Ext. Mirabell Gardens—Day
(28) “Do-Re-Mi.”
May 22, 1964—Scenes 10 and 28
Ext. Kapitelplatz and Residenzplatz—Day
(10) “I Have Confidence.”
Ext. Mirabell Gardens—Day
(28) “Do-Re-Mi.”
May 23-June 5, 1964—Scenes 36, 37, and 38—Bertelsmann
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
The Captain shows Elsa the estate after they arrive at the villa. Elsa hints at marriage, and then Max emerges from the house. After the Captain exits to look for the children, Elsa and Max have a conversation about her strategy to win over the Captain. The Captain eventually finds the children in the middle of the lake in a canoe. The boat overturns, and everyone falls out. The Captain and Maria have heated words over her conduct.
June 6 and 7, 1964—Scenes 52 and 55—Bertelsmann
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
(52) Elsa plays ball with the children. She then tells Max that she will send the children to boarding school. The children try to sing without Maria, but their hearts are not in it.
(55) The children come back after trying to visit Maria at the abbey. The Captain berates them for disappearing, but they tell him they just went berry picking. They start to sing “My Favorite Things,” and then Maria comes back and joins in. The children tell Maria that the Captain will marry Elsa. Angle on Maria as Captain comes down the steps and welcomes her back. She tells him she will stay only until he finds a new governess. She then walks up the stairs to go into the house.
June 9, 1964—Scenes 37k, 52, 38, 16, and 56—Frohnburg
Ext. Trapp Villa
Close-ups of scenes listed.
June 10-13, 1964—Scenes 14 and 71-74—Frohnburg
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
(14) Rolf delivers telegram to Franz.
Ext. Trapp Villa—Night
(71-74) The von Trapps silently push their car past their house. Zeller drives up and catches them. He offers to escort them to the festival.
June 15, 1964—Scenes 38, 42, and 55—Rear of Frohnburg
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
(38) The Captain hears the children singing for the first time; they are singing “The Sound of Music” for the baroness. He walks inside the house.
(42) The Captain comes out onto the terrace. He is thinking about Maria. The camera moves up to reveal Maria, gazing out into the night from her bedroom window, thinking about the Captain.
(55) Rear angle of Maria after she tells the Captain that she will stay only until he finds a new governess. She walks up the stairs to go into the house.
June 16, 1964—Scene 55—Frohnburg
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
Angle on Captain as Maria comes back from abbey. He asks her why she left but she has no answer. Elsa comes down the stairs and sees Maria.
June 17 and 18, 1964—Scenes 10, 38, and 68—Frohnburg
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
(10) Maria first arrives at the villa. Franz answers the door.
(38) The Captain sees Rolf throwing rocks at Liesl’s window.
(68) Maria and the Captain return from their honeymoon. The Captain rips up the Nazi flag.
June 19, 1964—Scenes 10 and 18—Frohnburg
Ext. Trapp Villa—Day
(10) Maria opens the gate as she arrives at the villa for the first time.
(18) The children run out in their play-clothes—beginning the montage of “Do-Re-Mi.”
June 20, 1964—Scene 27
Ext. Nonnberg Abbey—Day
Maria leaves the abbey and begins “I Have Confidence.”
June 21, 1964—Rained Out
June 22, 1964—Scene 25
Ext. Tree-Lined Street—Day
“Do-Re-Mi” (rained; did not complete).
June 23, 1964—Scene 25
Ext. Tree-Lined Street—Day
“Do-Re-Mi” (rained; did not complete).
June 24, 1964—Scene 25—Werfen
Ext. Picnic—Day
Rained out, so just rehearsed.
June 25 and 27—Scene 25
Ext. Picnic—Day
“Do-Re-Mi.”
CHILDREN TRAVEL BACK TO LOS ANGELES
June 28-July 2, 1964—Scene 2—Mellweg
Ext. Maria’s Mountain—Day
Opening sequence. “The Sound of Music.”
REMAINDER OF COMPANY TRAVELS BACK TO LOS ANGELES
July 6-8, 1964—Scene 13
Int. Trapp Dining Room—Night
Dinner scene, where Maria makes the children feel guilty for putting the frog in her pocket.
July 9-10, 1964—Scene 12
Int. Trapp Villa Ballroom—Day
Scene with Maria and Franz when she first arrives at the villa. Maria walks into the ballroom and begins to dance by herself. The Captain enters, and she runs out of the room.
July 13-14, 1964—Scene 12
Int. Trapp Villa Hall—Day
The Captain calls the children down with his whistle. They line up and announce their names to Maria.
July 15-20, 1964—Scene 45
Int. Trapp Villa Ballroom—Night
Party scene with “So Long, Farewell.”
July 21-23, 1964—Scene 46
Int. Trapp Villa Terrace—Night
The Captain and Maria dance to “Laendler.”
July 24, 1964—Scenes 49 and 69
Int. Trapp Villa Hallway—Night
(49) Elsa leaves Maria’s room after telling her about the Captain’s feelings for her.
(69) Maria, the Captain, Liesl, and Max enter after the couple returns from their honeymoon. Liesl hands the Captain the telegram telling him he has been ordered to join the German navy.
July 27, 1964—Scene 57
Ext. Trapp Terrace—Night
The Captain comes out onto the balcony and looks down at Maria as she walks near the lake. Elsa joins him, and he breaks off their engagement.
July 28, 1964—Scene 70
Int. Trapp Villa—Day
Maria and Liesl talk about love and reprise the song “You Are Sixteen.”
July 29, 1964—Scenes 48 and 42
Int. Maria’s Bedroom—Night
(48) Elsa tells Maria that the Captain is in love with her.
(42) Maria leans out of her window, wistfully looks out at the night, and thinks about the Captain.
July 30—August 3, 1964—Scene 41
Int. Trapp Villa—Day
“The Lonely Goatherd” puppet show.
August 6, 1964—Scene 41
Second unit works on the puppet show.
August 6-7, 1964—Scenes 39 and 40
Int. Trapp Living Room and Hallway—Night
The Captain enters the living room and watches his children sing “The Sound of Music.” He moves in to join them and sings “Edelweiss.” The Captain catches Maria moving up the stairs, and he asks her to stay.
August 10, 1964—Scenes 39, 40, 47, and 51
Int. Trapp Living Room—Night
(39) The children and the Captain finish singing “The Sound of Music.”
(40) The Captain asks Maria to stay.
(47) Exiting, “So Long, Farewell.”
(51) Maria moves down the staircase after her conversation with Elsa, places her going-away letter on the table, and exits.
August 11, 1964—Scene 58
Ext. Pavilion—Night
The Captain meets Maria down by the lake and tells her that his engagement to Elsa is off.
August 12-13, 1964—Scene 58
Ext. Int. Pavilion—Night
Maria and the Captain sing “Something Good.”
August 14-19, 1964—Scene 16
Ext. Pavilion—Night
Liesl and Rolf meet and sing “You Are Sixteen.”
August 20, 1964-Scene 31
Int. Ext. Car Process—Day
Process scene in car with the Captain, Elsa, and Max.
August 21, 1964—Scenes 12 and 13
Int. Tr
app Villa—Day and Night
Insert scenes: Pinecone in Maria’s chair and the frog running upstairs.
September 1, 1964-Scene 31
Int. Ext. Car Process—Day
Retake process car scene with the Captain, Max, and Elsa.
END OF PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY
5
“Climb Every Mountain …”
PRODUCTION
On Thursday, March, 26, 1964, Julie Andrews, Charmian Carr, and Norma Varden assembled on Stage 15 on the Fox lot for the first day of shooting The Sound of Music. The inaugural scene took place in Maria’s bedroom, where the frightened children gather during a thunderstorm. It took five days to shoot the complicated scene, and by the end of that time they were already a day behind schedule.
The first day, Wise shot the exchange between Maria and Frau Schmidt in which the housekeeper enters carrying the bolts of cloth for Maria’s new dresses and speaks to her about the Captain. He also began to shoot the scene between Maria and Liesl where the lovesick teenager enters Maria’s room through the window after her meeting with Rolf.
This was Carr’s first day acting in front of a camera. In fact, except for a small part in a high school play, this was her first day acting. According to a January 26, 1965, article in the Hollywood Citizen-News, Carr arrived at the studio brimming with expectations about the first day of her new career. But then something happened to stifle her enthusiasm.
“This is an easy shot,” said Wise. “In this scene you climb in through this window seeking refuge. You’d been caught in a rainstorm. Now, meet Mr. Rainstorm.”
Good wishes sent to director Robert Wise from Dick Zanuck on the first day of filming.
“Mr. Rainstorm.”
With that, the prop man began spraying Carr with cold water. “Give it to her again,” said Wise.
“We’ve got to be able to see water on her face, and that dress has to be wet enough to cling to her.”
When Wise was satisfied that Carr was “wet enough,” he called for “action” and the camera started rolling. It took fifteen takes to get the scene right with all the different angles, and between takes Carr was doused with water again. Finally, when the scene was finished, Carr went back to her dressing room, drenched and shivering.
“What girl doesn’t dream of being an actress?” Carr was quoted as saying. “But an experience like this somehow seems to have dampened my ardor somewhat, along with everything else, including my dress and hair and makeup!”
While Carr may have been an acting neophyte, Julie Andrews had had years of acting experience under her belt. Yet she was just as anxious that first day as Carr was. “That first day, I was so nervous,” remembered Andrews, “and all I could think of was ‘I hope I’m doing this right.’ I was still pretty new at film acting, and those first few days I was searching around, trying to figure out how to do it. Sometimes it takes a day or two to feel comfortable.”
Her director helped to calm her nerves. “Bob taught me a great deal about film acting. For example, he told me that when I have a close-up I should find a spot on someone’s face to look at and not dart my eyes like one usually would if looking closely at someone. It seems like a small thing, but those techniques helped a great deal.”
The rest of the children spent that first morning in wardrobe, sitting for pictures, and continuing their classes. This was to be the children’s basic routine during the period the film was being shot. Every moment was put to use; when there was spare time, the children would work on their lines or rehearse dance numbers.
The children’s first appearance in front of the camera was on day two. They were to enter Maria’s room frightened, jump onto her bed, and eventually join her in singing “My Favorite Things.”
“The first day with the children on the set I concentrated on getting to know them and building a good rapport with them,” Andrews recalled. “I tried to help Bob. I made them laugh, tickled them, helped them with their close-ups. I wanted to quickly build a relationship.”
“She put the kids at ease and made them easier to work with,” said Wise. “She even taught them to sing ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious.’”
Andrews also used this first scene to show how even warm and loving Maria could find seven children a bit unnerving. “I tried to make her very real,” said Andrews. “I did simple things. I wanted to show that sometimes they exhausted me.”
Rehearsing “My Favorite Things” and building a rapport with the children.
In her biography, Andrews explained that, in the song, when the kids kept asking what kinds of “favorite things” they should be thinking about, she tried to show her frustration by thinking “Oh my God! Children always do ask questions like that!”
They finished the “My Favorite Things” scene on April 1 and spent the next six days at the set of the “abbey cloisters,” where they filmed the number “Maria.” It was in this scene that Marni Nixon made her film debut, as Sister Sophia. Everyone expected a big rivalry between Nixon and Julie Andrews because Nixon had been chosen to dub the voice of Eliza in the film version of My Fair Lady after Andrews had lost the coveted role to Audrey Hepburn.
Nixon recalled, “We were meeting in the anteroom of Bob Wise’s office. All the nuns were sitting around, and in walks Julie Andrews. They introduced us, and everyone held their breath, expecting a big blowup. But Julie just strode across the room, reached out her hand, and cried, ‘Marni, I’m such a big fan of yours!’ We all breathed a sigh of relief.”
Shooting “Maria.”
Nixon and Andrews had another encounter later that week. Nixon was planning to audition for a revival of My Fair Lady at the City Center Theater in New York, and she was having trouble with a scene from the play. Andrews found out and went looking for Nixon. “I’ll bet it’s the slipper scene,” Andrews told her. That was the very scene that confounded Nixon, so Andrews took her into her dressing room and, as she changed costumes, helped Nixon through the scene.
“I’ll never forget Julie, standing there in her underwear, telling me how to throw that slipper!” Nixon remembered with a laugh.
The company then worked for another week, this time on the graveyard escape scene, before going off to Salzburg.
Wise intended to spend six weeks shooting in Salzburg. He and Saul Wurtzel had carefully planned every detail of the schedules because when filming on location, the company could not waste even a single day.
“Location shooting is very expensive,” Wise recalled. “All the costumes and the sets to be used on location were shipped over. You have a whole crew you have to fly over. You have to house them, give them per diem [daily expenses]. We had scores and scores of people we flew over. Apart from the actors, we had twenty-five to thirty crew members. And then we had to house and feed all the German technicians who came down from Munich.”
But the cost of a foreign location shoot proved to be nothing compared to the one insurmountable obstacle that continued to plague the company throughout the entire eleven weeks spent in Salzburg: the rain.
“Salzburg is more than just a city where this story took place,” Wise said. “It is an atmosphere.”
Production report for the graveyard scene.
Robert Wise.
Certainly, Salzburg’s natural beauty and ancient architecture became an additional character in the movie. But it wasn’t always a willing participant.
In September 1963, even before they decided to shoot in Salzburg, Saul Wurtzel had sent to Austria for a survey on the weather conditions in the city. The survey showed how many sunny days, clear days, and overcast days there would be, on average, in the summer months, when they planned to be in the city. Wurtzel even had pictures taken. The results of the survey claimed “beautiful foliage, flowers, beautiful sunny days … that go along with the months of May and June in Salzburg.”
The survey was wrong.
“We always get those surveys before we do a picture,” Wise said, laughing, “and then we get to the location,
and the weather is terrible, and the locals all say, ‘But this is the first time this has happened!’ It never fails. We always bring bad weather with us, and they say it’s never happened before.”
“I told Bob one time he should quit the picture business entirely and make his fortune as a rainmaker,” said assistant director Reggie Callow, interviewed by Rudy Behlmer for the American Film Institute Film History Program. “I have never gone anywhere with any director in the world who has had so much trouble with weather as Bob Wise.”
Anticipating that there might be problems, Wise sent a memo to Callow listing three different “calls” each day. First was the basic call for ideal weather; second was an alternate call to be used in case of overcast conditions; and third was a “cover set,” an alternate set to be used in case of bad weather.
Wise and company had provided themselves two cover sets. One was St. Margarethen Chapel, which was used in the beginning of the film, where the nuns are seen praying in the chapel. The other cover set was at Dürer Studios in nearby Parsch. The crew shipped the entire set for the Mother Abbess’s office over to Salzburg and set it up in the studio. This way, even if the weather became too miserable, they knew they could at least get in half a day’s work at the studio. Wise had even changed his plans to avoid weather problems. He had originally intended to start shooting in Salzburg, rather than Hollywood, but realized that he would have to wait for the Austrian snow to melt and so postponed the trip.
The director and star.
Weather would be a problem throughout the entire shoot. The cast finally flew to Munich, then chartered a flight to Salzburg over the weekend of April 18 and 19. The entire company was housed in four hotels. Wise and Andrews stayed at the Osterreichischer Hof, the children and their parents at the Park Mirabell, Plummer and the “nuns” at the Hotel Bristol, and various crew members at the Winkler. They set up the production office at Dürer Studios; makeup and hairdressing were based at the Hotel Bristol. All those who weren’t staying at the Bristol traveled the short distance to the hotel each morning to prepare for the day’s shoot. Every evening, each company member received a call sheet listing the next day’s schedule.
The Sound of Music Page 11
