The Sound of Music (1965) starring Julie Andrews,
Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker. Directed by Robert Wise. Screenplay by Ernest
Lehman, with the partial use of ideas by Georg Hurdalek. 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). Produced by Robert Wise. Run
time: 172 minutes. Color. Musical, Drama, Romance
In 1965, 20th Century Fox put out a movie that would
not only help it recover from the $30 million loss on Cleopatra (1963),
but would go on to be, for a time, the highest grossing film of all-time. By
all standards, except for some early reviews, the film was wildly popular and a
runaway hit. I remember it playing at my local theater for a year; unheard of
today.
The movie is based on the musical that started its run in
1959. The musical’s narrative was derived from Maria Augusta von Trapp’s 1949
autobiography, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. At that time, the
book had already been made into two popular West German feature films directed
by Wolfgang Liebeneiner, Die Trapp-Familie (1956), and its sequel, Die
Trapp-Familie in Amerika (1958). The Broadway musical saw $2,325,000 in
advance sales and ran from November 16, 1959 to June 15, 1963.
Paramount Pictures had optioned rights to Die Trapp-Familie, and approached Vincent J. Donehue, the musical’s Broadway director, about directing an American version, starring Audrey Hepburn, but Donehue advised the studio not to, “You can’t possibly make it as a movie, you’ve got to let it go; the way to do this is a musical for Mary Martin.” Paramount dropped its option when Hepburn wasn’t available.
