Hello again fans of the silver screen, my latest 'Movie Memories' article for Lanarkshire Live is dedicated to Ina Purchase, a jolly childhood friend and lifetime fan of 'The Sound of Music'.
The success of the film version of The Sound of Music is nothing short of extraordinary. Produced by Twentieth Century Fox in 1965, it is, by any estimation, the most successful movie musical in history.
Rodgers and Hammerstein were masters in creating musicals in which characters face their own lives, and problems with honesty and clarity. The fact that they wrote five of the world’s most cherished musicals - Oklahoma , Carousel , South Pacific , and The King and I - in addition to their final collaboration, The Sound of Music , is a remarkable achievement in anyone’s book.
Set in the last golden days of the thirties, The Sound of Music is a tuneful, heartwarming story of the Von Trapp family singers; one of the world’s best-known concert groups in the era immediately preceding World War II.
The wonderful music and spectacular Austrian scenery, combined with brilliant performances by a talented cast, are the main sources of the film’s astounding popularity. Produced and directed by Robert Wise, it was the winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
In bringing the classic musical to the screen, Wise was reunited with two of the top talents of his first musical, the multi-award-winning West Side Story (1961); screenwriter Ernest Lehman and art director Boris Leven.
Although Julie Andrews had played Eliza Dolittle to critical acclaim in the Broadway and West End productions of My Fair Lady , and was passed over by Audrey Hepburn for the movie version, there was a rumour around Hollywood that Andrews wasn’t photogenic.
However, when Wise viewed some footage from Mary Poppins , which hadn’t been released yet, after a few minutes he knew that Andrews would be perfect for the role of Maria in The Sound of Music .
On the day she was signed to do the movie, Andrews was in a meeting with executives at Fox Studios when suddenly a staff member burst in and said, “Audrey Hepburn had been signed for My Fair Lady ”; there was then a moment of silence before Julie clapped her hands and said, “let’s show them, eh fellas?”
Sean Connery was under consideration for the role of Captain Von Trapp which eventually went to Christopher Plummer. The stylish and elegant Hollywood star Eleanor Parker was cast as Baroness Elsa Schraeder .
Richard Hadyn, a beloved character actor of the 40s, took on the role of the self-serving impresario Max Detweiler . The part of Liesl , who is 16 going on 17 and the oldest of the seven children, was played by Charmian Carr, who was actually 21 going on 22; the age difference was solved by costumes and lighting.
Following many weeks of intensive rehearsals and the complex process of pre-recording the music under the baton of Irwin Kostal, on March 26, 1964, the first week of initial shooting began at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, with the storm sequence in Maria’s bedroom.
The cast and crew then moved to Salzburg in Austria in July for four months of location shooting where one of the most spectacular panoramic aerial views ever filmed was achieved by mounting a MCS 70 camera on a helicopter, capturing the scenic splendour of the Austrian Alps and countryside on a late afternoon in summer.
Audiences in Scotland began embracing the musical masterpiece on April 16, 1965, when it opened at the Gaumont Cinema in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, for a phenomenal record run until December 23, 1967.
The movie also made an indelible impression on my friend Ina Purchase when we saw it together at the Pavilion Cinema in Airdrie during Easter 1968.
Ina said: “ The Sound of Music is my favourite movie of all time. I have three copies of it and when I enjoy watching it, I’m on a mission of ‘do not disturb’; my mobile phone is off and the door is locked!
“I adore this movie about a family and everything falling into place with triumph over adversity - and that wonderful music; it’s movie magic.”
In 1966, The Sound of Music was the highest-grossing movie of all time, earning a staggering $125 million in worldwide receipts, surpassing Gone With The Wind (1939).
A timeless classic that lifts the spirits created by a great director and in the hands of master craftsmen, the musical is everything that most movies today aren’t.
”We decided to try something that would employ about every trick we had learned in the production of films... in an enormous fantasy, Mary Poppins ” - Walt Disney.
There is only one word to describe Mary Poppins (1964); supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Mary Poppins is one of the most memorable movies in the history of Disney cinema, both visually and musically, and many regard it as Walt Disney’s crowning achievement.
Certainly, it is the biggest hit in the history of the studio, both critically and financially, and the kind of movie that will continue to play forever.
And, in most regards, it is a masterwork. The accumulation of 35 years of work, the film used every trick in the trade pioneered at the Disney studio.
Walt Disney first became aware of the Poppins books, published in 1934, early in the 40s when one of his daughters was reading them.
Quick to recognise their cinematic potential, Walt began to try and acquire the film rights from author P. L. Travers, who was a mass of contradictions and very frustrating to deal with.
It took 20 years to convince her and, in the early 60s, she finally capitulated on the condition that she should be a consultant on any film projects featuring Mary Poppins .
The fact that Walt made the unprecedented decision to agree to such an arrangement shows how eager he was to obtain the rights.
With the screen rights obtained Walt assigned the talented songwriting siblings Richard and Robert Sherman to weave 16 unforgettable songs that included the Academy Award-winning Chim Chim Cheree into the story.
Feed the Birds would become Walt’s personal favourite. He found the song about the old bird woman who sells bread crumbs at St Paul’s Cathedral as deeply spiritual.
Can you imagine Bette Davis as Mary Poppins ? The screen veteran was under consideration for the plum role in what could have been a disaster in miscasting.
Fortunately, in 1961, Walt saw Julie Andrews in her Broadway hit Camelot . He visited her backstage and launched into an all-out rendition of the Mary Poppins story. Later, Julie agreed to make her motion picture debut in her Best Actress Academy Award-winning performance as the magical enigmatic enchantress.
Walt also engaged Dick Van Dyke, whose American TV show was at the height of its popularity, to play Bert , together with a cast of American and British veterans.
The magical combination of the creative writing team of Bill Walsh and Don da Gradi and long-serving Disney special effects men Peter Ellenshaw, Eustace Lycett and Robert A. Mattey enabled Mary Poppins to float over London on a cloud, slide up banisters, hold a tea party on the ceiling, dispense different coloured medicines from one bottle and walk up a staircase made of smoke.
The Technicolor in this family classic is, needless to say, dazzling, especially in the holiday sequence.
There is so much in Mary Poppins that the result is almost overpowering, especially to this film buff who, at age 13, sat spellbound in Scotland’s most luxurious cinema, the Odeon in Glasgow’s Renfield Street, during the summer of 1964, followed by subsequent screenings at the Pavilion Cinema in Airdrie, including free complimentary admission for four that I enthusiastically shared with my best pals, John Quinn, Violet Jarvie, and Ann Purchase.
The public response to Mary Poppins was unlike any reaction to previous Disney films. Bolstered by fantastic reviews, as well as the most high-powered promotional campaign ever launched by the studio, the masterpiece earned an unbelievable $45 million from worldwide showings and won five Academy Awards.
Mary Poppins will always have a very special place in my movie memories; it is “practically perfect in every way”.
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