# How does "The Sound of Music" = a holiday movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 28, 2009, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779 "2009-12-28T05:38:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/61 "2009-12-30T18:26:01Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > It was a good Disney musical that got put on the air every year at Christmas, when you only got to see whatever was currently being broadcast. It’s not a Disney musical. 20th Century-Fox. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/62 "2009-12-30T18:30:02Z")
> [@RachelChristine](#): > > Years ago I read one of the books about the making of the movie, I think it was Charmain Carr’s. Throughout they talk about how Plummer took voice lessons and really wanted to do his own singing, and was told that if he liked it in the final cut they’d keep it. Here is [“Edelweiss” with Christopher Plummer’s own singing voice](http://vimeo.com/4143597). It’s not that bad, but it’s also not that good. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/63 "2009-12-30T21:07:01Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > The play had several songs that were deemed not good enough (cute enough, syrupy enough, oomphy enough, I dunno) to go into the movie: “No Way to Stop It,” which adds to the characterization of Max vs. von Trapp, and a few others. Removing these songs made the movie only 4 hours long instead of the necessary 5 (okay, okay, I exaggerate), so the movie folks asked for a couple more. Since Hammerstein, being dead and all, was no longer capable of lyricizing, Rodgers took on the task of doing both words and music. One of these was “Something Good.” So, blame him. I would totally blame Rodgers except the R&H love song it replaced, “An Ordinary Couple” was worse. Much, MUCH worse. > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Also, that song begins with Maria theorizing that she might’ve had a “wicked childhood.” You’d think that in a 5-hr movie with so many references to Maria being a demon, having a wicked childhood, etc., that they’d’ve put some, you know, stories in about specific things she did…but NOOOOO… But we know that already. She climbed a tree and scraped her knee. . .and maybe tore her dress or something? :eek: I read that in the original stage play, Maria was supposed to make her first entrance sliding down a banister and landing in a heap at Mother Superior’s feet. Mary Martin was very disappointed when the banister proved too complicated a set piece and had to be axed. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/64 "2009-12-30T21:14:48Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > Richard Rodgers wrote some gorgeous liturgical music for the stage show, most of which was sliced out of the movie. (You can hear the beginning of the delightful Alleluia sung by the nuns in an early scene at the abbey.) The “Rex Admirabilis” would make a dignified and plummy processional, although I’d probably opt for an instrumental lest it seem to imply extraordinary powers on the part of the bride. (Or raise questions of gender. . .) 😃 I attended a “sing a long” viewing of the movie over Thanksgiving weekend, which had the words to the songs on screen. They included the Latin lyrics to the Alleluia, as well! Fun, but no one really sang them. How can you compete with the sisters? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/65 "2009-12-30T22:08:44Z")
I remember reading, I think in a TV Guide article on the movie, that when the real Maria Von Trapp saw the movie, she said that it was a very nice story but it wasn’t hers. Personally, I always liked it, but the Captain was stupid to demean Kurt at the end (which was why Kurt blew the whistle on them). And wouldn’t the nuns get into trouble for so obviously sabotaging the Nazi officers’ vehicles? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/66 "2009-12-30T22:41:30Z")
I saw a parody of that on _Robot Chicken_, I believe it was. The two nuns with the ignition system parts, aske the Reverend Mother for forgiveness, then another pair of nuns says, “we have sinned, too.” They hold up the severed heads of a couple of the Nazi soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/67 "2009-12-30T23:43:04Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Here is [“Edelweiss” with Christopher Plummer’s own singing voice](http://vimeo.com/4143597). It’s not that bad, but it’s also not that good. Wow, thanks! I kind of like it more than the dubbed voice. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/68 "2009-12-30T23:44:10Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I saw a parody of that on _Robot Chicken_, I believe it was. The two nuns with the ignition system parts, aske the Reverend Mother for forgiveness, then another pair of nuns says, “we have sinned, too.” > > They hold up the severed heads of a couple of the Nazi soldiers. That’s great! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/69 "2009-12-30T23:58:03Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I remember reading, I think in a TV Guide article on the movie, that when the real Maria Von Trapp saw the movie, she said that it was a very nice story but it wasn’t hers. > > Personally, I always liked it, but the Captain was stupid to demean Kurt at the end (which was why Kurt blew the whistle on them). And wouldn’t the nuns get into trouble for so obviously sabotaging the Nazi officers’ vehicles? You mean Rolf? And I don’t think the Captain was demeaning Rolf. At one point he says, “You’ll never be one of them”–which Rolf takes as an insult because he’s unable to kill them but which isn’t meant that way, I don’t think. Not unless you think, “You’ll never be a good Nazi” is an insult! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/70 "2009-12-31T00:48:55Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > A friend of ours puts on Scarface for their family Xmas movie. There’s plenty of snow in it, I’ll give 'em that. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779/71 "2009-12-31T06:04:05Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I’m registering Santa Claus vs. the Nazis with the Writer’s Guild, so no one else even think about it. [Too late.](http://gapersblock.com/ac/2009/11/17/santa-claus-conquers-the-nazis-a-hot-karl-joint/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-the-sound-of-music-a-holiday-movie/522779.md?page=3)