“The Sound of Music” is a beloved 1965 musical about Maria, a governess who looks after a family full of children who ends up falling in love with their widowed dad, Captain von Trapp. The film has captivated millions of viewers over the years, but this quiz will challenge even the most die-hard fans to remember every scene and every song in the beloved musical film.
“The Sound of Music” is a beloved 1965 musical about Maria, a governess who looks after a family full of children who ends up falling in love with their widowed dad, Captain von Trapp. The film has captivated millions of viewers over the years, but this quiz will challenge even the most die-hard fans to remember every scene and every song in the beloved musical film.
The film featured seven children with Liesl being the oldest and Gretl being the youngest. But in real life, Captain von Trapp and Maria had three more kids than the movie showed.
Maria took the kids on a boat ride on the lake. By the time they returned to the villa, they were greeted by Captain von Trapp and the Baroness.
The Baroness is named Elsa von Schraeder. She was a rich woman who got engaged to Captain von Trapp but ultimately got Maria to come back to the abbey. She was played by actress Eleanor Parker.
The von Trapps narrowly escaped from soldiers and headed to the Swiss border by car. Then, they walked across the Swiss Alps to Switzerland where they ultimately found safety.
After taking them to the hills in Salzburg, Maria taught the von Trapp kids the basic notes of the musical scale. In time, they learned how to sing along.
“The Sound of Music” won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing, and Best Music. That made a total of five Oscars that were won for the making of this musical.
Producers were initially reluctant to hire Julie Andrews for “The Sound of Music” because they didn’t think that she was the right fit. Then Walt Disney showed them some post-production clips of “Mary Poppins” and they were convinced.
The Captain freaked out when he got orders that told him he must report to the German naval base. So, he told his family that they must leave Austria right away. But the German soldiers caught them during his first escape attempt.
Captain Georg von Trapp eventually came to terms with the fact that he loved Maria. So, he ended his engagement to the Baroness and tied the knot with Maria.
Max entered the kids into the Salzburg Festival without Georg’s permission. The only reason the newlyweds learned the truth about this was because their honeymoon trip got cut short after learning that Austria was annexed.
After dancing with the captain, she tried to suppress her romantic feelings by leaving the villa and going to the abbey. Eventually, Mother Abbess convinced Maria to return to the von Trapp family.
Although Christopher Plummer initially sang the songs in the film, producers decided to dub all of his songs during post-production. So, the voice audiences heard came from singer Bill Lee.
While filming the song “Sixteen Going On Seventeen,” Carr, who was really 21, fell through the gazebo’s glass and hurt her ankle. In the scene, her bandage is covered up by make-up.
Nicholas Hammond, who played Friedrich, went from 5 ft. 3 in. to 5 ft. 9 in. during the six-month shooting period. But since Friedrich was shorter than Liesl but taller than Louisa, producers had to ask him to remove his shoes and actress Charmian Carr had to stand on a box while standing beside him.
“The Sound of Music” is set in the year 1938 in Austria right before the Nazis invaded the country. In fact, despite the cheerful singing and dancing, the entire movie deals with the impending invasion.
Maria used her creative skills to turn a bunch of old curtains into play clothes for the kids. Then she asked them to wear the clothes so they could enjoy hanging out in the hills and the mountains in Salzburg.
Although nuns are not supposed to interfere in such matters, they loved the von Trapps so much that they removed the engine parts from the German soldiers’ cars so that the family could escape.
Despite their ups and downs, Captain von Trapp and Maria were finally able to get married at the cathedral at Nonnberg Abbey. Both the nuns and the children were present for the ceremony and they all sang “Maria.”
The real-life von Trapps didn’t end up going to the Swiss Alps. They simply got on a train to Italy to escape the situation in Austria.
Captain von Trapp sang the song “Edelweiss” with Liesl and the rest of the kids, which is also the name of a flower. Sadly, this song was the last one written by lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II before he died in 1960.
In the film, George von Trapp was a retired naval officer who held the rank of Captain. But the real George von Trapp earned the Austrian noble title of “Ritter.”
Although the von Trapps were Austro-Hungarian and spoke German in real life, most of the film is set in the Austrian city of Salzburg, which borders Germany and offers a terrific view of the Eastern Alps.
“The Sound of Music” was composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein’s final collaboration. But before this film, they had worked on other projects like “The King and I” and “South Pacific.”
The Captain raised his kids using strict military discipline ever since his wife passed away. So, with a whistle, he called them to him and the kids always rushed right over.
At the 2015 Academy Awards, Lady Gaga performed a medley of the film’s soundtrack and wowed the crowd with her vocal chops. But the singer had no idea that Julie Andrews was in the audience until she came on stage after the performance.
In the scene where Maria and Captain von Trapp are in the gazebo, the lights above them were making rude noises, which caused Julie Andrews to giggle. Left with no other choice, the film’s director turned the lights off and the entire scene was shot in silhouette.
The actor who played Captain von Trapp despised the film so much that he often dubbed the film “The Sound of Mucus.” “Because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey,” he said. He got so depressed that he overate and gained weight during production.
When the rowboat overturned, Maria and the kids fell into the lake. Julie Andrews was supposed to fall forward and rescue Gretl, but Andrews fell backwards and couldn’t get to 5-year-old actress Kym Karath. So, she went under and swallowed a bunch of water during filming.
“This was a jet helicopter,” Julie Andrews said. “And the down draft from those jets was so strong that every time… the helicopter circled around me, the down draft just flattened me into the grass. And I mean flattened.”
The character was played by actress Angela Cartwright, who went on to star in television projects like “Lost in Space” and “The Danny Thomas Show.”
Actress Julie Andrews learned how to play the guitar for the musical. So, when audiences saw Maria whip out her guitar and play while she sang, it was actually Andrews’ playing the guitar.
The film was based off of the play and the memoir, but it wasn’t completely accurate. For starters, the family had ten kids, not seven. Also, the real Maria von Trapp was a tutor for one of the kids, she was not the governess to all of them.
Maria sings the song “My Favorite Things,” which lists some of the things she likes to think of whenever she’s feeling down. According to the song, she loves "whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens."
Maria was staying at the Nonnberg Abbey to become a nun. But she ran into some problems with the other nuns and was sent away to be a governess for the von Trapp children.
Governesses came and went at the von Trapp villa thanks to the horrible pranks the kids pulled on them. But the kids were only doing it to get their dad’s attention. Unfortunately, he was always busy with work.
Although the film only had a couple of main characters, there were actually 4,500 extras used over the course of five months of filming over 80 scenes.
During the villa’s grand party, the Captain noticed Maria teaching Kurt the Landler folk dance. So, he walked on over and started dancing with Maria to show the kids how it’s done. But it didn't take long for everyone to realize these two were meant for each other.
“The Sound of Music” is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp and the 1959 play. It turns out that Maria and the von Trapp clan were real and they lived in Austria. They also loved music.
There are seven von Trapp kids in all. As the governess, Maria had a tough time remembering all of their names. But as the bond between them grew, she eventually memorized all of their names.
“The Sound of Music” was shot in the 20th Century Fox studios in California and also in Salzburg, Austria between the months of March and September in the year 1964.
20th Century Fox was on the verge of bankruptcy after making the 1963 film “Cleopatra.” Thankfully, “The Sound of Music” was a major success for the film studio and saved it financially by becoming the third-highest-grossing movie in film history.
The runtime of the film is 2 hours and 55 minutes. It’s considered one of the longest running classic movies ever made because today’s standards limit the length of movies to about 1 hour and 30 minutes or 2 hours maximum, although some movies still break these standards.
Captain von Trapp had forbidden his kids from singing or laughing at home after his wife’s death. Then, Maria walked into their lives and started teaching the kids how to sing. And for the first time in years, the Captain sang, too.
In the beginning, Maria was still figuring things out as the new governess of the von Trapp family. So, when she prayed for the kids before going to bed, she accidentally forgot Kurt’s name.
Mother Abbess was played by actress Peggy Wood. The character was a German nun who ran the Nonnberg Abbey. She felt that Maria was better suited for the role of a governess than a nun, so she set her loose on a path towards her happy ending.
The von Trapps took shelter in the abbey, specifically the cemetery crypt where Mother Abbess hid them. By the time the soldiers arrived, the family had already driven off in the caretaker’s vehicle.
Maria’s wedding train was 14 feet long. And over the years, brides have often looked to the dress that actress Julie Andrews wore in the film for inspiration.
Maria von Trapp released her 1949 memoir, “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,” to earn some money for her family because her husband had lost his battle with lung cancer. She also wanted to give her kids’ singing careers a boost.
While Maria was chatting with the von Trapp kids, Kurt confessed that he hadn’t had as much fun with his siblings since the day they put glue on Governess Fräulein Josephine’s toothbrush.
The filmmakers had originally thought of using “The Singing Heart” as the film’s working title. But after some serious thought, they decided to rename it “The Sound of Music.”