Christopher Plummer once compared The Sound of Music to being beaten to death with a Hallmark card. This is in keeping with his character in the film, although his early George Sanders impersonation eventually (and predictably) gives way to a more romantic and heroic persona.
Plummer is grouchy throughout. Sinister Nazis are lurking around the corner. Sponger Richard Haydn wants to trot out the Von Trapp family like trained seals. Socialite villainess Eleanor Parker wants to send Maria back to the convent, and ship the kids off to boarding school. Young love interest Rolfe (Daniel Truhitte) has joined the Hitler Youth.
Yet it is the sugar-sweet surface of The Sound of Music that people remember, and not its darker subplots that lie underneath. One reason for this is the casting of Maria and the children, all radiant with smiles and innocent energy. There's also the soundtrack, which combines extremely hummable melodies with lyrics that are either painstakingly adorable or cloying, depending upon your degree of cynicism.
Whether or not The Sound of Music deserves its saccharine reputation, it is the best of its kind. Of all the big budget American musicals of the 1960s (West Side Story, The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Hello, Dolly!, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Star!, Dr. Doolittle), none are better than The Sound of Music. None were as successful either, with the film breaking the all-time box office records that had seemed forever tied to Gone With the Wind.
That's not to say that The Sound of Music is the best musical from the 1960s. Certainly, the French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is better, as are the Richard Lester/Beatles collaborations A Hard Day's Night and Help!. But despite the idealized characters, and some tedious moments in the film's third hour, The Sound of Music is easily a good film.
Much credit goes to the cinematography. The hills are not only alive, but very photogenic. Everything looks terrific: the colors, the costumes, the hairstyles. Best of all is Maria's wedding gown, which rivals that of Princess Diana.
Credit also has to be given to Julie Andrews. She has a fuller, stronger voice than does Shirley Jones (Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Music Man), and doesn't have to pantomime to dubbing from Marni Nixon (The King And I, West Side Story, My Fair Lady). (By the way, Marni Nixon has a rare acting cameo here, as Sister Sophia.)
Andrews is also filled with a joyous energy that makes the insistently sugary lyrics more credible. Diction, timing, feeling, and the angelic looks of innocence, Julie Andrews was ideal for the role. Fresh from her success with the similar Mary Poppins from the year before, Andrews would soon learn that being typecast as a singing virgin would not lead to choice dramatic roles. It was the peak of her career.
Much of the plot doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. I can accept that Maria teaches the unruly children to sing like a professional choir in a matter of hours. But where did they learn such skill with marionettes? Plummer never performed with the children before, but the choreography indicates otherwise.
What do the Nazis do to the nuns after they've sheltered the Von Trapp family, and stolen vital parts from their cars? (Their execution by firing squad must have been excised from the director's cut.) When Maria informs Liesl's father that she is becoming a young woman, it belabors the obvious. The actress playing Liesl, Charmian Carr, was 23 years old! It would be the only feature film for Carr, who later became an interior decorator.
Sometimes the dialogue just seems like an elaborate set up for the next musical number. But it is done so expertly that it doesn't much matter.
The Sound of Music was the final (and most successful) collaboration between Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story was based on the real-life Von Trapp family, whose actual escape across the mountainous Austrian border was much less dramatic. They had simply gone on a family vacation. Their autobiography was made into a German film, The Trapp Family (1956). This in turn became a Rodgers-Hammerstein Broadway production, before its inevitable adaptation to the American screen.
The Sound of Music won the two most important Academy Awards, for Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Wise). It also won for its editing, sound, and score. It was nominated for its cinematography (Ted McCord) and costumes. Julie Andrews was nominated for Best Actress, having won the year before for Mary Poppins. Peggy Wood, playing the wise Reverend Mother, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. (69/100)
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