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It was in the year 1965 that what was to become one of the most
successful productions in film history was first screened.
Following the enormous success of the stage musical "Sound of Music",
(the work was performed on Broadway almost 1.500 times, won six Tony
Awards and sold more than 3 million records), Robert Wise produced and
directed the film of the same name. The musical "Sound of Music",
written and composed by Rogers and Hammerstein, became an unexpected
success. In 1965 the film was nominated for 10 Oscars and actually won 5
(best film, best director, best sound recording, best script, and best
musical adaption).
For Julie Andrews, who took the leading role role, the film heralded the
start of an incomparable international film career. She herself once
said in an interview that she considered it an honour to have been
involved in a film which had brought so much happiness to so many
people. Eleanor Parker, too, who played the baroness, remembers the film
to this day and is proud to have acted in it. The child performers,
however, untrained amateurs every one, did not take up stage careers
later.
All seven of them have enteered ordinary professions and now live all
over the world. The contact between them is, nevertheless, strong to
this day and, as Germaine Carr, who played Liesl, the eldest daughter in
the film, says, the one time Trapp children still feel like one big
family.
Robert Wise once said in an interview that it was by no means clear to
the producers at the start that the film would be such a great success.
In reality the film's ultimate popularity surprised everyone and Robert
Wise sees this success as stemming from various factors: the film tells
a true story, a moving family story which appeals to many people,
the lovely city of Salzburg provided an unforgettable backdrop and the
really outstanding actors and actresses did the rest. |
