THE SOUND OF MUSIC!

There have been two occasions since I began this feature, "Friday Movie Suggestion Night" where real-life circumstances led me to subordinate "staying on schedule" to doing what was right and posting something more urgent as I've done (FMSN ordinarily appears on Thursdays). I have no idea as to whatever "following" we have in this little corner of the blog world, just as I never did when I hosted a weekend radio Music Magazine long ago. But then as now, I have attempted to combine a balance with selections that alternately fit a series of circumstances, and of course I enjoy the unpredictable. So, one never really knows what to expect here!

_____

This week began slowly with Memorial Day, and I suspect a bit of a shock mixed with melancholia at my decision to republish my dear friend and Guest Denny Shane on another blog feature of mine, "THE INTERVIEW". Ultimately, the arrival of my new friends The Gillespie Family from Kentucky to Arizona where their son Gunner (see my 05/12/08 Blog Post) is receiving cancer treatment and the posting of fellow Caringbridge patient Trevor Tredaway just yesterday led me to select "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" as our feature for this week. Let me just add that one of my most endearing posts, "A Character Named Andre' " that some of you may remember (see my August 3, 2005 Blog Post) fits prominently into this weeks selection, as Andre was a Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma patient and one of my best friends in life. This is merely an explanation of how my mind operates! I've always loved Julie Andrews and her career is unrivaled for the variety of roles she has played--and continues playing--(including those where real-life husband Blake Edwards cast her--each role a delight). More than a year ago she was reunited with Christopher Plummer in a legendary "live" television stage broadcast of "On Golden Pond". Now to our movie.

_____

Filmed and directed by Robert Wise, who worked non-stop on the films: "The Sand Pebbles" (1959), "West Side Story" (1961), "The Great Escape" (1963) and later "The Sound of Music" (1965), this is the worldwide beloved musical featuring composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse of the real-life events of Maria Von Trapp's memoir, "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers". The original Broadway production opened in 1959 and was the final musical project of Rodgers and Hammerstein. While certain liberties were undertaken for the film, Maria von Trapp is said to have loved the Broadway play, but she hated the movie. Inspired by a 1956 German film about the Trapp Family Singers, stage director Vincent Donohue thought that the play was a perfect fit for the late actress Mary Martin. Believe it or not, my late friend Andre', who owned a limousine company in Texas, came to know Mary Martin from his days as her limo driver in Switzerland and she became a dear friend of his. Mary later became a regular client of Andre' in Texas before he and I became good pals. Mary Martin, by the way, is the mother of actor Larry Hagman of television's "I Dream of Jeannie" and later "Dallas". I actually met Hagman and Patrick Duffy on a shooting location in Dallas, Texas. But I digress. You may not know this, but originally "The Sound of Music" was not slated to become either a musical or a film. Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (real-life husband of Mary Martin) envisioned a non-musical play with music from The Trapp Family Singers. But ultimately all new music was added. The play was not well received by critics and this led Martin to make the comment it was nevertheless "a triumph over the critics"--something we all should remember in our own worthy life endeavors that meet resistance from morons. I like that phrase: "A Triumph Over the Critics". HA! Very defiant, isn't is? Okay, fast forward to 1965 and a number of songs from both the musical and particularly the movie went on to become standards. They include "The Sound of Music", "Edelweiss", "My Favorite Things", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain", and "Do-Re-Mi".

_____

The role of Sister Maria (Julie Andrews) involves a young girl who dreamed of becoming a nun from childhood. However, reality has a way of revealing that not all is as it would seem, and a rebellious streak finds Maria in conflict with the convent. When a widowed Naval Captain, Baronness George Von Trapp requests a governess to watch his seven rowdy children who have run off several other governesses, Maria is given a reprieve from life at the convent and finds that she has stepped into a household of children whose widower grieving father rules them with the same discipline he uses on his naval ship. Unlike the previous governesses, Maria recognizes that the seven children only need love to change their mistrusting behavior, and she uses her love of music to create bond with them. Through her love, the children learn to find joy in the smallest things --from raindrops on the window panes to life waiting to the beauty of the outdoors. Baron Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) is a case study in a hardened man who is a pill for Maria. However, the Captain learns to open his heart to feelings he had forgotten through Maria's love of music and its power to transform the children's lives and their own. As the two gradually fall in love, their world is threatened by the 1938 Nazi takeover of Austria, and their demands that Captain von Trapp assume a position in the German Navy. A great film! ACADEMY AWARD WINNER, 1966: Best Director: Robert Wise; Best Film Editing: William Reynolds; Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment; Irwin Kostal; Best Picture: Robert Wise; Best Sound: James Corcoran and Fred Hynes; Best Actress in a Leading Role: Julie Andrews; Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Peggy Wood. Writing credits: Howard Lindsay (book) & Russel Crouse (book); Screenplay: Ernest Lehman; Maria von Trapp (book: "The Story of the Trapp Family Singers".

___

The Cast: Julie Andrews is Maria; Christopher Plummer is Captain Von Trapp; Eleanor Parker is The Baroness; Peggy Wood is Mother Abbess; Charmian Carr is Liesl; Heather Menzies is Louisa; Nicholas Hammond is Friedrich; Duane Chase is Kurt; Angela Cartwright is Brigitta; Debbie Turner is Marta and Kym Karath is Gretl.

_____
ENJOY!