I remember seeing TSOM and MP in theaters as a kid. I’m not generally a big fan of musicals, but TSOM has always impressed me as just about as good as any, and better than many.
My eldest was/is a HUGE Julie Andrews fan, so this was in heavy rotation in out house in the 90s/00s. More innocuous than a lot of the kids’ fare we were watching. Lots of catchy music.
So yeah, I think I’d call it a good movie. Probably not great, but certainly better than a lot.
And junior high. We did it when I was in eighth grade. Remember Admiral von Schreiber, the largest non-singing part in the play? Well, probably not… he wasn’t in the movie at all, and even in the play he only got six lines… but anyway, that was me.
One of my friends got the second-largest non-singing part… about a week before opening night. When the director realized that that part existed at all, and that he therefore needed someone on stage to deliver that line.
One of the panels in the Mad satire has Maria saying something like “But if he is love with me, that means he wants to marry me. But I can’t marry him. That doesn’t make any sense, but I didn;'t write this script. Did anyone?”
Someone did – Ernest Lehman, who’d adapted the stage musicals The King and I and West Side Story for the screen (as well as an unproduced musical adaptation of Zorba the Greek). As in those other cases, he rewrote the plays, re-arranging events and songs, even dropping two songs (although two others were added). So, not only isn’t this the original Maria von Trapp story, it’s not the story told in the two German films that attracted the attention of Hollywood and Broadway, and it’s not even exactly the story told in the Broadway musical. (I have a copy of the script)
Lehman was more familiar to me as the screenwriter of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, which I love. He also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock’s last film, Family Plot, which feels like a tires retread by both Lehman and Hitchcock. But they can’t all be winners.
I think the general consensus is that TSOM of a great Hollywood musical, but REALLY schmaltzy, and not really a great story. It really does deserve the swipes Mad took at it, both in “The Sound of Money” and “The Sound of More Music” in 1970.
My cousin, a year younger than me, apparently had the right idea when he very vocally did NOT want to see the film when it first came out.
No, Father Flynn from my parish brought a group of us from our parochial high school in the Bronx to see it in a big movie house in Manhattan. It was of course made to order as wholesome fare for Catholic kids.
He’s being oblique about the fact that, according to iMDB:
In the movie, they were supposed to be crossing from Austria (technically already part of Nazi Germany) into Switzerland. As mentioned, in actual fact they merely took a train from Austria to Italy.
Of course, since the roles were played by actors instead of the actual von Trapps, one could say that Berchtesgarden was playing the role of the Swiss Alps in the movie.
Me too! Me too! I started with one line and worked my way up as kids kept dropping out of the production.
As I recall the stage book was aimed at a slightly more mature audience than the movie (it didn’t have those damn puppets, for one thing)
But the movie had great scenery and Julie Andrews, and that was more than enough for moviegoers.
The Sound of Music is a classic Broadway musical adapted to a movie format. It has great songs and the right amount of plot to make things interesting. I’m happy if a musical has two great songs, and tSoM has at least five. Its primary flaw is it doesn’t have a proper dance number.
I’ve never seen it in a movie theater, but have watched it on the small screen innumerable times. And its soundtrack is on my rotation of albums to listen to. I’ve seen the stage version, but the production I saw got a little too enthusiastic with the Nazi paraphernalia. Even if it was only acting, I’m very uncomfortable with “patriotic” displays of Nazism. The best viewing of the movie is at the annual Hollywood Bowl Sing-A-Long (and costume contest!). Nothing like belting out the songs with ten thousand other fans.
I’m fond of the two (?) songs that are in the stage show but not the movie - “How Can Love Survive?” and “No Way to Stop It” which give the Baroness and Max something to sing (and give Max some chance to grow from the collaborator he is in this song to risking his life by the end).
McSweeney’s has some humorous SoM material, by the way
I’ve never seen a musical with Nazis that I didn’t like.
You know, there are more musicals with Nazis than just Sound of Music, Cabaret, and The Producers.
It would be more correct to say you’ve never seen a **successful **musical with Nazis you didn’t like. Heck there have been at leasttwo different musicals about Anne Frank.
Godwin?
The “damn puppets” weren’t in the original script. They added that number (“lonely Goatherd”), I understand, at Mary Martin’s request (she was the original Maria), because of her ability to yodel. I don’t think they used puppets in the original stage production, either – they put I into the film as a way to rationalize the song.
I think Plummer gets a bad rap because of the Mucus comment, but my understanding was that his reaction was similar to Alec Guinness’s for Star Wars–a perfectly fine journeyman role whose popularity skewed the perception of his career (and talent) out of proportion. I think his comment was in reaction to that (he also famously said meeting Andrews was like “being hit over the head with a Valentine’s card”).
I think he’s actually quite good in the film because he reigns the performance in in a way that acts as a perfect counterpoint to the over-the-top Ray of Sunshine that’s Andrews. She does what she needs to for the role but his performance is slyer (and even a little self-amused) than simply “phoning it in”.
My favorite piece of current trivia:
Two actors from THE SOUND OF MUSIC are in films nominated for the Oscar this year–and both are competing against each other in the same category!:
Both films are up for Original Screenplay.
Is the Sound of Music supposed to be a good movie? No.
But I love it. It was the first movie my parents took us to. We got dressed up and drove downtown to a huge glitzy theater.
It was fun. How many movies have schmaltzy songs, Julie Andrews… and Nazis?
(Ooh, not just Nazis, but Nazis outfoxed by nuns!) I’ve been meaning to go to a Sing-Along, but I keep missing them and I’d have to go with the right people… a senior White Guy all by himself might look weird (Hey, I got to go to a Frozen Sing-Along with my niece’s kids).
But a great, quality movie? Naaah…
Don’t forget (I’m sure someone mentioned it here, but I missed it): Pauline Kael called it “The Sound of Mucus”.
I’m not a fan of musicals and think most of them are boring, but I found Julie Andrew’s singing captivating in that movie. Even if the movie is just a flimsy story strung together so she can sing, that’s fine with me. Her singing was like auditory candy to me.
My Catholic church choir sang the highlights every year as part of their music ministry fundraiser. Everyone loved it. Growing up, we had the soundtrack (along with many other musicals, my dad has always been fond of them), so I long have had all the songs in my memory bank.
It always bugged the hell out of me that those nuns sang “How do you solve a problem like Maria?” at Maria’s wedding. RUDE.
BTW, I always thought the song How do you solve a problem like Maria? sounded just like one of the songs from the Rex Harrison Doctor Doolittle movie (possibly “My Friend the Doctor”, but it’s been a long time since I saw it).
Considering in particular SMV’s signature:
Aziraphale.
It came out in 1965. The world wouldn’t really start going to hell for another two years or so.
They have a wonderful restaurant in the lodge (the Trapp Family Lodge Dining Room), and a Bierhall a short distance away. We ate at both last year, and will be back next month when we head up to Stowe for a long ski weekend.
The main dining room has a fantastic Wiener Schnitzel; probably the best I’ve had on this side of the Atlantic. They have Glühwein, too.
P.S. They also have lots of memorabilia of the von Trapp family in the lodge.