Detail view of Movies Page

Movie Detail

Name Occurs Before Title

Offscreen Credit

Print Viewed By AFI

The Sound of Music

Alternate Title: Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music Director: Robert Wise (Dir) Release Date: Mar 1965 Premiere Information: New York opening: 2 Mar 1965; Los Angeles opening: 10 Mar 1965 Production Date: late Mar--mid-Aug 1964 Duration (in mins): 172-174			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:		Julie Andrews	(Maria)
		Christopher Plummer	(Captain [Georg] von Trapp)
	and	Eleanor Parker	(The baroness [Elsa Schraeder])
		Richard Haydn	(Max Detweiler)
		Peggy Wood	(Mother Abbess)
	The children:	Charmian Carr	(Liesl)
		Heather Menzies	(Louisa)
		Nicholas Hammond	(Friedrich)
		Duane Chase	(Kurt)
		Angela Cartwright	(Brigitta)
		Debbie Turner	(Marta)
	[and]	Kym Karath	(Gretl)
		Anna Lee	(Sister Margaretta)
		Portia Nelson	(Sister Berthe)
		Ben Wright	(Herr Zeller)
		Daniel Truhitte	(Rolfe)
		Norma Varden	(Frau Schmidt)
		Gil Stuart	(Franz)
		Marni Nixon	(Sister Sophia)
		Evadne Baker	(Sister Bernice)
		Doris Lloyd	(Baroness Ebberfeld)
		Kendrick Nuxham	(Baron Ebberfeld)
		Ada Beth Lee	(Sister Catherine)
		Doreen Tryden	(Sister Agatha)
		Alan Callow	(S. S. Lieutenant)

Summary:

The antics of tomboyish Maria, a novice at the abbey in Salzburg, concern the Mother Abbess, who is unsure whether Maria wants to become a nun. To allow the girl to test her feelings, the Mother Abbess sends Maria to be the governess for the seven children of the widowed Baron Georg von Trapp, a retired naval officer. The children are at first hostile to Maria, but she soon wins them over. The baron, who is a strict disciplinarian, leaves to visit Baroness Schraeder, and while he is gone, Maria allows them greater freedom and teaches them to sing. The children become so excited when the baron returns that they fall out of a rowboat in the lake. The accident precipitates an argument between Maria and the baron, and he orders her to leave; but when he goes into the house and finds the children entertaining his friend Max Detweiler and the baroness with a song, he asks Maria to stay. Max later suggests that they enter the Salzburg Festival as a singing group, but the baron refuses. Maria becomes aware that she is falling in love with the baron and returns to the abbey. The children follow her there and try to persuade her to return; when the Mother Abbess learns of their visit, she sends Maria back to the Trapp home. Maria again decides to leave when she hears that the baron plans to marry the baroness, but the baroness realizes that he loves Maria and releases him. He then marries Maria, and while they are away on their honeymoon, the Nazis take over Austria. Max, taking advantage of the baron's absence, enters the children in the Salzburg Festival. When Maria and the baron return, he forbids the children to appear at the festival. The baron learns that the Nazis, to whom he is violently opposed, have ordered him to take command of a ship. The Trapps plan an escape but are stopped by Storm Troopers. Max convinces them that they are on their way to the festival and that the baron is leaving for his ship immediately after the performance. The Trapps win first place and, using their exit song to escape, they take refuge in the abbey. The Nazis learn their whereabouts and surround the building, but the family escape through a secret tunnel to the nearby mountains.

Production Company:	Argyle Enterprises, Inc.
	Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.
Production Text:	A Robert Wise Production
Distribution Company:	Twentieth Century--Fox Film Corp.
Director:	Robert Wise	(Dir)
	Ridgeway Callow	(Asst dir)
	Richard Lang	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Robert Wise	(Prod)
	Saul Chaplin	(Assoc prod)
Writer:	Ernest Lehman	(Scr)
	Georg Hurdalek	(With the partial use of ideas by)
Photography:	Ted McCord	(Dir of photog)
	Paul Beeson	(Addl photog)
	Paul Lockwood	(Cam op)
	Walter Fitchman	(Grip)
	Jack Brown	(Gaffer)
	James Mitchell	(Stills)
Art Direction:	Boris Leven	(Prod des)
	Harry Kemm	(Asst art dir)
Film Editor:	William Reynolds	(Film ed)
	Larry Allen	(Film ed)
Set Decoration:	Walter M. Scott	(Set dec)
	Ruby Levitt	(Set dec)
	Ed Jones	(Props)
Costumes:	Dorothy Jeakins	(Cost des)
	Dick James	(Cost)
	Josephine Brown	(Cost)
Music:	Irwin Kostal	(Mus supv, arr & cond)
	Robert Tucker	(Vocal supv)
	Robert Mayer	(Mus ed)
Sound:	Murray Spivack	(Sd)
	Bernard Freericks	(Sd)
	William Buffinger	(Rec)
	Fred Hynes	(Sd rec supv)
	James Corcoran	(Sd rec supv)
Special Effects:	L. B. Abbott	(Spec photog eff)
	Emil Kosa Jr.	(Spec photog eff)
Dance:	Marc Breaux	(Choreog)
	Dee Dee Wood	(Choreog)
Make Up:	Ben Nye	(Makeup)
	Willard Buell	(Makeup)
	Margaret Donovan	(Hairstyles)
	Ray Foreman	(Hairstyles)
Production Misc:	Maurice Zuberano	(2nd unit supv)
	Saul Wurtzel	(Unit prod mgr)
	Betty Levin	(Scr supv)
	Bill Baird	(Puppeteers)
	Cora Baird	(Puppeteers)
	Pamela Danova	(Dial coach)
Stand In:	Bill Lee	(Singing voice for Christopher Plummer)
Country:	United States
Language:	English

Music:
Songs:	"Preludium (Dixit Dominus)," "Morning Hymn," "Alleluia," "Maria," "I Have Confidence," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," "My Favorite Things," "Climb Every Mountain," "The Lonely Goatherd," "The Sound of Music," "Do-Re-Mi," "Something Good," "Edelweiss" and "So Long, Farewell," music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.
Composer:	Oscar Hammerstein II
	Richard Rodgers
Source Text:	Based on the musical The Sound of Music , music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and originally produced on the stage by Leland Hayward, Richard Halliday, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (New York, 16 Nov 1959).
Authors:	Russel Crouse
	Howard Lindsay
	Oscar Hammerstein II
	Richard Rodgers
	Leland Hayward
	Richard Halliday

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Argyle Enterprises, Inc.	2/3/1965 dd/mm/yyyy	LP30289

PCA NO:	20734
Physical Properties:	col:	De Luxe
	Sd:	Westrex Recording System
	gauge:	35mm & 70mm
	Widescreen/ratio:	Todd-AO


Genre:	Musical
	Drama

Subjects (Major):	Children
	Courtship
	Escapes
	Governesses
	Music
	Nazis
	Novices (Religious)
	Officers (Military)
	Romance
	Salzburg (Austria)
	Singers
	Trapp Family
	Widowers
	World War II

Subjects (Minor):	Abbeys
	Adolescents
	Balls (Parties)
	Brothers and sisters
	Family life
	Family relationships
	Friendship
	Love affairs
	Managers (Entertainment)
	Marriage
	Military service, Compulsory
	Mountains
	Nuns
	Picnicking
	Practical jokes
	Puppets
	Romantic rivalry
	Sea captains
	Tomboys
	Unrequited love

Note:	The onscreen title reads "Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music . Portions of the film were shot in and around Salzberg and the Austrian Alps. According to the onscreen credits, aerial views were photographed with an MCS-70 camera. One onscreen credit reads: "Produced in Todd-AO developed by The American Optical Company and Magna." A similar story based on Maria von Trapp's autobiography was filmed as The Trapp Family , a 1956 German-made movie directed by Lee Kresel and Wolfgang Liebeneiner, and which was written by Georg Hurdalek, who is credited for the partial use of his ideas in the opening onscreen credits of The Sound of Music . The film was ranked 40th on AFI's 2007 100 Years...100 Movies--10th Anniversary Edition list of the greatest American films, moving up from the 55th position it held on AFI's 1997 list. The Sound of Music also was ranked 4th on AFI's list of the 25 Greatest Movie Musicals.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
American Cinematographer	Apr 1965	pp. 222-25.
Daily Variety	13 Jun 1960.
Film Daily	2 Mar 1965.
Filmfacts	16 Apr 1965	pp. 51-54.
Hollywood Reporter	27 Mar 1964	p. 13.
Hollywood Reporter	14 Aug 1964	p. 10.
Hollywood Reporter	1 Mar 1965	p. 3.
Los Angeles Times	7 Mar 1965	Calendar, p. 4.
Los Angeles Times	14 Mar 1973	Section IV, p. 1, 15.
Life	12 Mar 1965	p. 52.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	17 Mar 1965	p. 14, 18.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	14 Apr 1965	p. 268.
New York Times	3 Mar 1965	p. 34.
Time	5 Mar 1965	p. 98.
Variety	3 Mar 1965	p. 6.

	Display Movie Summary
The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



Advanced Search