The Sound of Music

Not to overstate the obvious, but this is the jewel in our crown. More than a year ago, R&H and Fox met to discuss the best way to celebrate this great film and to come up with a “must have” DVD edition. It was clear from the start that one person could make this DVD newsworthy and irresistible: Julie Andrews.

“As soon as Julie agreed to host the 40th Anniversary DVD we knew it would be something special,” says Ted Chapin. “She was her usual gracious self, and threw herself into the plans, even though she has a rather hectic schedule these days — to put it mildly.” Andrews went on location at the Fox lot where the SOUND OF MUSIC interiors were shot four decades earlier, to film special introductions to both discs of the double-DVD edition. She also hosted an in-depth documentary, sat down for a chat with one of her co-stars, and provided an audio commentary.

“Julie did one more great thing for us,” recalls Chapin. “Her manager, Steve Sauer, is a very smart guy, and together they recommended Michael Kantor as film maker for the documentary sequences.” Kantor, a fine documentarian, had worked closely with Andrews on a six-hour PBS epic, BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL, which aired to great acclaim last year, and was the winner of two 2005 Emmy Awards. “BROADWAY gave Michael a real passion for the genre,” notes Chapin, “and with THE SOUND OF MUSIC, he proved to be brilliant at finding new stories about one of the most famous films of all time. He was an inspired choice.”

MY FAVORITE THINGS: JULIE ANDREWS REMEMBERS
This hour-long documentary is the centerpiece of the second disc, which contains nearly four hours of new material over all. Julie Andrews tells the SOUND OF MUSIC story, separating fact from fiction. Johannes von Trapp, the youngest son of Maria and Georg von Trapp, recounts his family’s courageous flight from Austria following the Anschluss in 1938, and their new life in America. (The von Trapp story is further explored in a 1998 A&E Biography, also featured on this DVD.) Ted Chapin and Anna Crouse detail the planned Broadway play by Lindsay & Crouse that became a musical with songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein. Charmian Carr (Liesl) and director Robert Wise recall the film’s pre-production, and the challenges of filming on location (not to mention keeping six children from growing too much). Andrews, the epitome of good sportsmanship, even shares a glimpse of a hilarious spoof that she and Carol Burnett concocted for their legendary 1962 Carnegie Hall TV special, the infamous SWISS FAMILY PRATT (whipped up with the help of Mike Nichols).

ON LOCATION WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC
One of the stars of the film — and a key to its staying power — is the setting: Salzburg, Austria and the surrounding Alpine countryside. In 1964, while filming THE SOUND OF MUSIC there, then 21-year-old Charmian Carr hosted a period travelogue called SALZBURG SIGHTS AND SOUNDS. This little film played as a trailer in movie houses around America in the months leading up to the film’s release in the spring of 1965. It resurfaced on the 1995 laser disc edition, reappeared on the first DVD of THE SOUND OF MUSIC released in 2000, and developed a cult following of its own.

In June of this year, Charmian Carr, Michael Kantor, and a crew (including your editor) flew back to Austria to make an on-location documentary. In it, Carr takes the viewer all over Salzburg to revisit locales where the movie was made, including Nonnberg Abbey; the Mirabelle Gardens, where “Do-Re-Mi” was filmed; the various villas that stood in for the von Trapp mansion (and a glimpse inside the actual von Trapp family home itself); and the site that has become holy ground to any fan — the meadow, on a hill about 20 minutes outside Salzburg, where Julie Andrews did her famous twirl.

JULIE ANDREWS AND CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER: A REMINISCENCE
They fell in love on screen 40 years ago, and have been dear friends ever since. In this 20 minute featurette, Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer sit down for an intimate fireside chat. Together, the Captain and Maria look back on the making of the film; the perils and perks of Salzburg; and the children. They recall character actor Richard Haydn, who played Max, and glamorous star Eleanor Parker, who was the seductive Baroness Schraeder. They talk about the extraordinary contributions made to the film by director Robert Wise and screenwriter Ernest Lehman. And they tell a few stories about the Laendler — that amazing sequence where a simple Austrian folk dance changes the lives of two complex characters.

THE SINGALONG PHENOMENON The SINGALONG SOUND OF MUSIC
phenomenon has swept the globe, but no place does it quite like the Hollywood Bowl. There, in what has become a cherished summertime tradition, THE SOUND OF MUSIC is shown on one of the world’s largest movie screens to a sell-out crowd of 18,000. The audience response is a sight (and sound) to behold.

This past July, the Bowl’s SINGALONG SOUND OF MUSIC was more spectacular than ever, with surprise guests, an elaborate pre-show, and a costume parade of more than 400 movie-loving and obsessed fans. Michael Kantor and his crew were on hand, and created a short film that captured the zeitgeist of the evening, which combined the energy of a rock concert with the passion of a revival meeting.

FROM LIESL TO GRETL: A 40th ANNIVERSARY REUNION
40 years ago they forged a bond thad has never been broken. In July, all seven of the von Trapp “children” reunited for the first time in years, to swap stories and share memories.

Charmian Carr (Liesl), Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich), Heather Menzies (Louisa), Duane Chase (Kurt), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta), Debbie Turner (Marta) and Kym Karath (Gretl) revisit the gruelling audition process, remember rehearsals and vocal sessions, confess the outrageous mischief they caused in their Salzburg hotel, and reflect on the special place THE SOUND OF MUSIC will always hold in their lives. When Robert Wise was casting the film, he reportedly said that he wanted to “build” a family. It is evident here that he succeeded, perfectly.

CENTURY CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2005--Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment:

-- From the Hollywood Hills to the Austrian Alps: DVD Features A Few Favorite Things And Much, Much More, Including A New Retrospective Documentary, Unsung Archival Footage, Cast Commentary, And Four Featurettes Produced Exclusively For This Release

-- 2-Disc Anniversary Edition Launching Worldwide -- Single Disc Sing-Along Version to Also be Released Internationally

Twentieth Century Fox climbed every mountain, forged every stream and created the definitive DVD version of the OSCAR(R)-winning film, "THE SOUND OF MUSIC," releasing worldwide beginning this November -- November 15th in the U.S. The 2-disc 40th Anniversary Edition DVD brings together the entire cast for the first time in twenty years to mark this important celebration with new memories of the making of this timeless family classic. In addition to the 2-disc set, a single disc Sing-Along version will also be available internationally. Winner of five Academy Awards(R) including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Music, Best Film Editing and Best Sound, the beloved "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" was produced and directed by Robert Wise ("West Side Story," "The Day The Earth Stood Still"). It chronicles the real-life story of the seven von Trapp children and their widowed father (Christopher Plummer -- "A Beautiful Mind"), and the free-spirited governess (Julie Andrews) who brings music and joy back into their lives. "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" 40th Anniversary Edition DVD will be available for $26.98 U.S./$37.98 Canada. Pre-book is October 19.

Julie Andrews serves as host of the 40th Anniversary Edition DVD, which features several hours of all-new documentary material created especially for this milestone, presented by arrangement with The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, and produced by Emmy Award nominee Michael Kantor (PBS' "Broadway: The American Musical"). Viewers are taken from the Hollywood Hills to the Austrian Alps and along the way will get to hear the fascinating story behind "THE SOUND OF MUSIC," as told by Julie Andrews and others; drop in on a warmhearted chat between Andrews and Plummer; travel back to Salzburg with Charmian Carr (Liesl) to revisit the movie's locales; join all seven of the children in a boisterous family reunion; and even tag along to an unforgettable "sing-a-long" Sound of Music at the Hollywood Bowl.

Disc one of the set offers two ways to view the film -- the fully restored original theatrical feature and a brand new interactive version with a Sing-Along function allowing viewers to watch, listen and sing-along, based on the wildly popular internationally touring show. Disc two is fully loaded with several hours of all-new special features and bonus materials.

-- All-new -- "My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers" -- Julie Andrews recalls the von Trapp family, and how their true-life story became a Broadway triumph and a Hollywood legend; she is joined by Christopher Plummer, Johannes von Trapp, Charmian Carr, director Robert Wise and others, plus rarely-seen footage and a few surprises. (63:00)

-- All-new -- "Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer: A Reminiscence" -- They fell in love on screen 40 years ago, and have been dear friends ever since. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer sit down for an intimate fireside chat. (20:00)

-- All-new -- "On Location With The Sound Of Music" featurette -- Salzburg, Austria is one of the stars of the film, and in this travelogue, Charmian Carr takes us back to that magical city to revisit the locales made famous in the film. (23:00)

-- All-new -- From "Liesl To Gretl: A 40th Anniversary Reunion" -- 40 years ago they forged a bond that has never been broken; all seven of the von Trapp "children" reunite in this touching, hilarious and even revelatory family reunion. (34:00).

-- All-new -- "When You Know The Notes To Sing" -- You have to see it to believe it: 18,000 people at the Hollywood Bowl, singing with Julie, cheering the children and hissing the villains; the Sing-a-Long-Sound of Music phenomenon is a worldwide event, but no place does it quite like the Hollywood Bowl. And the winner of the highly coveted costume contest...? (13:00)

-- "The von Trapp Family: Harmony & Discord" -- This 1998 A&E Biography tells the true story of the von Trapp family, immortalized in "The Sound of Music." (50:00)

The state-of-the-art DVD is presented in a widescreen format and features English 5.0 Surround, as well as Spanish Mono and French Surround sound and Spanish subtitles.

Share the magical, heartwarming, true-life story that has become the most popular family film of all time -- Rodgers and Hammerstein's "THE SOUND OF MUSIC." Julie Andrews lights up the screen as Maria, the spirited young woman who leaves the convent to become governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp, an autocratic widower whose strict household rules leave no room for music and merriment.

A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on VHS and DVD, as well as video acquisitions and original productions. Each year the Company introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets -- from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce -- throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

DVD Price: $26.98 U.S./$37.98 Canada
Street Date: November 15, 2005
Prebook Date: October 19, 2005
Total Running Time: 174 minutes
DVD Catalog Number: 2230838
U.S. Rating NR
Canadian Rating: N/A
Closed Captioned: Yes
Contacts
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Dorrit Ragosine, 310-369-2260
Steve Feldstein, 310-369-5369
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Jean Levicki, 310-369-5592
Marla Rothschild, 310-369-5827

Its director was the editor of "Citizen Kane." Its screenwriter was the author of "North by Northwest." Its composers were the most successful songwriting team in American theater history. And "The Sound of Music" was the movie that everybody hated but the people.

Christopher Plummer, Captain von Trapp himself, is said to have called it "The Sound of Mucus." Robert Wise, the director, worried with Julie Andrews, the eternal Maria Poppins, about what they could do to remove a spoonful (or two) of the schmaltz. Pauline Kael, who would become the reigning film critic of her era, denounced it as "the sugar-coated lie that people seem to want to eat."

And yet. And yet 40 years ago this Memorial Day weekend, "The Sound of Music" was not just the summer movie of 1965. It was the spring, fall and winter one, too, and in inflation-adjusted dollars, it remains the third-biggest-grossing film of all time at the domestic box office, according to Box Office Mojo. It hit the Billboard Top 40 video sales chart shortly after it became one of the first movies ever released on home video in 1979, and still holds the chart's longevity record, of more than 300 weeks and counting.

Twentieth Century Fox plans to release a special 40th-anniversary two-DVD edition in November, with new documentary material (including interviews with Ms. Andrews, other cast members and creators) prepared by Michael Kantor, who directed the PBS series "Broadway: The American Musical" last year.

What explains such colossal success? "It's mainly the script," said Mr. Wise, who will turn 91 in September and once estimated that he had been asked that question an average of twice a week since the film's premiere on March 2, 1965. "It's a family film, nothing more universal."

When Ernest Lehman, the highly regarded screenwriter of movies like "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and "Sweet Smell of Success" told his friend Burt Lancaster that he was working on "The Sound of Music," Lancaster responded, "Jesus, you must need the money!"

But, in hindsight, a compelling case can be made for "The Sound of Music," as the last picture show of its kind, a triumph of craftsmanship and the apogee of the studio system that produced the kind of entertainment that dominated mid-20th-century mass culture. When it opened, it displaced "Gone With the Wind" (by then already 26 years old), as the all-time box-office champion in nominal dollars, a position it held for seven years through Vietnam, assassinations and political turmoil until "The Godfather" knocked it off in 1972.

It was at once the salvation (and very nearly the death knell) of its own studio, rescuing Fox from the financial disaster of "Cleopatra" but also sending the studio in quest of similar surefire successes that wound up as famous failures, like Rex Harrison's "Doctor Dolittle" and "Hello, Dolly!" (It's hard to hold a moonbeam in your hand.)

With its breathtaking Austrian locations and complex outdoor musical sequences, "The Sound of Music," building on Mr. Wise's film of "West Side Story" before it, had the bad luck to liberate the film musical forever from the soundstage-bound conventions that once forced pigeons to fly into painted backdrops in "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," at the very moment that four nightingales from Liverpool were helping to change mass musical taste forever.

A film that was easy to mock as stale and conventional in the wake of the French Nouvelle Vague (and on the brink of "Bonnie and Clyde") is far easier to appreciate now for its old-fashioned gloss and arch performances from silken pros like Eleanor Parker, who played the Baroness with the poise of an early Avedon model; Peggy Wood, the Mother Abbess, who had made her Broadway debut in "Naughty Marietta" in 1910; and Anna Lee, the doughty veteran of the John Ford stock company who played Sister Margaretta.

From the moment on Broadway in 1959 that Mary Martin, the first Maria, sang that her day in the hills had come to an end, critics dismissed "The Sound of Music" as the least original work of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, the men who did more than any other to bring the Broadway musical - arguably America's most original art form, together with jazz - to full flower in path-breaking works like "Oklahoma!" "Carousel" and their Pulitzer Prize-winning "South Pacific."

"Not only too sweet for words but almost too sweet for music," Walter Kerr wrote in The New York Herald Tribune.

But from the very beginning, the public lapped it up. Ms. Kael lost her job as movie critic for McCall's after her infamous panning, and the film has since survived innumerable television reruns (Ronald Reagan once skipped reading an economic-summit briefing book to watch it), cast reunions and high-camp "Rocky Horror"-style sing-alongs that began in London in 1999, with audience members dressed as brown-paper packages and tea with jam and bread.

The first major Austrian production of the stage version (quite different from the film) is now playing at Vienna's venerable Volksoper, where it has received no better than mixed reviews but immense popular acclaim. Worldwide, "The Sound of Music" alternates with "Oklahoma!" as the most-produced Rodgers and Hammerstein property, and even an informal tally would suggest that, over all, it has been the most profitable, said Bert Fink, a spokesman for the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization in New York.

One of the main achievements of Mr. Lehman's screenplay was to discard some of the lesser songs from the Broadway production, and re-order others, including "My Favorite Things" (which was sung onstage to Maria by the Mother Abbess, not by Maria to the von Trapp kids during a thunderstorm) and "Do-Re-Mi," which was sung the moment Maria met the children, not all over Salzburg in a still-thrilling sequence painstakingly worked out by Mr. Wise and Saul Chaplin, a veteran Hollywood music director and the movie's associate producer.

"Nobody has the magic wand, or there'd be movies like this done all the time," said Ted Chapin, president of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, who estimates that anniversary-related activities surrounding "The Sound of Music" have occupied more than 90 percent of his time in the last two months. "In retrospect, it's a very good story, with very good tunes. The score doesn't really sound like a score written by 60-year-old men. There's a kind of youthfulness and honesty to the songs, about how to learn music, but also how to break down barriers. It doesn't sound like someone's trying to phony something up."

"Whom could it offend?" she asked in her famous McCall's drubbing. "Only those of us who, despite the fact that we may respond, loathe being manipulated."

Forty years and a lot less innocence later, in the era of film as theme-park thrill ride and prepackaged comic-book sequel, a little artful manipulation seems a small enough price, and "The Sound of Music" a big enough blessing. Let it bloom and grow.

April 28, 2005, Daily Variety by Army Archerd
Posted: Wed., Apr. 27, 2005, 5:02pm PT
Disneyland turns 50

GOOD MORNING: Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland will undergo a golden transformation between the hours of 10 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m. Thursday. That's when Julie Andrews, worldwide ambassador for the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, will push a button launching the 50th anniversary global celebration of Disneyland. Bob Iger makes the opening remarks followed by Art Linkletter, who was on hand for the opening 50 years ago. Following will be live feeds from the parks in Japan, Hong Kong and Paris (with Gerard Depardieu) and Wayne Brady from Disneyworld in Florida and Kermit the Frog from the Disney cruise ship. Next, Michael Eisner welcomes and intros Andrews. I spoke with Julie about her relationship with Walt which dated back to her stand in "Camelot" on B'way in 1961. He came backstage and offered her the role in "Mary Poppins." "But I'm pregnant," she said. "We'll wait," Walt told her. And the rest is history. She says, "Who knew this visionary man with pixie dust in his pocket and a sparkle in his eye would change the life of this then 27-year-old forever more." But she didn't work for Disney again for 40 years -- in "The Princess Diaries." Julie did an extra on-camera stint for Disney in the two-disc "Mary Poppins" DVD in which she filmed the P.L. Travers short, "The Cat That Looked at a King." The success of this DVD has resulted in Julie doing a ditto double DVD , this one for Fox on "Sound of Music's " 40th anni with a scene to be shot with Christopher Plummer and children ... Disneyland's 50th anni edition DVD "Disneyland: Then, Now and Forever" includes 50 interviews hosted by Julie. Here are a few: Diane, Ron, Roy E. Disney, Eisner, Richard Cook and George Lucas.

Julie Andrews will co-host a tribute to composer Richard Rogers. Who better to host a tribute to the late, great musical-theater composer Richard Rodgers than the stars of the most beloved film adaptation of a Rodgers work?

That was obviously the logic behind tapping Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews, who played the Captain and Maria von Trapp in the 1965 movie The Sound of Music, to act as master and mistress of ceremonies at The Richard Rodgers Centennial - A Juilliard Celebration.

The show, which takes place Monday night at Manhattan's Juilliard Theater, is among a wide array of events commemorating the 100th anniversary of Rodgers' birth this year. It is also a benefit for the Juilliard School, the world-famous performing arts conservatory once known as the Institute for Music and Art, where a young Rodgers studied music theory in the 1920s.

Rodgers later served on Juilliard's Board of Trustees, as does his daughter, composer and arts advocate Mary Rodgers Guettel, who recently completed her tenure as board chairwoman and also will be honored this evening.

Andrews and Plummer, who reunited last year for a live TV presentation based on the 1981 film On Golden Pond, will be joined on stage by such theater, screen and cabaret stars as Glenn Close, Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald, Michael Hayden, Karen Ziemba, Michael Feinstein and Elaine Stritch.

The Juilliard Orchestra and dance students from the school are set to lend their talents as well.

"Chris and I will just be weaving our way through the evening," says Andrews, whose easy rapport with Plummer is apparent during a phone conversation with both veteran performers.

Andrews, who made her name in this country as a star of Broadway musicals, has a more extensive history with Richard Rodgers' music than Plummer, who is better known for the non-singing stage roles that recently earned him the Roundabout Theatre Company's inaugural Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre. But Plummer insists that long before he was cast as Captain von Trapp, he had been a fan of Rodgers' collaborations with both Sound of Music lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II and earlier partner Lorenz Hart.

"Of all the composers of musicals, Dick Rodgers seemed to have the most musicality," Plummer notes. "And there was this sort of deeper humanity to what he did." Andrews concurs: "His melodies are just exquisite. And I guess he wrote the bulk of the great Broadway music for Broadway's golden era."

But Andrews adds that she is looking forward to tonight's benefit "as much to see Christopher as to host the evening." Though she and Plummer had not worked together professionally in the 36 years between The Sound of Music and On Golden Pond, the two would always "bump into each other from time to time," Andrews says. "Certainly, the affection between us has never gone away."