WHAT: The Sound of Music (1965); DCP presentation with 10 min. intermission
WHEN: April 19, 2018 2 PM & 7:00 PM
WHERE: Pickwick Theatre, Park Ridge, IL
WHAT ELSE: Jay Warren performs prelude music at 6:30 PM.
Drawing for free prizes. (Sign up at the table in the lobby. Winners announced at 7 PM.)
HOW MUCH: $10/$8 advance (before 4/19/18) or $6 for 2 PM matinee
Advance tickets can be purchased at the theatre box office or online: Click Here!
“No one is comfortable with an excess of hearts and flowers, but there is no valid reason for hiding honest emotion. This has always been a major element in the theatre, and it’s my conviction that anyone who can’t, on occasion, be sentimental about children, home or nature is sadly maladjusted.” ~composer Richard Rodgers
“… we still, more often than not, ask the movies to give shape to our dreams rather than our nightmares, to spell out our wishes and fancies instead of our fears, and The Sound of Music says with a towering clarity that there is still innocence in the world, that love conquers all and right will prevail.” ~film critic Charles Champlin
The Sound of Music (1965) is one of the most anticipated films of our fifth season at the Pickwick Theatre Classic Film Series. Over the years, there have been many requests for it, and now, with the “Broadway in Chicago” stage musical in town the week before our screening, we expect an even greater demand for the film version. The Sound of Music is one of the highest-grossing films ever made and, to many fans, it has become “America’s favorite movie.” It’s tough to argue against that claim. The film is beloved by audiences of all ages. Why does it remain so popular after fifty-three years? To put it simply, The Sound of Music is a great entertainment produced on a spectacular level. Featuring memorable songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, beautiful location photography in Austria (shot in the Todd-AO widescreen process), and a perfect cast headed by Julie Andrews, it’s easy to see how the film earned five Academy Awards– including the Best Picture of 1965. Additionally, one of its most charming attributes is that it captures the simple joy of singing and performing music. That joy reaches out to us while touching so many emotions.
Maria (Julie Andrews) is a free-spirit novice who is sent out into the world to be a governess for the von Trapp family. Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) is a widower who needs more than just discipline in raising his seven children. Maria discovers that his children don’t play– they march! Through music and the power of song, Maria brings the family together and helps the Captain become closer to his kids. With the German Anschluss on the horizon and the Nazi regime threatening their way of life, the von Trapp family makes the courageous decision to leave their homeland.
The story is based on the real-life Trapp family singers. Their experiences inspired two German films (The Trapp Family and The Trapp Family in America) which became very popular in Europe in the mid-to-late 1950s. The success of the foreign films motivated Paramount to secure the United States film rights for a possible vehicle for Audrey Hepburn. Instead, the story was turned into a popular Broadway musical in 1959 starring Mary Martin. Eventually, 20th Century-Fox picked up the film rights and, as the stage play began to wind down, put the film version in motion. One of the most important figures in this early stage was screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who was engaged by the studio. Best known for his scripts to the classic films North By Northwest and West Side Story, Lehman had complete faith in the story and believed that it could be translated into a successful motion picture. Lehman turned The Sound of Music into something more than just a static play with sugary elements of kids and singing nuns. With Maria von Trapp’s original memoir and the Broadway play as his main source material, Lehman was able to bring shape and dimension to an epic story.
Ernest Lehman’s personal choice for director was Robert Wise, whom he had worked with before. When Wise proved unavailable, William Wyler was signed to direct the film. However, during a trip to Salzburg, Austria, in which Lehman and Wyler were scouting possible locations, it became evident to the writer that Wyler was disinterested in the project. Lehman expressed these concerns to Richard Zanuck, vice-president in charge of production at Fox. As fate would have it, Robert Wise suddenly became available when the film he was working on (The Sand Pebbles) was postponed. Wyler, who was working on another film in the pre-production stage, was then encouraged to drop out. Wise had earlier helmed West Side Story and knew how to bring a large-scale musical to the screen. He was the perfect choice to remove some of the more saccharine elements from the story while maintaining its appealing qualities. The studio was desperate for a hit and they had confidence that Wise could deliver it.
Though other actresses were mentioned for the role of Maria, the only one who was seriously considered was Julie Andrews. When Lehman and Wise visited Disney Studios to see footage of Julie Andrews in Mary Poppins– before the film was released to the public– they knew immediately that they had to sign her before another studio grabbed her. With Andrews onboard, the rest of the cast fell into place. Christopher Plummer was a rising stage actor known for his intensity. However, he almost left the production when he found out his singing voice would be pre-recorded by another performer. Though the filmmakers agreed to give him a chance to improve his vocals, Plummer finally agreed that his voice was not at the same level as Andrews’. To his credit, he realized his deficiencies as a singer would’ve detracted from his performance as the Captain. Plummer did collaborate with Lehman and Wise to make the Captain a more interesting character (from the one depicted in the play) by giving him a wry sense of humor.
Also in the cast is Eleanor Parker as the Baroness. She was cast primarily because she was a star with name value. Both Andrews and Plummer, on the other hand, were just getting started in the movies. In fact, Andrews’ lack of movie exposure was one of the reasons she had lost the role of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Instead, Warner Brothers cast Audrey Hepburn. (Julie Andrews had played the role on stage and would have been sensational in the film version.) Richard Haydn portrayed family friend Max Detweiler, and Peggy Wood was the Mother Abbess. The von Trapp children were played by Charmian Carr, Nicholas Hammond, Heather Menzies, Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Turner, and Kym Karath. Of the seven kids, the most memorable performance was that of Charmian Carr as Liesl. Twenty-one year old Carr, a model with practically no acting experience, is delightful as the eldest daughter. (She beat out Mia Farrow for the part.) Carr’s big scene was the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” number with Daniel Truhitte.
The lovely Charmian Carr…
Nearly as important as the cast is the setting. One of the joys of seeing The Sound of Music on the big screen is the experience of taking in all the wonderful locations of Salzburg, Austria. The exteriors of the film were shot on location with the interiors replicated at the Fox Studio. One of the highlights comes when Maria teaches the children the song “Do-Re-Mi.” The song, besides showing the passage of time with the kids learning to sing, takes wonderful advantage of the Salzburg location. This is a great example of Robert Wise opening up the stage musical to the beauty of the Austrian Alps and using cinematic techniques to tell the story. On stage, “Do-Re-Mi” was a very static musical number that just sat there for twelve minutes, but the film version makes it a visually brilliant sequence.
The most memorable scene is perhaps the most famous opening in movie history. After a montage of various landscapes, we see Maria on her mountain singing the title song. “The Sound of Music,” according to composer Richard Rodgers, was intended as an “arm-flinging tribute to nature and music.” It’s a moment that has become so iconic it’s now parodied in popular culture. Though West Side Story used a similar aerial opening, Maria’s introduction is the one that audiences remember. Right from the beginning, Robert Wise sets the scene and establishes character while presenting us with the grandeur of Maria’s refuge. (This was the last scene shot on location after eleven weeks filming in Austria.)
When The Sound of Music was released, it became an immediate hit– not just in the United States– but all over the world. In fact, its original release lasted four and a half years! Ironically, the one region where it did not succeed was in Germany and Austria! Part of the explanation for this is the Nazi storyline which many native filmgoers did not want to re-live. Another reason was the fact that the earlier German versions of the “real” Maria remained popular and were viewed as the definitive telling of Maria von Trapp’s life. But it was never Robert Wise’s intention to make a historically accurate version of Maria’s story. The Sound of Music is a fictional, Hollywood-ized version of the Trapp family. Though the basic story is true, the details are off. For instance, the children in the movie all have different names than the real von Trapps. The Trapp family also took exception to the portrayal of their father. The real Georg von Trapp had a more active role in guiding the musical careers of his children. Additionally, their real-life mentor, Father Wasner, who encouraged the children to perform in public, was eliminated completely in the film and replaced by the fictitious Max character. And, of course, Julie Andrews’ Maria didn’t quite match the physical description of her sturdy counterpart. The real Maria was far from the ideal governess that Andrews plays in the film and was a much more complex figure. For more about these differences and the real von Trapp family, I recommend reading The Sound of Music: The Making of America’s Favorite Movie (1993) by Julia Antopol Hirsch. This is the definitive telling of the film’s production.
Beyond the box office receipts and the awards, there is something much deeper to The Sound of Music. The film was released at a turbulent time in America when society was changing. The Trapp family that was depicted onscreen faced a world where their way of life was disappearing. That was very much the feeling in 1960s America with the rise of the counterculture movement and Vietnam and race riots, and so forth. Today, our country is still torn apart, if not more so. Violence and racial tensions have increased everywhere. We live in a world where human decency itself seems to be in short supply– a sordid world where our highest-elected officials fall far short of the ideals we aspire to in our daily lives. This brings us back to a film that touches a nerve in all of us. We may not be able to escape “over the mountain,” but The Sound of Music shows us how the faith and love of a family can inspire us to courageous acts in the face of evil.
~MCH
“Edelweiss” is often mistaken for being an authentic Austrian song but was in fact the last song Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote together.
Last month I met Debbie Turner (Marta von Trapp) while she was in the Chicago area. Of course, I had to mention our upcoming screening of the film!
