In 1938 Maria Rainer (Julie Andrews) is a free-spirited trainee nun who doesn't fit in at the Austrian convent. She tells the Mother Abbess, "I can't seem to stop singing werever I am." Maria is sent to work as a governess for a large family, Captain Georg Ritter von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and his 7 children. He runs his home like the ship he once commanded and his motherless children are hostile with Maria until she teaches them the joy of singing.
Trapp: "The first rule of this household is discipline...You are the twelfth in a long line of governesses who have come here to look after my children since their mother died. I trust you will be an improvement on the last one. She stayed only two hours... It's the dress. You'll have to put on another one before you meet the children."
Maria: "But I don't have another one. When we entered the abbey our worldly clothes were given to the poor."
Trapp: "What about this one?"
Maria: "The poor didn't want this one."
(singing starts somewhere inside the house)
Trapp: "What's that?"
Maria: "It's singing."
Trapp: "Yes, I realize it's singing, but who?"
Maria: "The children."
Trapp: "The children?"
Maria: "I taught them something to sing for the Baroness."
Trapp: "You brought music back into the house. I had forgotten."
Although the captain is engaged to wealthy Baroness Elsa Schraeder (Eleanor Parker), he falls in love with Maria and they marry, singing "Something Good". Elsa says, "There's nothing more irresistable to a man than a woman who's in love with him." When the Nazis take power in Austria, Captain von Trapp refuses to serve the Third Reich, and the entire family hikes over the mountains to safety in Switzerland. The von Trapps are last seen climbing the Austrian mountains to escape to Switzerland, where they can perform to the world. A chorus sings the finale of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain."
Zeller: "Perhaps those who would warn you that the Anschluss is coming - and it is coming, Captain - perhaps they would get further with you by setting their words to music."
Trapp: "If the Nazis take over Austria, I have no doubt, Herr Zeller, that you will be the entire trumpet section."
Zeller: "You flatter me, Captain."
Trapp: "Oh, how clumsy of me - I meant to accuse you."
Zeller: "I've not asked you where you and your family are going. Nor have you asked me why I am here."
Trapp: "Well, apparently, we're both suffering from a deplorable lack of curiosity."
Nazi guards surround the theatre during the Salzburg Folk Festival. As a farewell song dedicated to his fellow Austrians, the Captain patriotically reprises the song "Edelweiss":
Trapp: "My fellow Austrians, I shall not be seeing you again perhaps for a very long time. I would like to sing for you now... a love song. I know you share this love. I pray that you will never let it die."
(the film's last lines)
Sister Margaretta: "Reverend Mother, I have sinned."
Sister Berthe: "I, too, Reverend Mother."
Mother Abbess: "What is this sin, my children?"
(the nuns look at each other, then reveal from under their robes the motor parts they removed from the Nazis' cars)
THE SOUND OF MUSIC is based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, which is about the real-life singing von Trapp family who fled Austria to escape the Nazis just before WWII. The musical is the final collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, who died nine months after the premiere on November 16, 1959 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. The original Broadway production featured Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. It was the second longest running musical of the 1950's.
Both the stage musical and movie are excessively sugary. The film version has drama, comedy, suspense, romance, and music. Cinematography is magnificent, capturing the beautiful Salzburg location. The cast is excellent, especially Julie Andrews who had just won an Oscar for MARY POPPINS (1964). She is effervescent and sings marvelously. Christopher Plummer's singing was dubbed in by Bill Lee.
The songs are: "The Sound of Music", "Morning Hymn/Alleluia", "Maria", "I Have Confidence in Me", "Sixteen Going On Seventeen", "My Favorite Things", "Do-Re-Mi", "The Lonely Goatherd", "Edelweiss", "So Long, Farewell", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", and "Something Good".
The cast also includes: Richard Haydn (Max Detweiler), Peggy Wood (Mother Abbess), Anna Lee (Sister Margaretta), Portia Nelson (Sister Berthe), Ben Wright (Herr Zeller), Daniel Truhitte (Rolfe), Norma Varden (Frau Schmidt), Marni Nixon (Sister Sophia), Gilchrist Stuart (Franz), Evadne Baker (Sister Bernice), Doris Lloyd (Baroness Eberfeld), Charmian Carr (Liesl von Trapp), Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich von Trapp), Heather Menzies (Loisa von Trapp), Duane Chase (Kurt von Trapp), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta von Trapp), Debbie Turner (Marta von Trapp), Kym Karath (Gretl von Trapp), and many others.
Everything originated with the autobiographical book "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers" by Maria von Trapp. Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse wrote the musical book. Ernest Lehman wrote the screenplay. Cinematography is by Ted D. McCord and Robert Wise directed.
SOUND OF MUSIC won five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Musical Score, Best Adaptation, and Best Editing. Adjusting for inflation, the movie made well over $900 million, and it saved 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy caused by CLEOPATRA (1963). The RCA soundtrack album sold over 11 million copies. Mary Martin, the Broadway Maria and co-producer of the movie made $8 million. Julie Andrews earned just $225,000.
The movie is overlong at 174 minutes, and is usually cut to 145 minutes for TV broadcasts. Co-star Christopher Plummer disliked the film and called it "The Sound Of Mucus". And because it was then the largest grossing picture of all time, film critic Pauline Kael called it "The Sound Of Money". Then there's "The Sound of Muzak". THE SOUND OF MUSIC is a classic film with excellent music.
