On March 2, 1965, the film adaptation of the 1959 stage musical The Sound of Music premiered in New York. The story began with Maria von Trapp’s 1949 memoir, which was adapted for a 1956 German film. Paramount bought the rights for an English remake with Audrey Hepburn. After they dropped their option, studio exec Vincent J. Donehue proposed making a musical with Mary Martin. Stage producers Richard Halliday and Leland Heyward hired librettists Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and songwriters Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and the musical opened Nov. 16, 1959. It ran on Broadway for 1,443 performances and won six Tonys, including Best Musical. In 1960, 20th Century Fox purchased the film rights and hired Ernest Lehman to write the screenplay. Below is the original trailer.
Also hired for the creative team were Robert Wise (director, producer), Irwin Kostal (music direction), Ted McCord (cinematography), William H. Reynolds (editing), Boris Leven (production design), Ruby Levitt and Walter M. Scott (set decoration), Dorothy Jeakins (costumes), and Bil & Cora Baird (puppets).
The cast included Julie Andrews (Maria), Christopher Plummer (Captain von Trapp, sung by Bill Lee), Eleanor Parker (Elsa), Richard Haydn (Max), and Peggy Wood (Mother Abbess), with Charmian Carr (Liesl), Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich), Heather Menzies (Louisa), Duane Chase (Kurt), Angela Cartwright (Brigitta), Debbie Turner (Marta), and Kym Karath (Gretl). The real Maria von Trapp had a brief uncredited cameo (at 1:50 in “I Have Confidence”), which you can watch below.
Rehearsals began Feb. 10, 1964, with choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. Filming started Mar. 26, 1964, in Los Angeles and continued in Salzburg until September 1. The film premiered Mar. 2, 1965, and reviews were mixed. New York Times critic Bosley Crowther called it “romantic nonsense and sentiment,” and McCall’s critic Pauline Kael “the sugar-coated lie people seem to want to eat.” While, L.A. Times critic Philip K. Scheuer found it “three hours of visual and vocal brilliance,” and Variety “magnificently mounted and with a brilliant cast.”
Despite the reviews, the film was incredibly popular. It spent 41 weeks atop the U.S. box office and four and a half years in initial release. By November 1966, it had become the highest-grossing film of all-time, a title it held for 24 years. The film was nominated for 10 Oscars and won five, including Best Picture. In 1998, AFI named The Sound of Music as the #4 movie musical of the century. Below is the full title song sequence.
Lehman had rearranged the musical’s sequence of songs, eliminating two for Elsa and Max, and Wise asked Rodgers for a more romantic number to replace “An Ordinary Couple” and a new song for Maria’s departure from the abbey. Rodgers supplied “Something Good” and “I Have Confidence.” The soundtrack hit #1 on Billboard’s album chart and remained in the Top Ten for a record 109 weeks and 238 weeks overall. AFI’s “100 Years …100 Songs” list included three songs from the film: “The Sound of Music” at #10, “My Favorite Things” at #64, and “Do-Re-Mi” at #88 (which you can watch below). In 2018, the Library of Congress selected the album for its National Recording Registry.
https://youtu.be/nhLE3UDAnGw
In 1966, American Express created the first Sound of Music guided tour in Salzburg, which Panorama Tours has led since 1972. The first sing-along revival screening was in London during 1999, leading to a 20-year run at the Prince Charles Cinema and sing-along shows across the U.S., some attended by original cast members. In 2001, the Library of Congress selected the film for its National Film Registry, and the Academy Film Archive preserved the film in 2003.