Someone recently showed me, and I feel I should share, evidence of the Mother Superior’s dirty mouth.
Dr. Doolittle was one of the biggest disasters of all time. Christopher Plummer was paid $300,000 (around $2 million in 2009 money) for starring in Dr. Doolittle, which was a fortune for anytime considering he never filmed a single shot. He had contracted to do it because Rex Harrison wasn’t available and when Rex unexpectedly became available they paid Plummer in full and hired Sexy Rexy figuring it would be worth the extra money in ticket sales (it wasn’t). Add to this that Rex and Anthony Newley damned near had a diva-off to see who could be more impossible and obnoxious and cause more delays on the set (both walked off the film at various points and returned only due to threats of lawsuits) and they were working with lots and lots and lots of unpredictable animals. (Samantha Eggers said in an interview that she nearly fell in love with Sir Richard Attenborough because he was such a pro and a gentleman during his scenes that it was like having a calm harbor in a storm; Attenborough’s response to the divaism was he’d never seen anything like it.)
THAT… is funny.
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That’s interesting that you see it that way. I’m a little hazy on details (like most others, I often sleep through at least a part of it each Christmas!) but I always got the impression that the von Trapps were rather exceptional in taking a stand against the Nazis when most others either joined them enthusiastically (e.g. Rolf-the-messenger-boy or whatever his name was) or were resigned that it really didn’t matter much anyway (e.g. the Baron’s friend). There was that party, too, where a lot of the guests were strongly in favour of the Anschluss and the Captain got angry.
I went to Salzburg when I was in Europe in 2006, for the kitsch if nothing else, and it was pretty funny. The Austrians clearly seemed to think we were all there for Mozart, but it was Mirabel Garden that was crowded with tourists. The hostel I stayed at had a Sound of Music screening each night. There was another hostel in town where it played on an endless loop, apparently. Working there’s got to be the worst job.
There’s a scene at the party where the Baron’s guest chides him for not having a swastika flag and the Baron politely but firmly tells him to go screw. When he returns home from his honeymoon he finds a swastika flag flying- the apolitical pragmatic Max had given consent- and tears it down.
I have seen it sixteen, going on seventeen, times.
HA! Not really.
The first time I watched it, my Mum dragged us along to a cinema showing, the first in her lifetime since it was first released, and we had to sit through this interminably long nonsense. I was nine years old.
I’ve watched it infrequently since then, and it hasn’t improved any. Long and meandering and unpleasant, all round.
I hope when the real life story played out, it had less reprises of Edelweiss.
Adieu. Adieu. To yieu and yieu and yieu.
Austria had a Prussian majority? Maybe I’m missing one of the meanings of the word “Prussian,” but the ones I know are:
- The pre-Teutonic Slavic people of the southern Baltic coast.
- The German-speaking nobility that later conquered the area and imported their Germanic culture that became dominant until the 20th century.
- The peoples of the Prussian Empire, which was always separate from the Austrian Empire.
I’m not a Sound of Music fan particularly, but I like long films and often lament the lack of audience patience which results in three-hour films being rare, and thought long.
The sing-along does frighten me, though.
A+, and yes, “la” goes before the name because it means “the (f)”
And, do, presumably was the fictional Von Trapp. Where is the actual historical inaccuracy?
On a recent episode of GLEE Kurt (a character named for the character actor Chris Colfer once played in TSOM on stage) mentioned going to a SOUND OF MUSIC singalong on a recent episode. I assumed it was something they made up for the show- didn’t realize they existed.
The children, oldest to youngest, in the movie:
Liesel, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl
The children, oldest to youngest, in real life:
Rupert, Agathe, Franziska, Werner, Hedwig, Johanna, and Martina
Maria added: Rosemarie, Eleanore, and Johannes
Of the original seven the two oldest girls are still alive, as are all of Maria’s children.
Those who married did so later than most as Maria was a field marshal in insisting the family stay together and refusing to allow any possible competiton. There’s a sad story about the youngest daughter by the first marriage-
When Maria left Austria she was pregnant with her son Johannes and it was already a difficult pregnancy. The hectic schedule of moving from place to place and not always being able to eat properly or get doctor’s care caused major problems and she was advised to get an abortion as the child woudl probably be born dead or deformed and she would likely die herself. As it was she had a difficult delivery that left her unable to have any more children, but she and the baby survived and recovered.
When her stepdaughter Martina married- secretly- Maria was furious that she would do such a thing that would risk breaking up the group (and especially furious since Rupert had married just before her and was talking about leaving). When Martina became pregnant she had even worse problems than her stepmother had and was, like her stepmother, advised to abort. Her stepmother talked her into keeping the child, using her own case as an example. Unfortunately she died giving birth to a stillborn daughter.
I too am one of those weirdos who haven’t seen the SOM or Titanic for that matter.
For that matter, SoM was used to great comedic effect in the first “Addams Family” theatrical movie.
Hey, at least your SO’s was a sin of omission regarding the running time of SoM. My own mother outright lied and deceived me for more than two decades.
Whenever SoM was on TV, and the commercial started just after the wedding scene, she’d say, “OK, movie’s over! Time for bed!”
Imagine my embarrassment when, as a twentysomething, I was watching it with friends in someone’s basement; the wedding scene came on and I started gathering my belongings to leave… :smack:
Yeah, I felt like a right idiot. Thanks, Mom. :rolleyes:
Hmmm… Am I the only one thinking of the Homer Simpson version of the “Do, Re, Mi” song? 
“Dough, the stuff that buys me beer,
Ray, the guy who brings my beer,
Me, the guy who drinks the beer,
Far, the distance to the beer,
So, I’ll have another beer,
La, la la la la la beer,
Tea? No thanks, I’ll have some beer,
And this brings us back to D’OH!”
My son loved TSOM as a young boy. He was a quiet, kind boy, somewhat to my BIL’s dismay.
He’s a big former football and hockey star, and loved to roughhouse with his nieces and nephews.
One day he came in the door to find my 9yo son watching TSOM while prancing around and singing “I am sixteen, going on seventeen…”
“All right, goddam it! That’s it!” he yelled as he picked the boy up. “We’re going to watch a hockey game and get an a fight with strangers in the stands right now!” & stormed out the door.
Actually, he just took him outside & threw a football with him for a while, but it was pretty funny at the time.
I guess you had to be there.