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The Sound of Music
5 Things You Didn't Know About 'The Sound of Music'
BY KATHRYN WHITBOURNE
The
hills will always be alive with the sound of this most-beloved movie musical.
Originally
released in 1965, the film is the third-highest grossing movie of all
time, taking in more than $1 billion (adjusted for inflation).
Here
are five things you may not know about this classic.
1. The Critics Originally Hated It.
From
the get-go, moviegoers loved it.
Film
critics? Not so much.
Apparently,
a story about a young nun who acts a governess to seven adorable children and
wins the heart of their stern widowed father set critics' teeth on edge.
The
New York Times called it "painfully mawkish " while Time
magazine said it "contains too much sugar, too little spice."
Eminent
critic Pauline Kael called it "the single most repressive influence on
artistic freedom in movies."
The
harsh review allegedly cost her her job at McCall's magazine — though she
bounced back at The New Yorker.
2. The Real Maria Was Not so Sweet.
Perhaps
the critics would have liked it more if the movie had stuck closer to the
facts.
The
real Maria was not as cheery and chipper as the one portrayed by Julie Andrews.
In
a 2003 inteview, one of the real-life von Trapp children said her stepmother
"had a terrible temper ...
And
from one moment to the next, you didn't know what hit her.
We
were not used to this. But we took it like a thunderstorm that would pass,
because the next minute she could be very nice."
Maria
also threw things and slammed doors when upset.
3. The Movie Strayed From the
Original Story in Many Other Ways.
The
portrayal of Maria von Trapp was just one of the many liberties the
screenwriters took.
To
name just a few: The family was already musical before she came to stay; the
father was far from the rigid martinet he was portrayed to be; and Maria did
not love him when they married.
In her autobiography, she wrote, "I liked him but didn't love him. However, I loved the children,
so in a way I really married the children ... [B]y and by I learned to
love him more than I have ever loved before or after."
The
family also never trekked over the Alps to Switzerland to escape the Nazis.
Instead,
less picturesquely, they hopped a train to Italy and from there, traveled to
America for a singing engagement and stayed for good.
4. The Cast Was Living Large at This
Shoot.
Speaking
of escape, remember the scene at the end of the movie with the family on foot,
making their way to Switzerland, with little Gretl riding on her father's
back?
That
wasn’t actually Gretl.
The
5-year-old who played her, Kym Karath, had been living on bread since the shoot
began (apparently she hated all the foreign food) and had gained quite a bit of
weight.
She
was so heavy that Christopher Plummer (who portrayed Capt. von Trapp) insisted
on a lighter body double for the piggyback scene.
Not
that he was one to talk: He'd gained a lot of weight himself.
"I
drank so much and ate all those wonderful Austrian pastries. When I got to
shooting, [director] Robert Wise said, 'My God, you look like Orson Welles.' We
had to re-do the costume,"
Plummer told Vanity Fair.
5. The Movie Was a Flop in Austria.
Possibly
the only country where "The Sound of Music" was not a hit was in the
country where it was shot: Austria.
In
fact, most Austrians have not seen it, according to the BBC.
Austrian
Georg Steinitz who was an assistant director on the movie, thinks it might have
been "too American" for local tastes.
"People
don't feel it has much to do with Austria, except for the landscape," he told the BBC. "We,
the Austrian and German members of the crew, thought it would be a flop ... We
were very doubtful. But we were wrong."
Although
Austrians have not embraced the film, they've recognized the financial
opportunity.
Several
companies in Salzburg offer tours where visitors can take in the beautiful
locations where the movie was filmed.
NOW
THAT'S TOUGH
The most famous shot in "The
Sound of Music" is the movie's opener where Julie Andrews whirls around on
a lush field high up in the mountains. It was shot via helicopter. Just one
small problem: The downdraft from the helicopter jets was so strong that each
take knocked Andrews to the ground. This went on for 10 takes.
Kathryn
Whitbourne
Kathryn is a senior editor and
writer with HowStuffWorks. She has written on a variety of topics, ranging from
Oprah to squirrels to the winter solstice. She has also worked as a magazine
editor, a radio reporter and an editorial supervisor at PR Newswire. She holds
a Communications degree from Cornell University.
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