camp did for people they would come   and they would suddenly relax and and they would  feel god working in their hearts whatever he chose   to do this was not our problem our problem was  to cook clean serve them and i've always felt   that the lodge is the continuation of this the  sound of music film is also an instrumental part   of the rogers and hammerstein legacy and julie  andrews has helped keep their work alive and fresh   when i recorded the king and i recently i was  asked by a reporter but why do the king and i and i i said you wouldn't ask that question if this  were la boheme or madame butterfly you wouldn't   ask it about a puccini opera there are many many  interpretations this is really these wonderful   rogers and hammerstein musicals and all the great  broadway musicals really are the classics for the   for the they're the popular classics of their day  and they stand i think as importantly as any opera   or any great play um you can't say they shouldn't  be done they should we still consistently license   about 500 different productions of the sound and  music every year and that ranges from high school   productions to dinner theater productions  to fully professional touring productions   to some productions that are done by opera  companies and all of that i mean there is   something universal about that show that people  really really respond to and they continue to   respond to it the movie played until december  of 1969 in its initial release for many years it   was the highest grossing film of all time and has  enjoyed successful reissues and broadcasts it is   a phenomenon that continues both with audiences  and with the artists linked to its creation an   audience is affected by it in in very good ways i  think they examine themselves i think they do say   what would i have done some people think it's a  very sentimental film but i think it's sentimental   in the proper way it's sentimental in the in the  right way that it reached thousands of people   millions of people obviously who  who adored it and it must have   touched them in some way so it was right what what  we were doing up there i guess sort of was right i   mean there was no violence in it there was nothing  that they they do nowadays and secondly i think it   had a certain religious quality to it that a lot  of people enjoyed and the scenery is spectacular   and the music is the best i mean how many  musicals do you see that you can go out humming   all those songs and remember them there's a lot  of reasons why it's it's so phenomenal and it's   it's wholesome it's corny as that sounds now  kids five-year-olds seven-year-olds even with   everything they've got now with all the video  games and with all the kind of electronic   stimulus and with all the movies about spaceships  and dinosaurs and things that cost six squillion   dollars to make filled with special effects that  they will still you can park them at home in front   of a tv set and put on the sound of music and i  i have yet to meet the kid that won't sit there   absolutely spellbound and within a week know  all the songs each generation discovers it when   they're like four or five years old and that seems  to be endless it goes on and i'm glad about it   the basic story is just so inspirational and  especially nowadays i think in our emphasis of   trying to get the whole human race  back onto a track of the importance of   relationships and family the bon trap family  what they did what occurred through a nazi period   and the fact that there's so much of that going  on now in the world this is still a current theme   of goodness overcoming evil and courage and  beauty and it was romantic and exciting beautiful   i mean what more can you want from a movie please  of course there's been a tremendous satisfaction   over the years to be to be the head of the team  that put that up on the screen and this would   have to go back to everybody concerned starting  with the von trapp family and the baroness and   rogers and hammerstein and what they did and of  course the team that i worked with to put it up   there i i feel very warm and very appreciative and  very happy and and in a way very lucky i expect   to have been connected with the film and  to have it turn out as well as it did   the story told in the sound of music began as a  personal one and the experience of the finished   motion picture is equally personal to those  who cherish it but its message is universal   the fact that this story has survived the  test of time and translations into broadway   and hollywood is evidence of the human  need for entertainment and inspiration   the sound of music is that rare  movie experience that gives us both you

Channel: The Julie Andrews Archive

Views: 278,640

Rating: 4.8412795 out of 5

Keywords: Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Robert Wise, Johannes von Trapp, the sound of music, the sound of music from fact to phenomenon, sound of music from fact, sound of music documentary

Id: qsEcEbCgnh0

Length: 87min 56sec (5276 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 28 2020