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Episode 4 - The Sound of Music
152 Plays4 days ago
It has been sixty years since the release of "The Sound of Music". In Conversing Cinema, Deepak Mahaan shares his views as to why the film has captivated audiences for decades and remains a favourite with all ages. Relive the magic of a film that is Cheerfully Bright!
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Transcript
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello, welcome to Convassing Cinema, a podcast by Deepak Mahan, and my friend, Julian Coldrick. It's been a pretty long time since we...
00:00:32
Speaker
and somehow or the other we have not been able to get together to collaborate and make another podcast. A few days ago we were chatting on phone and it just happened that I realized that The Sound of Music has been 60 years since it was last released in March 1965.
00:00:52
Speaker
And immediately Julian asked me that I should do a podcast single-handedly and share. my views about the film, The Sound of Music.
00:01:04
Speaker
First of all, I must confess that it happens to be one of my favorite films. ah To me, it is an extraordinary film because it is a simple story told in a very spellbinding manner.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I'm sure that most people would agree that this and a few other movies can always find a place in the all-time favorites list of most people.
00:01:27
Speaker
And despite the fact that it has been 60 years since it was first released, The Sound of Music still remains as a supreme model of a marvelous entertainer. Fascinating is that the film is able to please younger generations down the years as easily as it thrilled our senses when we saw it in the 60s.
00:01:49
Speaker
And that to me is a affirmation of my long-held belief that to remain a joy forever, creative art has to be simple in execution but extremely sublime and significant in content. Difficult to say what makes the sound of music tick with the audiences of all ages and all times. But from my Humble erudition and understanding. The deduction is that the first and the foremost is that the name in itself has a great attraction.
00:02:20
Speaker
It has a lyrical magnetism to it. The sound of music. Thereafter, the story has an overpowering charm. Kind of blows you away. if you have certain prejudices and biases, they're all knocked out.
00:02:34
Speaker
And the film is gradually able to carve out a place in your heart. ah No doubt it has spectacular visuals, some pleasing performances, ah very great musical score.
00:02:48
Speaker
To me, it seems that the overriding reason for its eternal appeal is that it has the ability to kindle love, hope, faith in almost every bosom.
00:03:02
Speaker
Since it spreads a ray of cheer, I personally feel sound of music is nothing but cheerful brightness. Please do not confuse this brightness of the sound of music with the synthetic goodness that we keep coming across in lots of Indian and Hollywood films.
00:03:23
Speaker
No. This brightness is the liveliness that permeates every frame during the entire exposition of the event-driven story, which I feel, if it had been directed by incompetent director, then it would have been relegated to being a tear-jerker.
00:03:41
Speaker
Because of the capable hands and baton of director Robert Wise, The film appeals to most viewers. And why not? Because Robert Dwight is always considered connecting with audiences as the prime motive of filmmaking.
00:03:56
Speaker
Now, if you have this kind of an ideal, obviously, you are going to be a very, very good communicator because you wish to establish a relationship with your audiences.
00:04:08
Speaker
And I'm not surprised that the male lead of the film, Christopher Plummer, who played Captain Von Trapp, He said that Robert Wise has to be credited for not letting the film fall into a sea of triacl.
00:04:25
Speaker
You'd be surprised that Wise was not the first choice as the director for this film. The project was first offered to the great William Wyler, who refused to adapt the 1959 Broadway musical, The Story of the Trap Family Singers.
00:04:43
Speaker
That musical did not excite him enough. And mind you, The Story of the Trap Family Singers had been penned by Maria Wontrapp. the nun who journeyed from a nunnery in Salzburg in Austria to the mansion of a retired naval officer and a widower, Captain Wontrak, just to be a governess to his seven children.
00:05:06
Speaker
And the story is how she wins the affections of the children and their father through her abiding passion for music as well as ah great inspiration empathy and affection in her heart for all things human.
00:05:23
Speaker
Of course, the writer Ernest Lemon who penned the screenplay has made a liberal use of fact and fiction. But what it has done is it has provided the film its winning formula.
00:05:38
Speaker
And the escape of the trapped family from Nazi forces is the final icing on the cake in terms of the climax. In reality, the family actually went to Italy quite peacefully without any hassles.
00:05:50
Speaker
That exactly and precisely is the point of a good movie. It presents the mundane in a spellbinding manner so as to make the audiences ask for more. And we do know that greater the willing suspension of disbelief in a viewer, greater is the triumph of storytelling.
00:06:08
Speaker
Robert Wise was not just wise in his surname, but he was also wisdom personified. With his acumen, his immaculate planning, story design, perfect casting of Julie Andrews in the main role, he gave the film a beautiful dramatic sheen whereby the movie became a spectacular entertainment on screen. Many suggested to Robert Wise to go to Audrey Hepburn, but he didn't. Mind you, for those of us who saw films in the unhurried times, watching those images in the dark hall was akin to witnessing a miracle because the joys and sorrows of those characters on screen became our own.
00:06:53
Speaker
I have always held that movies have a destiny of their own. As I told you, first, Robert Wise, was not offered the directorship.
00:07:06
Speaker
The film was actually offered to William Wyler. He rejected it. One of the greatest mistakes done in film history was by Paramount Studios. They rejected the script straight away because they could not align with the vision of Lehman.
00:07:23
Speaker
Those who have experienced the magic of the sound of music, they know that It captivates everyone. And it has done so since decades now.
00:07:34
Speaker
The journey of Maria, the spirited young woman who became the governess for the Van Trapp family and finally their mother as well as the wife of Captain Van Trapp.
00:07:49
Speaker
The story of her transforming their lives with her love and music is said so beautifully in Austria. And the songs are so iconic. And the film has such heartwarming moments that all those things stay with you for a very, very long time.
00:08:06
Speaker
Obviously, Paramount and William Wyler had never thought that this would be so. When Fox took it over and hired Ernest Lemon to write the screenplay, Lemon, in his earnestness, wanted William Wyler to make it.
00:08:22
Speaker
But he realized after some time, that Weiler did not have his heart in the project. And that is why he secretly sent the script to Robert Weiss. I was talking about the destiny of the film.
00:08:34
Speaker
Robert Wise at that moment was facing delays in his other project and when in September 1963 he came across this script of The Sound of Music, he was immediately attracted and immediately he accepted. a lot of credit for the polishing of the script also goes to Wise because he kind of toned down the sentimentality And it is to him that the credit goes for picking up Christopher Plummer.
00:09:06
Speaker
Mind you, Fox had considered Bing Crosby, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Ewell Bryna. But right from the beginning, Robert Wise was in favour of Christopher Plummer, who was at that time a well-known theatre actor in England.
00:09:21
Speaker
Despite several messages sent to Plummer to do the film... Plummer rejected the offer on each and every occasion. And finally, it took wise to fly down to London, meet the actor.
00:09:37
Speaker
And after he had explained his entire vision, it was only then that Plummer finally agreed to do the film. And yet, of course, ah they also reworked the character in the script. As per Plummer's inputs, they made the character...
00:09:53
Speaker
a little more forceful, with a little wry sense of humor. And everything now, in hindsight, does seem that things did fall in place and everything went right.
00:10:08
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And that is why One Trap 2 became a very plausible as well as pleasing character for the audiences. Now, once again, as about that destiny, many people...
00:10:24
Speaker
auditioned Mia Farrow, Patty Duke, Terry Gaird, Kurt Russell, the Osmonds, all of them auditioned but did not get cast in the film. And mind you, a lady, Charmin Carr, who played Liesel in the film, was ah part-time worker in a doctor's clinic.
00:10:43
Speaker
She had no acting ambitions, but Wise just saw one photograph of her and he immediately wanted her. And she got the part. But in spite of such a resounding success as The Sound of Music, she did only one TV pilot, sort of a guest appearance. And after The Sound of Music, she quit acting in 1966 and retired forever.
00:11:06
Speaker
Now, this is what certainly is Dame Luck smiling upon certain chosen few. So one has to give credit to oh Max Brewe and D.D. Wood who choreographed the actors.
00:11:24
Speaker
Then you also have to give great credit to... the music director Richard Rodgers and the lyric writer Oscar Hammerstein II.
00:11:36
Speaker
Because many of the songs from The Sound of Music like Doremi, My Favorite Things, Edelweiss and the title song The Sound of Music have a now become eternal favourites of music lovers around the world.
00:11:53
Speaker
So not surprising that this film... went on to break many records in terms of box office profits, in terms of awards, in terms of the gross earnings. According to the Guinea Book of Records, if you adjust for inflation, it is the sixth highest grossing movie ever, almost about $2.98 billion. dollars And mind you, it was so well received that it stayed in the cinema theatres for almost four years and it held the number one position for 30 weeks out of the first 43 weeks.
00:12:30
Speaker
So that speaks volumes about how and why this film was liked by the people. Actually, on this particular day, of March 2025, when speaking,
00:12:40
Speaker
twenty twenty five and i'm speaking This very day in 1964, the filming began Fox Lot Studios in Los Angeles. And thereafter, the film shooting went on to various places in Salzburg, Austria, and other places in the country.
00:12:58
Speaker
Almost about 83 scenes were wrapped up in the course of five months. And the film was wrapped up in September 1964. I have always held that...
00:13:11
Speaker
Great movies have a way of influencing our lives with their extraordinary images, remarkable stories. But the greatest of movies go far beyond that and become a part of us.
00:13:26
Speaker
Call it nostalgia or the genius of wise and layman. The sound of music does make us collectively sigh a hundred times as it made so many of us smile with the Trap family.
00:13:41
Speaker
So irrespective of Academy Awards, box office collections or other shortcomings, The sound of music for me will always remain an adorable film because it gives us faith in miracles of love.
00:13:55
Speaker
And after all, what would be our life if we were deprived of faith in the goodness of love? See you soon with another edition of the podcast. Till then, be happy, keep smiling.
00:14:08
Speaker
Thank you from me, Deepak Mahan.
00:14:12
Speaker
You've been listening to Conversing Cinema with Deepak Mahan and me, Julian Caldery. We'd love to hear from you. If you have any questions or comments, you can email us at podcast at conversing cinema dot I am.
00:14:27
Speaker
Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review or rating and most importantly, share us with your friends. Conversing cinema is produced and edited by Julian Caldry and Deepak Mahan.
00:14:38
Speaker
Music is by Deepak Mahan. See you next time.