| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Julie Andrews | as Maria |
| Christopher Plummer | as Captain von Trapp |
| Eleanor Parker | as The Baroness |
| Richard Haydn | as Max Detweiler |
| Peggy Wood | as Mother Abbess |
| Charmian Carr | as Liesl |
| Heather Menzies-Urich | as Louisa |
| Nicholas Hammond | as Friedrich |
| Duane Chase | as Kurt |
| Angela Cartwright | as Brigitta |
| Debbie Turner | as Marta |
| Kym Karath | as Gretl |
| Anna Lee | as Sister Margaretta |
| Portia Nelson | as Sister Berthe |
| Ben Wright | as Herr Zeller |
| Daniel Truhitte | as Rolfe |
| Norma Varden | as Frau Schmidt |
| Gilchrist Stuart | as Franz (as Gil Stuart) |
| Marni Nixon | as Sister Sophia |
| Evadne Baker | as Sister Bernice |
| Doris Lloyd | as Baroness Ebberfeld |
| MPAA Rating: | G |
| Distributor: | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Production Companies: | Robert Wise Productions, Argyle Enterprises |
| Release Date (US): | 03/29/1965 |
| Domestic Box Office (IMDB): | $163,214,286 |
| Domestic Box Office (Mojo): | $158,671,368 |
| Worldwide Box Office (IMDB): | $286,214,076 |
| Production Budget: | $8,200,000 (Est.) |
Young Maria is having a hard time fitting into the nun's life of pious obedience. When a request comes to the abbey for a new governess, the Mother Abbess thinks of Maria. Despite her reluctance, Maria is ordered to leave the world of faith and report to the house of Captain von Trapp, an Austrian naval officer. She does so with considerable trepidation. Once past a rather severe butler, she meets the Captain and his seven children. He gives her strict orders about how she must march them around and keep to a fixed schedule. Immediately the children try to intimidate Maria and drive her off, as they have several other governesses. But Maria soon charms them with her musical ability and her sense of fun.
Captain von Trapp reappears, none too pleased by the sounds of mirth and jollity. A widower, he had given up such feelings at his wife's untimely death. The next morning he departs for Vienna. In due course he returns, bringing his fiancee Baroness Elsa Schraeder and his brother Max Detweiler. They both are impressed with the singing ability the children show — especially Max, who seeks to enroll them in the Salzburg Festival. Captain von Trapp is at first outraged over the undisciplined way his children are behaving. But, over time, he too surrenders to Maria's unquenchable vivacity. The Baroness suggests a party, and soon the house is filled with the sounds of an orchestra and convivial chatter. But not everyone is convivial, for it is the eve of World War II, and the shadow of the Third Reich looms over Austria. The Captain has words with one of its officials at the party.
Meanwhile, another sort of tension develops. The Captain's fondness for Maria deepens into love. Sensing this troublesome feeling herself, and egged on by the Baroness, Maria secretly packs her belongings and runs back to the abbey. There, Mother Abbess forces her to confront her feelings, telling her to "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" until she finds the life she was meant to live. So Maria returns to the von Trapp household, and she and the Captain confess their feelings. Acknowledging defeat with grace, the Baroness returns to Vienna. But there is still the threat of Nazi takeover, and it soon becomes actuality. The Captain must decide whether to accept a commission in the navy of the Reich or seek to escape. No one is surprised when he chooses the latter course.
There are many excellent musicals, filled with vivacious characters, wonderful singing and dancing. The Sound of Music1 has something more, something that has kept it alive in the public mind since its introduction over fifty years ago. That something is its touching portrayal of Maria's unbounded love of family and the Captain's unswerving love of country. Like other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, it gives us the progressive slant on a serious political issue: Austria's response to the German Anschluss of 12 February 1938. The story is based on real events: There was a Maria who left a nunnery (Nonnberg Abbey) to join the household of Captain von Trapp, married him, and subsequently left Austria with him and his family to flee the German Anschluss. However, they did not hike over the Alps, but took a train to Italy and then traveled to London and America by sea. (Walking over the Alps would have availed them nothing. Salzburg sits close to the border of Germany; Switzerland and Italy are much too distant.) Also, the Captain married Maria in 1927, eleven years before the Reich annexed Austria, and the Trapp Family Singers took first place in the Salzburg Festival in 1936. The film compressed these events for dramatic purposes.2
Although its critical reviews were mixed, the film earned five Academy Awards and was a major commercial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1965 and holding the title "Highest-grossing film of all time" for five years. Its total worldwide gross comes to $286,214,076 — $2.4 billion in 2014 dollars. AFI added it to its list of the 100 best films in 1998, and in 2001 it was recognized for preservation by the Library of Congress as a culturally significant work. It has now been translated into thirty languages other than English.
As Julie Andrews shows us in revisiting Salzburg in the film's fiftieth-anniversary year, it brings to that city thousands of tourists from all over the world to view the locales where the exterior shots were filmed and the magnificent scenery around them. However, due to the scenes of the Anschluss, the film has never been widely popular in Austria and Germany.
My Rating:
10 out of 10
Capsule review: Gorgeous cinematography, appropriately opulent settings, some charming if schmaltzy musical numbers, the beguiling presence of Julie Andrews, and a suspenseful ending make this a standout among musicals.
| IMDB Rating: 8.0 | Raters: 147,250 |
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