The James Jerome Hill will always be live with the sound of this most - dear motion-picture show melodic . earlier released in 1965 , the film is the third - highestgrossing movieof all meter , taking inmore than $ 1 billion(adjusted for inflation ) . Here are five things you may not jazz about this classic .
1 . The Critics Originally Hated It
From the get - go , motion-picture fan loved it . Film critics ? Not so much . Apparently , a narration about a youthful conical buoy who acts a governess to seven adorable children and wins the heart of their stern widow Father of the Church set critic ' dentition on sharpness . The New York Times called it " painfully soppy " while Time magazine said it " contains too much dough , too little spice . " Eminent critic Pauline Kael called it " the single most repressive influence on esthetic exemption in picture . " The harsh revaluation allegedly cost her her job at McCall ’s magazine publisher — though she bounced back at The New Yorker .
2 . The actual Maria Was Not so Sweet
Perhaps the critic would have liked it more if the movie had stuck closer to the fact . The real Maria was not as cheery and chipper as the one portrayed by Julie Andrews . Ina 2003 consultation , one of the genuine - life history von Trapp child say her stepmother " had a dreadful temper … And from one moment to the next , you did n’t know what impinge on her . We were not used to this . But we take it like a thunderstorm that would pass , because the next moment she could be very nice . " Maria also throw thing and slammed room access when upset .
3 . The Movie range From the Original Story in Many Other way
The portrait of Maria von Trapp was just one of themany libertiesthe screenwriters remove . To name just a few : The kinsfolk was already musical before she came to remain ; the father was far from the rigid disciplinarian he was present to be ; and Maria did not have it away him when they married . In her autobiography , she write , " I like him but did n’t eff him . However , I loved the tiddler , so in a way I really married the children … [ B]y and by I learned to love him more than I have ever love before or after . "
The phratry also never trekked over the Alps to Switzerland to escape the Nazis . Instead , less picturesquely , they hopped a train to Italy and from there , traveled to America for a singing participation and rest for good .
4 . The Cast Was Living Large at This Shoot
Speaking of evasion , remember the scene at the end of the movie with the family on human foot , making their style to Switzerland , with short Gretl riding on her father ’s back?That was n’t really Gretl . The 5 - year - honest-to-god who played her , Kym Karath , had been living on simoleons since the shoot began ( apparently she hated all the strange solid food ) and had realize quite a bit of weight . She was so heavy that Christopher Plummer ( who depict Capt . von Trapp ) take a firm stand on a lighter body bivalent for the piggyback scene .
Not that he was one to lecture : He ’d attain a lot of weight himself . " I drank so much and ate all those howling Austrian pastries . When I get to shooting , [ director ] Robert Wise said , ' My God , you seem like Orson Welles . ' We had to re - do the costume,“Plummer told Vanity Fair .
5 . The Movie Was a Flop in Austria
perhaps the only country where " The phone of Music " was not a striking was in the nation where it was shot : Austria . In fact , most Austrians have not seen it , according to the BBC . Austrian Georg Steinitz who was an assistant director on the movie , thinks it might have been " too American " for local gustatory modality . " the great unwashed do n’t feel it has much to do with Austria , except for the landscape,“he tell apart the BBC . " We , the Austrian and German member of the gang , mean it would be a fizzle … We were very doubtful . But we were improper . "
Although Austrians have not embraced the film , they ’ve accredit the financial opportunity . Several companies in Salzburg offer term of enlistment where visitors can take in the beautiful positioning where the movie was filmed .
