The Sound of Music is one of the all-time biggest musicals in cinematic history. It won many awards and deserved them all.
The story is based on the real von Trapp family but took many liberties to make the story what it became. There are a lot of interesting things you probably didn't know about the classic movie so here are 10 facts that will give you a little bit of insight on how it got made!
1. The real Maria von Trapp wasn't in love when she got married
Maria has been very open about her feelings toward her husband, saying that "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."
2. One of the kids had a growth spurt that jeopardized the movie
Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrick, had a 6 inch growth spurt in the 6 month shoot. He's supposed to be shorter than Liesl but by the end of the movie, he was so tall they had to film him without shoes on while Charmian Carr (Liesl) stood on a box.
3. Julie Andrews couldn't stop laughing during romantic scenes
The lights above their heads made hilarious noises while they sang "Something Good" and Julie Andrews could not keep it together. "Christopher would be looking into my eyes and saying 'Oh Maria I love you,' and there'd be this awful raspberry coming from the lights above us," Andrews said of the time. Eventually the director cut the lights and filmed in silhouette.
4. Christopher Plummer hated the movie
"Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey," he said. "You had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it."
5. Gretl found the boat scene especially traumatizing
Kym Karath played the 5-year-old and she could not swim. She was supposed to fall forwards so the older kids could catch her but she fell off the back. "I went under, I swallowed a lot of water, which I then vomited all over Heather [Menzies-Urich, who played Louisa]," she said.
6. They replaced one actress because she gained weight
Because she didn't like the food on location, Kareth would only eat bread. She ended up gaining a fair bit of weight so Christopher Plummer asked for a lighter body double to do the piggyback scene.
7. They hated the movie in Austria
Austrian assistant director Georg Steinitz suspects the lack of success was because the movie didn't really have much to do with Austria other than the landscape.
8. Critics originally hated the movie.
Even though it ended up winning the Oscar for best picture, critics originally were not fans. The New York Times called it "painfully mawkish" and Time Magazine said it "contains too much sugar, too little spice."
9. The real von Trapps didn't escape over a mountain
If they had, they would have ended up in Germany right near Hitler's mountain retreat. Instead, they took a train to Italy.
10. The iconic opening scene was almost impossible to film
The helicopter that filmed this was so close that it kept knocking her over. "This was a jet helicopter, and the down draft from those jets was so strong that every time ... the helicopter circled around me and the down draft just flattened me into the grass. And I mean flattened. It was fine for a couple of takes, but after that you begin to get just a little bit angry."
Share with everyone who loves musicals!
