THE HILLS are alive, with the memories of the cast of the iconic film, led by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer (right).
If you’re a fan of the hit film “The Sound of Music,” you may think that you know just about everything about your best-loved musical movie—but you could be wrong. Books like “The Making of America’s Favorite Movie” by Julia Hirsch are a treasure trove of tantalizing and instructive trivia about Robert Wise’s film, which was first shown way back in 1965, but continues to be reissued in one form or another to this day.
For instance, do you know that the musical movie is still shown at “sing-along” events, “cult” happenings in which the film’s fans get an empathetic and nostalgic thrill from joining in the choruses of its musical highlights? (Another “cult” movie that does this on occasion is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”)
Our trivia trip starts off with a reminder that “The Sound of Music” grossed a then-“astonishing” $165 million the year it was released—and won five Oscars (for best picture, director, editing, music and sound).
Before “The Sound of Music” was filmed, two German films had previously told the Von Trapp family’s story, and the Fox studio combined the two movies into one, dubbed it in English, and rereleased it as “The Trapp Family” in 1961.
After director Wise agreed to meg the film version of the hit stage musical, these changes were effected: A song, “An Ordinary Couple,” was cut (it was sung by Maria and the Captain after they confessed their love for each other). In its place, Richard Rodgers wrote “Something Good.”
He was also asked to write “I Have Confidence,” to capture Maria’s initial anxiety and then growing confidence as she approached the Von Trapp’s estate for the first time.
Lead player Julie Andrews gave the production some problems with her “flinty” attitude, but the star who turned out to be really tough to work with was Christopher Plummer, who was “perfectly” cast as the super-strict and crusty Capt. Von Trapp. Ironically, other actors were then rejected for the plum post—among them, Sean Connery, Richard Burton and David Niven—but Plummer still got the part! The film’s producers regretted their decision but it was too late to do anything about it.
What ticked them off about Plummer’s attitude? For one thing, he was determined to do his own singing in the film, even if he didn’t have the right pipes for it, and he threatened to walk out when he learned that he would have to be dubbed! Happily, he eventually caved in, and he was dubbed by Bill Lee.
Plummer was similarly contentious in the way that he related to the child actors who were cast as his children in the film. For one thing, he was supposed to carry his youngest child, Gretl, on his back in one scene, but he found Kym Karath too heavy—and asked for a double!
To make things worse, he expressed his displeasure in decidedly blunt and biting terms: “I’m not carrying that bloody fat kid!” Ouch! Sure hope little Kym wasn’t within hearing distance of that verbal volley!
Despite these and other production woes, “The Sound of Music” finally got shot and shown—and viewers’ reception was ecstatic! Unfortunately, the critics didn’t agree, and the film got slammed by Judith Crist as “icky-sticky,” Pauline Kael as “the big, sugar-coated lie that people seem to want to eat,” and Bosley Crowther as “painfully mawkish” and “old hat.”
Obviously, however, the film has survived these and many other slings and arrows. So, it’s more than likely that, when the production marks its 50th anniversary in 2015, it will be hailed as the most popular movie musical of all time!